Planets and Moons  ID: 4129

Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary

There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4593
In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth.

Using photo mosaics and elevation data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), this video commemorates the 45th anniversary of Apollo 8's historic flight by recreating the moment when the crew first saw and photographed the Earth rising from behind the Moon. Narrator Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon, sets the scene for a three-minute visualization of the view from both inside and outside the spacecraft accompanied by the onboard audio of the astronauts.

The visualization draws on numerous historical sources, including the actual cloud pattern on Earth from the ESSA-7 satellite and dozens of photographs taken by Apollo 8, and it reveals new, historically significant information about the Earthrise photographs. It has not been widely known, for example, that the spacecraft was rolling when the photos were taken, and that it was this roll that brought the Earth into view. The visualization establishes the precise timing of the roll and, for the first time ever, identifies which window each photograph was taken from.

The key to the new work is a set of vertical stereo photographs taken by a camera mounted in the Command Module's rendezvous window and pointing straight down onto the lunar surface. It automatically photographed the surface every 20 seconds. By registering each photograph to a model of the terrain based on LRO data, the orientation of the spacecraft can be precisely determined.

Andrew Chaikin's article Who Took the Legendary Earthrise Photo From Apollo 8? appeared in the January, 2018 issue of Smithsonian magazine. It includes the story of the making of this visualization.

A Google Hangout discussion of this visualization between Ernie Wright (creator of the visualization), Andrew Chaikin, John Keller (LRO project scientist), and Aries Keck (NASA media specialist) was held on December 20, 2013. A replay of that hangout is available here.

Ernie Wright presented a talk about the making of this animation at the 2014 SIGGRAPH Conference in Vancouver. He also wrote a NASA Wavelength blog entry about Earthrise that includes links to educator resources related to LRO.
 

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For More Information

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-releases-new-earthrise-simulation-video/


Visualization Credits

Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Animator
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Video Editor
Andrew Chaikin: Narration
Andrew Chaikin: Narrator
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer
Ernie Wright (USRA): Producer
Andrew Chaikin: Producer
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Producer
John Keller (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Richard Vondrak (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Andrew Chaikin appears courtesy of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Spacecraft model by Stuart Howes.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4129

Missions:
Apollo
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)
Terra

Data Used:
Terra/MODIS/Blue Marble
Credit:
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
LRO/LOLA/Digital Elevation Map also referred to as: DEM
LRO/LROC/WAC 643nm High Sun Global Mosaic
Mosaic
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of these series:
Narrated Movies
The Moon
LRO - Animations

Goddard TV Tape:
G2013-102 -- Earthrise 45th Anniversary

Keywords:
SVS >> Elevation data
SVS >> Flyover
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Laser Altimeter
SVS >> Lunar
SVS >> Moon
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> LRO
SVS >> Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
SVS >> LOLA
SVS >> LROC
DLESE >> Narrated
SVS >> Lunar Topography
SVS >> Lunar Elevation Map
SVS >> Solar System >> Moon >> Lunar Surface
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> Apollo 8
SVS >> Earthrise