First man on the moon mission plus#
You can still see the descent module and the ALSEP equipment, but the footpaths appear far, far greater in scale and consist of two parallel tracks, plus there's a bright spot labeled "LRV" in addition. At this incredibly high resolution, expansive traveling paths and equipment remnants left on the lunar surface are unmistakable, courtesy of the last humans to walk on the Moon: Eugene "Gene" Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt. NASA / LRO / GSFC / ASUīut compared to these earlier missions, the evidence that's still visible from Apollo 17 is nothing short of spectacular. Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) can be clearly seen, as can the vehicle itself. It may be nearly 50 years later, but because the Moon is an airless world with few disturbances, humanity's footprints have not yet been erased.Ī photograph from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the landing site of Apollo 17. However, the footpaths are perhaps even more spectacular and varied, belonging to none other than Edgar Mitchell and famed lunar golfer Alan Shepard.Īlthough the golf balls that he hit were never recovered, and even the most distant golf shot probably didn't quite travel for "miles and miles" as Shepard originally claimed, we can absolutely see the evidence of the astronauts' presence. The module that landed on the Moon (the Antares Descent Stage) is clearly visible, as well as the ALSEP equipment, which has a different configuration but still contains the highly reflective central power station. NASA / LRO / GSFC / ASUĪpollo 14's landing site might be less visually spectacular, but is arguably far more famous. The lunar surface changes very slowly over time, and the changes we made in 1971 are still perceptible, virtually unchanged, today. legacy of this nearly-50-years-old event. The Apollo 14 landing site is still intact, and our images of it in modern times still carry the.
The reason is straightforward: without terrestrial phenomena that move and rearrange the particles on our surface - without winds, rains, snows, glaciers, rockslides, etc. - the only way to rearrange solid grains of particles are via impacts. On the Moon, however, those conditions are absent, and any alterations to the surface, even those made by humans some ~50 years ago, should persist.
the winds, rains, and other surface activity that comes about on a world with an atmosphere, oceans, and life. On Earth, footprints or other markings on the surface are only temporary, and are easily erased by.