Publications

On July 20, 1969, America's Eagle touched down in southwestern Mare Tranquillitatis beginning man's firsthand exploration of the moon. This document is an edited record of the conversations between astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., at Tranquility Base, and Bruce McCandless at Mission Control in Houston during the approximately 22 hours spent on the lunar surface. It...

Regional relations and characteristics of the dark material as observed on photographs of the Taurus-Littrow region of the moon are reviewed to provide a background for interpretations of its nature and origin. The dark material seems to be a surficial deposit that covers mare and highland areas near the southeastern edge of the Serenitatis Basin. The age of the dark material, as deduced...

Stereoscopic photographs of the Moon taken by the metric and panoramic cameras on board the service module of Apollo spacecraft provide a source for quantitative data on lunar topography. The accuracy of the topographic data depends, in part, on the repeatability of elevation measurements. The repeatability depends on contrast in the stereoscopic image and is affected by many factors...

Mare Serenitatis is a circular mare approximately 600 km in diameter in the northeast quadrant of the lunar near side. It occupies an old multi-ringed basin (refs. 33-1 and 33-2) and is the site of a prominent mascon (ref. 33-3). A conspicuous dark annulus in this mare prompted subdivision of the mare materials into different stratigraphic units (refs. 33-2 and 33-4). A revised...

Morphometry, the quantitative study of shape, complements the visual observation and photointerpretation in analyzing the most outstanding landforms of the Moon, its craters (refs. 32-1 and 32-2). All three of these interpretative tools, which were developed throughout the long history of telescopic lunar study preceding the Apollo Program, will continue to be applicable to crater...

Apollo 17 permission geologic studies of the Taurus-Littrow region of the Moon revealed numerous small structures, in both mare and terra, having somewhat similar morphologies and variously resembling fault scarps, flow fronts, and mare ridges. Many of these features are too small to be identified on Lunar Orbiter IV photographs, which provided the most comprehensive, high-resolution...

The lunar maria formed at different times and in multiple stages of extrusion. An understanding of their evolution is essential in placing the Apollo samples in a regional context and in interpreting the regional geology of a vast part of the lunar surface.

Stereoscopic photographs taken by the metric and panoramic cameras can be used to obtain information on the roughness and slope-frequency distributions of lunar surfaces (see appendix to this part). Bistatic radar on board Apollo 14, 15, and 16 spacecraft may also be used to obtain information on lunar surface roughness at two wavelengths—13 cm (S-band) and 116 cm (VHF).

Small volcanic cones with summit craters or breached walls occur in several areas on the Moon. Most of these features have basal diameters of approximately 1 to 2 km and probably are not more than a few hundred meters in height. None have been so clearly photographed, however, as those shown in Apollo 17 metric and panoramic camera coverage of the southeastern margin of the Serenitatis...

A dark-colored surficial deposit covers lowlands and highlands along the southeastern margin of the Serenitatis basin. Sampling of this material was a major exploration objective of the Apollo 17 mission. Since completion of the mission, the dark mantle has been the subject of considerable controversy, inasmuch as no obvious stratified deposit was found in the landing area. Yet the...

The scientific objectives of the Apollo lunar sounder experiment (ALSE) are (1) mapping of subsurface electrical conductivity structure to infer geological structure, (2) surface profiling to determine lunar topographic variations, (3) surface imaging, and (4) measuring galactic electromagnetic radiation in the lunar environment. The ALSE was a three-frequency, wide-band, coherent radar...

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