Moon Apollo 17 LROC NAC Orthomosaic 50cm v1
Product Information:
This is an orthomosaic of the Apollo 17 landing site created from images provided by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). The images were acquired at 0.25-0.5 meters per pixel (m) resolution and orthorectified using related 1.5 m scale LROC NAC DEMs. For lateral control we used the Mean Earth/Polar Axis-coordinates of the ALSEP central station given by Davies and Colvin (2000).
Images used: M137353046-L/-R, M152669024-L/-R, M134985003-R, M168000580-L/-R, M119652859-L/-R, M109032389-R
A 0.25 m resolution LROC NAC orthoimage acquired from low orbit altitude is provided as ancillary product (M168000580R).
A DEM covering the same region as the orthomosaic is available as related product. The DEM and the orthomosaic were used to cartographically analyze the Taurus-Littrow Valley, to determine astronaut and feature positions, and to create a new Apollo 17 landing site map.
Different maps of the landing site and the individual traverse stations are available as related products. Shapefiles of the mapped traverse and feature coordinates are available as ancillary products and should be viewed and used in conjunction with the provided orthomosaic or the 0.25m orthoimage (to ensure the same georeference).
We also used the DEM and orthomosaic to synthetically generate a pair of stereoscopic images that we combined to a 3D anaglyph (red-cyan), which is available as derived product.
Mission and Instrument Information:
The Apollo 17 mission provided the scientific world with the best lunar sample return in both potential quantity of information and variety of sample types (NASA, 1972). Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, still holds the distinction of being the last man to walk on the Moon, as no humans have visited the Moon since December 14, 1972. Apollo 17 hosted the first scientist-astronaut to land on moon: Harrison Schmitt. The lunar rover vehicle traversed a total of 30.5 kilometers. Lunar surface-stay time was 75 hours, and lunar orbit time 17 hours. Astronauts gathered 110.4 kilograms, or 243 pounds, of material (NASA, 2018).
The lunar landing site was the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area, which was picked for Apollo 17 as a location where rocks both older and younger than those previously returned from other Apollo missions, as well as from Luna 16 and 20 missions, might be found. From the standpoint both of geologic features and of samples returned, the Taurus-Littrow region represents the most diverse landing site of the Apollo missions (NASA, 1973).
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft to the Moon in June 2009 (Tooley et al., 2010) carrying a variety of instruments that continue to return high-resolution images of the lunar surface from its eccentric polar mapping orbit (Petro et al., 2019).
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a robotic spacecraft designed to acquire data to prepare for and support future human exploration of the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) is a system of three cameras mounted on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that capture high resolution black and white images and moderate resolution multi-spectral images of the lunar surface (ASU, 2019).
The LROC consists of two narrow-angle cameras (NACs) that provide 0.5 meter-scale panchromatic images over a 5 km swath, a wide-angle camera (WAC) to provide images at a scale of 100 meters/pixel in seven color bands over a 60 km swath, and a Sequence and Compressor System (SCS) supporting data acquisition for both cameras. The LROC data sets are produced by the LROC Team at the Tempe campus of Arizona State University (PDS IMG, 2018)
References:
Arizona State University (ASU) (2019). About Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. https://www.lroc.sese.asu.edu
Davies, M., & Colvin, T. (2000). Lunar Coordinates in the Regions of Apollo Landers. American Geophysical Union, 105(E8), 20277-20280. https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JE001165
Haase, I., Wählisch, M., Gläser, P., Oberst, J., & Robinson, M. (2018). Coordinates and Maps of the Apollo 17 Landing Site. Earth and Space Science, 6(1), 59-95. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EA000408
Petro, N. E., Keller, J. W., Cohen, B. A., & McClanahan, T. P. (2019). Ten years of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Advancing lunar science and context for future lunar exploration. Paper presented at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX. https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2019/pdf/2780.pdf
Planetary Data Systems (PDS) Cartography and Imaging Sciences (IMG) (2018). Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/portal/lro_mission.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2018). Apollo 17. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo17.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2017). Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. LRO Spacecraft Instruments: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/spacecraft/index.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (1973). Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report, NASA SP-330. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/as17psr.pdf
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (1972). NASA News Press Kit, Release No. 72-220. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/A17_PressKit.pdf
Tooley, C. R., Houghton, M. B., Saylor Jr., S. S., Peddie, C., Everett, D. F., Baker, C. L., & Safdie, K. N. (2010). Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and spacecraft design. Space Science Review, 150, 23–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-9624-4
- Publisher
- USGS Astrogeology Science Center
- Publication Date
- 1 May 2018
- Author
- Technical University Berlin (TUB)
- Originator
- German Aerospace Center (DLR), LROC Team
- Group
- PDS
- Added to Astropedia
- 9 August 2018
- Modified
- 24 March 2023
General
- Purpose
The orthomosaic of the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon was created to support Apollo 17 landing site analysis and was used as the image component of a new Apollo 17 landing site map.
