Planets and Moons ID: 4717

The Taurus-Littrow Valley through LRO's Eyes

Visualizations by Ernie Wright Released on March 23, 2018

This visualization of the Taurus-Littrow valley, site of the Apollo 17 Moon landing, uses multiple Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter datasets to zoom into the valley and illustrate the paths taken by the astronauts during their three days of exploration at the site. The data includes wide-angle (WAC) and narrow-angle (NAC) camera images, LOLA laser altimetry, and a high-resolution elevation map created from NAC stereo pairs. The imagery was chosen to approximately match the lighting conditions at the time of the landing. Color-coded trails with numbered stops (called stations in astronaut lingo) show where Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove their lunar rover — orange on day 1, blue on day 2, and green on day 3.

Visualization Credits

Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4717

Missions:
Apollo
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)

Data Used:

LRO/LROC/Narrow Angle Camera also referred to as: NAC

view all stories where this data set is used

LRO/Wide Angle Camera also referred to as: LROC WAC

Observed Data

view all stories where this data set is used

LRO/SELENE/LOLA/TC/DIgital Elevation Model also referred to as: SLDEM2015

Model

A digital elevation model of the Moon derived from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter and the SELENE Terrain Camera. See the description in Icarus. The data is here.

view all stories where this data set is used