Moon landing is one of the best technological achievements in the history of the mankind. 12 men walked on the moon in six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. Except Apollo-13, missions from Apollo-11 to 17 successfully landed men on the moon. In case of Apollo-13, an Oxygen tank explosion forced the astronauts to return to the earth without landing. Here are all the Apollo manned mission landing sites:
Apollo landing sites, Photo: Wikipedia
NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft on June 18, 2009. It is a robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in a low ( 50 km or 31 mi) orbit. It is equipped with a system of three cameras (called the LROC) to capture high resolution photos. The main mission of LRO is to do detailed mapping of the lunar surface to identify safe landing sites for future manned mission and locate potential resources.
In the past successful moon landing missions astronauts left many stuffs on the moon; some for future scientific experiments (eg. LRRR) and some were too heavy to bring back (eg. rovers). After four decades, LROC took detailed photographs of those sites with the stuffs the astronauts left behind during their moonwalk. Movements of the astronauts made clear marks on the surface which are also very noticeable in the photos. The photos presented below are taken from the LROC website. But, first you should know the following terminologies and acronyms as those are used in the photos:
Descent Stage : When the mission was over, it served as the launch pad.
LRRR : Lunar Ranging Retro Reflector
PSE : Passive Seismic Experiment
ALSEP : Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package
Surveyor 3 : Previously sent unmanned probe
Geophone line : A set of geophones, laid out in a line
Rover : Roving vehicle, first used in Apollo-15 mission
Magnetometer : A device to measure the magnetic field
SEP : Surface Electrical Properties
Apollo 11 landing site, Photo taken on 2009-10-29, Photo: LROC, NASA
Apollo 12 landing site, Photo taken on 2011-11-08, Photo: LROC, NASA
Apollo 14 landing site, Photo taken on : 2011-09-14, Photo: LROC, NASA
Apollo 15 landing site, Photo taken on 2010-03-02, Photo: LROC, NASA
Apollo 16 landing site, Photo taken on 2010-05-22, Photo: LROC, NASA
Apollo 17 landing site, Photo taken on 2011-08-14, Photo: LROC, NASA