- Geospatial Data Presentation Form
- Grey Scale, Image, Landing Site Map, Raster Data, Regional Mosaic, Remote-sensing Data
- Edition
- 1
- Online Linkage
- https://planetarymaps.usgs.gov/mosaic/Apollo17/APOLLO17_ORTHOMOSAIC_50CM.TIFF
- Native Data Set Environment
- Color
- Black and White
- Supplemental Information
- http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/images/index.php/, https://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html, http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/featured_sites/lroc_features/Apollo%2017/feature_highlights
Keywords
- System
- Earth
- Target
- Moon
- Theme
- Exploration, Image Processing, Landing sites, Geographic Information System (GIS)
- Mission
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Instrument
- LROC
- Search Terms
- LROC NAC, orthomosaic, Apollo 17, landing site, basemap
Contact and Distribution
- Access Constraints
- none
- Use Constraints
- Please cite authors
Data Status and Quality
- Time Period of Content Begin
- 1 October 2009
- Time Period of Content End
- 14 August 2011
- Currentness Reference
- Publication date
- Progress
- Complete
- Update Frequency
- None planned
- Logical Consistency Report
- The orthomosaic is referenced to the Mean Earth/Polar Axis-coordinates of the ALSEP radio transmitter (housed by the central station) given by Davies and Colvin (2000) and thus only as accurate as the coordinates derived from interferometry (~10 m).
- Completeness Report
Mean Earth/Polar Axis-coordinates of the ALSEP central station given by Davies and Colvin (2000)
- Process Description
The orthomosaic consists of ten orthorectified LROC NAC images at 0.5 m/pixel resolution. Their incidence angles range from 22° to 64° and all of the images were acquired in slew mode (off-nadir). Five of the images have previously been used for DEM processing. The geometrically corrected, overlapping images were registered to each other and merged into a mosaic by using the DLR radiometric mosaicing tool. It is capable of adjusting the brightness of adjacent, overlapping images and to produce seamless transitions from image to image by weighted averaging of overlapping image parts. See Haase et al. (2018) for a detailed description of the creation of the DEM, the orthomosaic, and the determination of astronaut and feature positions.
- Horizontal Positional Accuracy Value
- 10
- Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report
- Accurate to Control Net
Lineage
- PDS Status
- PDS 3 Compatible
- Source PDS Archive
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Source Originator
- Arizona State University
- Source Publication Date
- 1 May 2018
- Source Title
- LRO LROC images
- Source Online Linkage
- https://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html , http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/featured_sites/lroc_features/Apollo%2017/feature_highlights
- Type of Source Media
- Online
- Attribute Accuracy Report
- Accurate to Control Net
Geospatial Information
- Location Description
- Taurus-Littrow Valley (Apollo 17 landing site), Quad 43 (Lunar 1:1M scheme), LQ-12 (Lunar 1:2.5M scheme)
- Minimum Latitude
- 19.977687
- Maximum Latitude
- 20.363918
- Minimum Longitude
- 30.420774
- Maximum Longitude
- 30.915838
- Direct Spatial Reference Method
- Raster
- Object Type
- Pixel
- Lines (pixels)
- 23437
- Samples (pixels)
- 28218
- Bit Type
- 8
- Quad Name
- LQ-12
- Radius A
- 1737400
- Radius C
- 1737400
- Control Net
- LOLA and ALSEP
- Bands
- 1
- Pixel Resolution (meters/pixel)
- 0.5
- Scale (pixels/degree)
- 60646.700779
- Horizontal Coordinate System Units
- Meters
- Map Projection Name
- Transverse Mercator
- Latitude Type
- Planetocentric
- Longitude Direction
- Positive East
- Longitude Domain
- -180 to 180