Orbiting Atlas #6: Oceanus Procellarum—The Ocean of Storms January 25, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Apollo, Orbiting Atlas , add a commentOrbiting Atlas is a weekly series here at Luna C/I looking at notable points inselenography—the geography of the Moon. Come by every Monday for an exploration of a different locale, and its potential regional significance :)
For this edition of the Orbiting Atlas, we set sail off to…
Oceanus Procellarum (The Ocean of Storms)
The destination of Apollo 12 (as pictured above), the massive Oceanus Procellarum is perhaps the largest single region on the Moon (and by far the largest non-highland region)—hence the “Ocean” label. About 1,300+ miles from north to south and ranging from 450-600 miles wide, it’s approximately the size of Mongolia.
Being essentially a giant Mare, the mostly-flat Oceanus serves as the lunar great plains. While generally featureless, there are a few points of special interest along the eastern edge—namely, the unusually-bright crater Aristarchus, and the longest groove on the Moon, Vallis Schröteri (the intended destination of Apollo 18 before cancellation).
Aristarchus is potentially an interesting target for geologic study and/or resources, as its brightness is due to its youth and relative lack of weathering from the solar wind.
In the long run, the vast size and flatness of the Ocean of Storms could lend to both convenient helium-3 harvesting (lots of elbow-room, few obstacles, and plenty to go around?) and long-range transportation and exploration tests, perhaps providing a comparable environment to large sections of Mars.
The Apollo 12 mission provides an interesting anecdote about the weather: while taking off from Earth en route to the ‘Ocean of Storms’, their rocket was, of course, hit by lightning. :)
Check out an HD video of the Oceanus’ northwestern side taken by the Japanese orbiter Kaguya:
Orbiting Atlas #5: Baco January 11, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Baco, bacon, Orbiting Atlas , add a commentOrbiting Atlas is a weekly series here at Luna C/I looking at notable points inselenography—the geography of the Moon. Come by every Monday for an exploration of a different locale, and its potential regional significance :)
Today, the Orbiting Atlas takes a whimsical turn to…
Baco
Located in the lunar highlands, about 380 miles southeast of the famous Tycho crater, the usually plain crater has taken on a new flavor of interest this past week…
The story begins with the new German Google Lunar X PRIZE team, Part Time Scientists, noting during a presentation that everything is better with bacon…including moon colonization. This slice of genius inspired a lot of folks on Twitter, cooking up the idea of a ‘Bacon X PRIZE’. The official Lunar X PRIZE blog, The Launch Pad, promptly posted a poll to name this tasty concept.
Despite the given name being “Baco”, it is named after British philosopher Roger Bacon. My research hasn’t turned up why, exactly, it wasn’t just simply named “Bacon” (if you know, feel free to comment below).
Now, for the conspiracy theorists and Jayson Stark loyalists out there: A search for ‘Part Time Scientists bacon’ brought up almost entirely results on, of course, Roger Bacon himself. Add to the pan that the man who named the crater, astronomer Johann Heinrich von Mädler, is himself—just like the Part Time Scientists team—German, and you begin to wonder…
Is German bacon destined for the Moon? And if so, will fate bring it to the very crater which (kind of) bears its name? :)
If I have any influence over it, I’ll make sure that someday, even if it’s 40 years down the road, bacon ends up in this crater, one way or another…because a little comedy in space goes a long way, right? :)
Orbiting Atlas #4: Mare Tranquillitatis (The Sea of Tranquility) January 4, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Apollo, hoax theories, Orbiting Atlas , 1 comment so farOrbiting Atlas is a weekly series here at Luna C/I looking at notable points inselenography—the geography of the Moon. Come by every Monday for an exploration of a different locale, and its potential regional signifigance :)
Today, we take a look at the finer details of the most historic location on the Moon:
Mare Tranquillitatis— The Sea of Tranquility
Located in the central-southeast of the near side of the Moon (see above), the flat Mare is, of course, the landing site of Apollo 11 (in the southwest corner; see below); but beyond that, the Mare has developed even more significance.
The tiny Apollo 11 landing site is only a small mark on the ~170,000-square-mile expanse, which is about the size of Iraq or the U.S. state of California. This helps cut off a potential conundrum: as it turns out, Mare Tranquillitatis could be one of the richest areas in all-important helium-3 on the Moon. But, considering that size, there should be plenty of room for both regolith harvesting efforts and any historical conservation. (And, by the way: the site has recently been photographed in high definition, so unless the images and orbiter that took them are also a hoax, Apollo was not a hoax :) ).
A leading Google Lunar X PRIZE team, Astrobotic, plans to explore the landing site in May 2011 with their rover.
