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"Also, every lander that's ever landed on the near side of the moon is still there." Cool! Can we spot them with powerful telescopes?
by wheelerof4te 3y ago
"Also, every lander that's ever landed on the near side of the moon is still there."
Cool! Can we spot them with powerful telescopes?
- avhon1 3y agoNot with any existing earth-bound or low-earth-orbit telescope. The largest landers were the Apollo landers, which are over 4 meters across. Photographs of the landing sites have been taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, but none of the photographs have the resolution necessary to see the landers. https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/hubble_moon.html https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/hubble_moon... On the other hand, some Lunar-orbit spacecraft have directly photographed prior landers. Here is an article with nice photographs from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Apollo 17 landing site, in which the descent stage of the lander, and tracks leading to and from it, are clearly visible. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.htm... and here is a timestamp showing an image that India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter took of the Apollo 11 landing site and descent stage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8oV-Kx26no&t=3613s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8oV-Kx26no&t=3613s