This LO mosaic has been tied to the Unified Lunar Control Network (ULCN) 2005, and was constructed with frames from LO missions III, IV, and V both high and medium resolution cameras. Ground resolutions for both data sets ranged from 1 - 40 m.Ī Lunar Orbiter global mosaic is available through the PDS Map-a-Planet web site. ![]() The most promising landing sites were certified during LO mission V, which also imaged a number of sites of scientific interest. LO mission III photographed areas primarily to locate and confirm suitable landing sites for the Apollo program (designated as primary (P) and secondary (S) sites). Concurrent with the global project effort was also a task to digitize and archive many of the near-side, low altitude LO photography. We provide these files through this download site.Ĭonstructed LO frames for the global product are being made available at 100-micron resolution through Lunar Orbiter PDS archive. These products are available in both an ISIS 2 (cube) and GeoJpeg2000 format, in equirectangular (for 'equatorial') or polar stereographic projection. This online data collection includes versions of the global medium (200-1000m) and high (40-200m) resolution frames that were used to create the Lunar Orbiter mosaic as well as very high resolution medium (4-34m) and high (0.5-4m) resolution frames cartographically controlled to the LO global dataset. And what they saw helped fuel what followed.Individual, cartographically controlled and cosmetically processed Lunar Orbiter (LO) global and very high resolution digital frame mosaics are now available for download via HTTPS from the PDS Imaging Node's site. Earthlings didn’t just look forward to an ambitious space age-they trained the camera on themselves. Even though the photo seems grainy and low-res to modern eyes, it helped capture the possibility of the planet we share. Still, there’s something special about seeing something for the first time. It’s been done again-as when NASA took a better high-res Earthrise image in 2015 that updated the “big blue marble” view. The Lunar Orbiter 1 photo was different: It showed the planet as a round planet in deep space. NASAĮarth had been photographed before-in 1946, a satellite captured a grainy look at Earth’s surface, outdoing prior pictures of the Earth taken from a 14-mile-high balloon. They coordinated a high-risk maneuver that repositioned the satellite, then took a successful photo of earthrise from the moon on August 23, 1966. The map the craft helped produce was only recently updated with the help of the Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter.Īs Stein reports, the Lunar Orbiter 1 mission went as planned, but near its end scientists on the ground decided they wanted to train its sights on Earth instead of the moon. Eventually, images from the photographic surveys helped NASA hone in on candidate sites, document other lunar sites of scientific interest, like the far side of the moon, and produce a map of the entire moon. The orbiters had their own film processing units inside-using two lenses, they’d take pictures, develop and process them, scan them and transmit the data back to Earth. ![]() Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratoryīetween 19, NASA sent a total of five lunar orbiters to photograph the moon. In response, NASA sent a series of high-tech spacecraft into orbit to take snapshots of the moon’s surface and inform the eventual Apollo 11 mission. At the time, the agency was preparing for an eventual lunar landing and needed reconnaissance photos to find the best possible spot on the surface of the moon. Stein writes for Inside Science News Service, it almost didn’t happen. The photo was taken by NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 in 1966-and, as Ben P. That honor went to the black-and-white image you see above. Though the photo eventually became one of the most-used images in history, it wasn’t the first to show Earth from deep space. If you think the photo was the ubiquitous “blue marble”-style photograph, think again- that photo wasn’t taken until Apollo 17 traveled toward the moon in 1972. But 50 years ago today, that changed when a NASA spacecraft captured the first-ever photograph of Earth from the moon. What does Earth look like? For millennia, humans could only speculate on their planet’s appearance.
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