Analysis of Photography and Visual Observations

CASE c o ANALYSIS OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL OBSERVATIONS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AN_SP.A_E NASA SP-232 ANALYSIS OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL OBSERVATIONS COMPILED BY NASA MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER Scientific and Technical ln[ormation Office 19"I Is, S._. NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Washington, D.C. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 Price $4.25 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-606239 Foreword The Apollo 10 mission was a vital step toward the national goal of landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth. This mission used the first complete Apollo spacecraft flown in lunar orbit and took men closer to the Moon than ever before. The mission clearly demonstrated that the Nation was ready to embark with the Apollo 11 crew on the voyage that has been the dream of men for thousands of years. Each Apollo lunar mission acquires photographs of areas on the Moon never before seen in such great detail. This report provides only a small sample of the types of analysis that can be performed with this photography. Even more important, however, this report provides scientists throughout the world with a knowledge of what new lunar photography is available and how the photograph can be obtained. It is hoped that more extensive analysis of this photography will continue, and it is certain that the photographs will be used for many decadesl RICHARD J. ALLENBY 01_ice of Manned Space Flight 111 Contents Page INTRODUCTION ........................................ vii Jamcs H. Sasser CHAPTER 1. VISUAL OBSERVATIONS .............. 1 Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan, and John W. Young Introduction ........................ 1 Color ............................. 1 Surface Textures .................... 1 Mare Areas ................. 1 Far-Side Basins .......................... 2 Highland Areas .................... 2 Slopes .............. 2 Ray Patterns ............ 2 Small Bright-Halo Craters .................. 2 Large Craters ................. 3 Volcanic Terrain .................... 3 Sinuous Rilles ......................... 3 General Lunar Visibility ...................... 3 Sunshine ............... 3 Earthshine .................... 3 Astronomical Observations ...................... 3 Solar Corona ................... 3 Dim-Light Phenomena .......................... 4 CHAPTER 2. INITIAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ANALYSES _ __ 5 GEOLOGY ............................ 5 Preliminary Quantitative Terrain-Analysis Results from Three Apollo 10 Photographs ........................ 5 Richard J. Pike The Apollo 10 Lunar Highlands ................ 12 Keith Howard Some Preliminary Interpretations of Lunar Mass-Wasting Processes from Apollo 10 Photography ............................. 14 Richard J. Pike CRATERS ........................................ 20 An Unusual Far-Side Crater ......................... 20 R. G. Strom and E. A. Whitaker Lunar Impact Craters ........................... 24 H. J. Moore Large Blocks Around Lunar Craters ................ 2(; H. J. Moore VOLCANIC FEATURES .................... 26 Terra Volcanics of the Near Side of the Moon _ 26 Don E. Wilhelms Lunar Igneous Intrusions ............................... 29 Farouk El-Baz V vi CONTENTS Page PHOTOMETRY ......................................................... 31 Evaluation of Photometric Slope Deviation ......................... 31 B. K. Lucchitta The Normal Albedo of the Apollo 11 Landing Site and Intrinsic Dispersion in the Lunar Heiligenschein ................................. 35 Robert L. Wildey and Howard A. Pohn PHOTOGRAPHS OF APOLLO LANDING SITE 3 ................................ 36 N. J. Trask PHOTOGRAMMETRY ..................................................... 37 Photogrammetry from Apollo 10 Photography ..................... 37 Sherman S. C. Wu Optical Tracking of Apollo 10 from Earth ................. 50 Edward H. Jentsch REFERENCES ................................................... 57 APPENDIX A--DATA AVAILABILITY ......................................... 59 APPENDIX B--GLOSSARY ......................... 111 APPENDIX C--AUTHOR AFFILIATION ............................... 113 PHOTOGRAPHIC MAGAZINES ......................................... 115 Introduction JAMES H. SASSER The Apollo 10 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy at 12:49 p.m., e.d.t., on May 18, 1969. After the spacecraft completed ll/z revolutions of the Earth, the S-IVB was reigni_ed to increase the speed of the spacecraft to the velocity required to escape the gravitational attraction of the Earth. Three days later, the spacecraft was placed in a 60- by 170-n.