4 ms·

Yes, LRO is still active. Also, you too can know where it is right now[1]! 1. http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/about/whereislro http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/about/whereisl

• ge96 10y ago
  Is that on the ground or is that an orbit map? It looks like that cliche 'bell curve flattened earth shadow weather' looking thing in space movies. Also by context seems like its orbit. Also its nuts interfacing hardware with software like that, like a button or sensor attached to a web server, cool stuff.
  • dwc 10y ago
    It's an orbit map (showing nadir of the orbiter).
    • ge96 10y ago
      I see thanks for the clarification. I guess I don't get why it would be an S shape even if it's a perfect-circle orbit or an ellipse flattened out (side view). Yeah I'll have to read up on that. edit: not sure if this is related, I remember doing this thing when I was a kid, you'd spin a globe and trace a pencil straight down (a lonitude line) and it spiral out (the drawn line). To simulate Coriolis effect edit: Oh I see depends on what it's aligned to, (equator) to create the sinusoidal look... reminds me in calc or engineering creating diagrams/charts (maybe beams and moment/force diagrams) ahhh... sucks when you don't use something and you forget. In calc you did something with max/mins and this determined the concave/convex of a curve on a graph. Ahhh rambling sorry.
      • planteen 10y ago
        There's also lots of distortion due to the equirectangular projection. When you are at +/- 90 degrees, 1 pixel is being stretched across the entire width. It would look more natural if it was mapped on a sphere. Or if the 2D image dropped off width by cosine of latitude.