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THE LIVING MOON
The Enigmas on the Moon
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
by ArMaP
Member of AboveTopSecret.com
(Edited and Additions by Pegasus)
Interesting Finds on LRO Images
Page Two
Rolling Rock Tracks onM101291859R

Originally posted by ArMaP on August 5, 2009 at ATS Post ID 6853156
 

From Thread: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Will we finally see the Moon Base?


Here you go, more rolling rocks (and I don't think these look like a "buggy stuck in gear" ). 

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(click for full size, 83 centimetres per pixel)

Four rocks in a row? 

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It looks like those white rocks are below the surface...

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I will post later an image showing where I found those images in the larger image, I forgot to do that yesterday. 

Posted by ArMaP, on August 5, 2009
[Regarding the 1 to 2 gigabyte images size from NASA]

reply to post by easynow

I have been using Photoshop (it's better in the handling of very large files, but it's not free), but GIMP (freeware) can also open those files. 

Microsoft Office Document Imaging can also open the files. 

An old copy of PaintShopPro that I have cannot, but that is only natural, TIFF has so many possibilities that many programs use only the most basic and ignore the others. In this case they probably "think" that 52,224 pixels it's too big (they are probably limited to 32,768 pixels in either dimension)
 

Posted by ArMaP, on August 5, 2009 ATS Post ID 6854281
...
Here is an image showing the places where I found those images that I posted before. 

From top to bottom: 
Yellow - possible rolling rock (the first image I posted) 
Blue - definately a rolling rock 
Green - large rolling rock 
Red - four rocks in a row 
Cyan - white rocks below surface 

I hope this helps. 


Interesting Finds on LRO Images
Rolling Rock Tracks on M101291859L




Posted by ArMaP, on August 5, 2009  ATS Post ID 6856013

More rolling rocks, from the other photo published yesterday, the one for the left camera. 

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(click for full size)
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(click for full size)
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(click for full size)

The top of this image is the same as the bottom of the previous one, it looks like that area is lower and the rocks roll down from both sides to that area.

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(click for full size)
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(click for full size)
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There are two things that I find strange in these two photos from yesterday. 

First, the white rocks that appear from below the ground; it almost looks like that area is loosing its soil and the rocks below become exposed and break. As I am not a geologist I do not know what may be happening there (and I don't know if any geologist knows), but those white (or just brighter) rocks look fragile. 

The second things is that the tracks look "old", and by that I mean with little defined edges. 

I almost forgot to show where did I found the above images, they are marked in colour rectangles in the image below, from top to bottom by the same order they were put on this post. . 


Interesting Finds on LRO Images
Location of Images M101291859 L & R

Originally posted by ArMaP posted on August 7, 2009 at ATS Post ID 6868326

It took me a little longer than I was expecting (it took me some time to download and work with a 1.2GB image, only to reach the conclusion that it did not looked good and I had to download a 2GB image, convert it and work with it), but here is an image showing the location of photo M101291859 (L and R). 

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The brighter are is the area covered by Apollo 15 photo AS15-M-1710, that also shows this area, and it's a little distorted to align with the base image, I don't know if there is any mapping problem with the Apollo photo (the base photo is from the Clementine Browser 2.0). 

The red rectangle shows LROC photos M101291859L and M101291859R. 

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Photos LROC photos M101291859L and M101291859R, joined and resized to 25% to fit on ATS.

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As a comparison, here is the same area from the Apollo photo AS15-M-1710, resized to 50%. 

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PS: The last two images are posted as links because they are big and could make the page too slow for slower connections. [for ATS]

PPS: The area that interests you the most is not this one, while this is on the bottom right of the first image, what you want is the top right area. 

Posted by ArMaP, on August 7, 2009 ATS Post ID 6869444

Originally posted by Cygnific

reply to post by ArMaP
 

Very nice, it's amazing how good the quality was from the camera's back in the Apollo days.

Yes, we don't need digital cameras to have good photos, film is still a good option (although probably less of an option in a space mission). Also, those "Metric" photos from Apollo 15, 16 and 17 were made with large negatives, 12cmx12cm. 

That Apollo photo came from the Apollo Image Archive site, they are digitizing the photos in high resolution taken by the Apollo missions (they started with the "Metric" photos). 
 

What is so special about the top right of Tsiolkovsky 
That depends on who you ask, to me it's only geologically interesting, like the whole region. 

Posted by ArMaP, on August 7, 2009 ATS Post ID 6869634
 

Originally posted by mystr
"ArMap, your work is impressive!"
Thanks, it's amazing what we can do when we have the time. 
 
"It seems that we finally have those promised hi-res pics."


This photo is only 83 centimetres per pixel, the resolution at the intended altitude (50km) for the mission will be 50 centimetres per pixel. 
 

"Let's hope we'll get another pass over the apollo 11 to 17 (and 20?  )sites and/or known suspect locations like Aristarchus."
I don't know if they will photograph those sites again, after all that is not one of the mission's objectives. 

After writing that I thought that this is a good excuse to post the primary objectives of the LRO camera (the LRO has more instruments on board).

1) Assess meter- and smaller-scale features to facilitate safety analysis for potential lunar landing sites near polar resources, and elsewhere on the Moon. 
2) Acquire multi-temporal synoptic imaging of the poles every orbit to characterize the polar illumination environment (100 m/pixel scale), identifying regions of permanent shadow and permanent or near-permanent illumination over a full year.
The other six "high-value data sets" are: 
3) meter-scale mapping of regions of permanent or near-permanent illumination of polar massifs; 
4) multiple co-registered observations of portions of potential landing sites and elsewhere for derivation of high-resolution topography through stereogrammetric and photometric stereo analyses; 
5) global multispectral coverage in seven wavelengths (300-680 nm) to characterize lunar resources, in particular ilmenite; 
6) a global 100.0 m/pixel basemap with incidence angles (60-80°) favorable for morphologic interpretations; 
7) sub-meter imaging of a variety of geologic units to characterize physical properties, variability of the regolith, and key science questions;
8) meter-scale coverage overlapping with Apollo era panoramic images (1-2 m/pixel) to document the number of small impacts since 1971-1972, to ascertain hazards for future surface operations and interplanetary travel.
Source: http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/lro/docs/lroc/lroc_rdr_sis.pdf
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