Targets for LRO Options

[PhilHorzempa]

You can imagine this to be a companion thread to the one requesting suggestions
for MRO targets on Mars.

The LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) is set to launch in a little over a year
from now. There was to a be a site selection workshop in May 2007, next month, but
I see now that it has been cancelled. Therefore, it appears that it is up to us, the UMSF
Community to take up the baton and help NASA out. It was done for New Horizons at Jupiter
and was very productive.

So, what are the sites that you would like to see imaged at 0.5 meter resolution by
LROC, LRO's High-Resolution camera?

My first suggestion would be to re-photograph the Surveyor 1 landing site to compare
it with the images obtained by Lunar Orbiter 3.

My second suggestion would be to photograph the Surveyor 6 landing area. This
should image S-6 itself, but even more interesting, it may capture images of
Surveyor 4, which should be only a mile or so away. This would help to
determine whatever happened to S-4, which abruptly stopped transmitting just
short of touchdown.



Another Phil

[SpaceListener]

Thanks Dougs for the links. I knew about these temperatures and I am sorry that I didn't explain thoroughly about the hypothesis. As the Apollo 11 landing time was on early morning, close to the Lunar Terminator, and am suppossing that the real temperature must be lower than the maximum.

By the way, I have seen a picture taken by the LCROSS, from infrared camera during its approach to the Moon. It showed that the temperature starts to lower at the Terminator. See the next link: LCROSS Infrared Camera.

Well, I hope that one of the LRO instruments, DIVINER would be able to map the Moon surface temperatures. Patience!