The Mare, selenographically, has some interesting features—notably, Rupes/Dorsa (cliffs/ridges) and Rimae (fissures), but otherwise is a giant, flat plain…covered with valuable resources. Get those grazing herds of helium-3 harvesters ready! :)
Below is an HDTV video by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter, showing the Mare and the area of the Apollo 11 landing site:
Orbiting Atlas #3: Tycho December 29, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : Orbiting Atlas , 1 comment so farOrbiting Atlas is a weekly series here at Luna C/I looking at notable points in selenography—the geography of the Moon. Come by every Monday for an exploration of a different locale, and its potential regional signifigance :)
This week, it’s the hard-to-miss crater…
Tycho
Perhaps the most conspicuous crater on the Moon, Tycho (named after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe) sticks out like a sore thumb with its distinctive ray system. The rays are formed by ejecta from the original impact, and in fact, many of the surrounding craters themselves were created by wayward chunks of ejecta.
Apollo 17 took samples from one of the rays—more than 1,200 miles away! Surveyor 7 landed on the crater’s rim itself earlier, in 1967, recording a ton of mosiac imagery. The Apollo results confirmed that the crater is one of the moon’s youngest, at ~100 million years old.
I’m curious as to whether these rays may prove to have an interesting mix of resources—while the most valuable lunar resources (helium-3, water) collect on the surface from the outside, having such a spread of fairly young ejecta material could potentially make the Tycho region a popular mining spot.
My initial searches brought up more studies, though, in what makes the crater and its rays so shiny versus its potential mining value (mankind loves shiny objects? :) ). So this remains an open question, though geologist-astronaut Jack Schmitt from Apollo 17 is still around to ask :)
Speaking of interesting/shiny objects, Tycho was featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey as the location of the ominous buried monolith.
Tycho was also a location actually filmed, in spectacular HD, by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter. Check out the flyby below:
And, stay tuned as more and more private companies shoot for the moon to see if one decides to check out Tycho’s rays for itself…
Orbiting Atlas #2: Cabeus December 21, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : Cabeus, LCROSS, NASA, Orbiting Atlas , add a commentFor our second exploration of notable locations on the Moon, we look at the site of NASA’s famous “Moon Bombing” with its LCROSS craft…
Cabeus
A crater enveloped in deep shadow, about 80 miles north of Shackleton and the lunar South Pole (and ~1,000 miles south of the nearest Mare), Cabeus had drawn a lot of attention because that permanent shadow meant a possibility of valuable water ice.
In October 2009, NASA proceeded to explore the possibility by crashing an LCROSS payload and its spent Centaur rocket into the darkness of Cabeus to try and stir up some of that ice. Turns out that “moon bombing” was successful—water was found in impressive quantities.
This makes the lunar south pole, already a prime target for colonial efforts, even more valuable a location. With only that short 80 miles seperating the solar-rich Shackleton rim and Cabeus’ water holdings, this region could rapidly become one of the most well-developed areas of the colonial Moon—the next New England? :)
Here’s a video of the moon bombing (embedded below), enhanced by Zebonka on Youtube to show the impact flash; and also, check out this brief video that gives a great feel of the location of Cabeus!
Orbiting Atlas #1!: Sinus Iridum (The Bay of Rainbows) December 15, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : Chang'e, China, Google Moon, Orbiting Atlas, selenography , 2commentsWelcome to my brand new weekly feature—Orbiting Atlas! Each Monday, I’ll break out my lunar globe and trek to a different selenographic point of interest, giving you a tour of each location’s features, history, and potential :)
The first entry gets the honor for being in the news recently…so without further ado:
Sinus Iridum—The Bay of Rainbows
China announced a few weeks ago that the destination for it’s first lunar rover (and mission of any kind on the surface), Chang’e-3, will be Sinus Iridum. NASA and private enterprise have focused more on the solar-soaked South Pole and helium-3-happy Mare Tranquillitatis, so Sinus Iridum is an interesting choice, and something of a departure.
What about it may have caught China’s eye? Let’s look at the details…
The circular “Bay”—given its name by Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli–is ringed by the Montes Jura, with the cape-like Promontorium Laplace jutting out along the northeast. The Bay has a diameter of ~149 miles, and lays at the northwest corner of the large, western plain Mare Imbrium, about 1,225 miles northwest of the Apollo 11 landing site and 620 miles northwest of the Apollo 15 site.
Mare Imbrium’s lava plains are nearly flat, extending into Sinus Iridum (once a crater, with the southeast wall having been eliminated in an Imbrium event). These plains are prime territory for helium-3, and that stretch where there was once the southeastern wall may make for a revealing geological study.
It’s figured there’s a large amount of helium-3 on the Moon, but the distribution is unknown—so by scouting out a different mare, China could dig up valuable information on a region not already targeted for ‘gold rush’. Perhaps we’ll see a private company follow the Chinese lead, and scope it out for themselves…
Sinus Imbrium was a location filmed in 2007 by Japan’s orbiter, Kaguya, and it’s HDTV camera. Check out the amazing video below (and also be sure to explore the Bay in Google Earth 5.0′s spiffy Moon view!):
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Check back next week, and every monday, for more selenographic exploration :)