-mi. orbit around the Moon. After the spacecraft completed two revolutions of the Moon, the orbit was circularized to 60 n. mi. by a second burn of the service propulsion system. On the fifth day of the mission, Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan descended in the lunar module to an altitude of less than _:7 000 ft above the Moon. At this altitude, two passes were made over the Apollo 11 landing site. The ascent and descent stages of the lunar module separated, and the astronauts in the ascent stage then completed a success- ful rendezvous with Astronaut John W. Young in the command module. On May 24, the service propulsion system was reignited, and the astronauts began the return journey to Earth. Splashdown occurred at 12:52 p.m. on May 26, 1969, less than 4 miles from the target point and the recovery ship. During the mission, the astronauts obtained hundreds of still photographs and exposed many reels of motion-picture film. This photography contains much new information on those areas of the Moon that were passed over during the mission. Although some pictures were of areas that had been photographed by the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft, nearly every one that was studied revealed new detail. This report has been limited to analyses and observations not discussed previously in NASA SP-201, "Analysis of Apollo 8 Photography and Visual Observations." The interested reader is referred to that publication for addi- tional details on the camera and film characteristics, because the same type of equipment was used for photography in both the Apollo 8 and 10 missions. During the time that this report was in preparation, many of the participat- ing scientists and photographic analysts were involved in planning the photographic activities for the Apollo 11 mission. This fact contributed to the brevity of this report. vii 1 Visual Observations THOMAS P. STAFFORD, EUGENE A. CERNAN, AND JOIIN W. YOUNG INTRODUCTION indicate definite brown tones on the gray lunar-surface features, except near the sunrise and sunset terminators. At such low The flight of Apollo 10 permitted man to observe directly features on the lunar sur- Sun angles, the surface features were visible face from an altitude of 50 000 ft, an altitude as variations in shades of gray. within the range of high-performance air- With color television, we were able to craft on Earth. Much of the groundtrack of share some of these observations in real Apollo 10 covered unknown parts of the time. At altitudes ranging from 50 000 ft to Moon with observations and photographs 3000 miles, the mare surface was generally from orbital altitudes of 60 n. mi. The color brown, highland areas were tan, and the television camera permitted us to share bright halos and rays around some craters many of the front-side observations with were a chalky white, like gypsum. After transearth insertion, the lunar- people on Earth. surface colors could be contrasted with the The spacecraft remained in the vicinity of pitch black of space to give a color compari- the Moon much longer than did the Apollo 8 son. A highly significant color variation spacecraft. This allowed more time for ob- within the Sea of Serenity was described servations and extended coverage of a pre- from high altitude as the area became visible. viously unphotographed segment of the The color around the southern margin of the Moon as the sunrise terminator moved from sea was like the mare materials observed in the vicinity of Apollo landing site 2 to the the equatorial seas, but the central part of vicinity of Apollo landing site 3. the sea was a lighter shade of brown. We had the advantage of the observations from the Apollo 8 crewmembers to guide the SURFACE TEXTURES emphasis in the later phases of our training. In some areas, better Apollo 8 photographs The variety of surface features on the replaced existing Lunar Orbiter coverage for Moon is amazing. Even in areas that are preflight training and onboard charts. generally similar, differences that appear to be significant exist in the details. COLOR Mare Areas The crewmembers of Apollo 8 reported re- gional variations in shades of gray, with pos- While Apollo 10 orbited the Moon, the sible faint brownish hues. Our observations near-side terminator swept from a position 2 ANALYSIS OF APOLLO ]0 PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL OBSERVATIONS in the Sea of Tranquility to a position west wide range of Sun angles during the Apollo of the Central Bay. Long shadows near the 10 mission. The front-side terminator swept terminator accentuate the gentle changes in the region between the Sea of Tranquility slope within the mare areas; otherwise, the and the Central Bay, and the far-side termi- mare surfaces appear much like the moder- nator crossed rugged highland terrain west ate-Sun-angle Lunar Orbiter pictures of this of the far-side basin XV. Both areas viewed area. When we were looking away from the at comparable low-Sun

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