Where is the LRO?

I just came across this cool thingy which shows the current location of the LRO over the surface of the Moon.

lroc.sese.asu.edu...

In other news, the LRO completed its third orbital burn this morning, putting it into a 2.58 hour orbit. Still pretty high.
lroupdate.blogspot.com...

Thank you, thank you, Phage. I've been making a decidedly feeble attempt to keep up with the LRO's journey, and this will most certainly help the cause.

Hi Phage,

When is the rocket body supposed to strike the moon? July 7th was what I thought. Am I right?

reply to post by MajesticJax


The LCROSS impact is scheduled for October 9.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by MajesticJax

 

The LCROSS impact is scheduled for October 9.

Thank you very much.

2nd line.

reply to post by Phage


If anyone wants the coordinates of the LCROSS spacecraft you can generate them based on your location, date, and time using the HORIZONS system:
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...
Note that LCROSS will generally be far from earth up through lunar impact, so you'll need some serious telescopic or imaging equipment to see it.

[edit on 26-6-2009 by ngchunter]

Thanks for the website, Phage.

I just looked at the past orbits (I think you can only look back 3 past orbits) and it seemed to me that the LRO was just recently over the Apollo 11 landing site (perhaps 9 or so orbits prior to the time of this post).

Wouldn't it be a great present if on July 20th (the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing) NASA would release a high-res picture of the landing site. Hopefully the camera was operating well enough during that fly-over, or hopefully it will orbit over the Apollo 11 site again before July 20th.

The Moon is presently in its first quarter phase, so the Apollo 11 landing site just recently rotated into the "lit" part of the Moon (that area was in darkness until recently, and will be dark again in a couple of weeks).


[edit on 6/29/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

It's going to be a while longer before the cameras are fully functional.

Except for a few hours during the LOI burn the heaters have been keeping the telescopes at about 50 degrees C (122 F). It should take the heaters about two weeks to bring the cameras into focus. Focus test images acquired in orbit will tell us when the cameras are truly in focus.

Source

[edit on 6/29/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage

Oh well -- it doesn't sound like we will get an Apollo 11 picture in time for the Anniversary. I'm sure they are hoping to release some other stunning images in concert with the 40th Anniversary (i.e., I bet they are hoping to get the cameras fully operational by then).

The LRO website says "Early July" for images. I assumed that meant that the cameras were at least "partially working" (but not up no nominal spec standards) right now -- or would be very soon.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

I think early July is still go. The heaters were started at launch so the cameras should be up to spec by the end of this month.

Yesterday the alignment of the bird was set so it will always be pointed straight down toward the surface of the Moon.
Nadir


[edit on 6/29/2009 by Phage]

We may see some preliminary images by this weekend.

From yesterday:

Today the LRO Team powered up the LROC cameras for a few hours to collect engineering data. Over two orbits we monitored temperatures and background values to give us a leg up when we start commissioning phase imaging on Friday. Of particular interest is the temperature of the NAC CCDs, two parameters that control the background level of the camera, which are selected based on temperature. Having actual measurements beats a thermal model any day!

Source

[edit on 7/1/2009 by Phage]

Perhaps you could enlighten me on why the cameras need to be heated up before they can be used phage?

I'm just thinking that they would work out of the box??

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower

These aren't Brownie cameras.

The LROC Narrow Angle Camera carbon-fiber structure absorbs water under ambient conditions (Earth's atmosphere) resulting in expansion, which puts the camera out of focus. Once in the vacuum of space the camera outgasses, the structure shrinks, and presto, the camera is in focus.

Source

The heaters are to help dry the cameras out.


[edit on 7/1/2009 by Phage]

When do we get to see evidence of all the moon landing sites then?

After they have had time to take the pics and add CGI?

First images are starting to show up
Source


Calibration image


[edit on 7/2/2009 by Phage]

Originally posted by VitalOverdose
When do we get to see evidence of all the moon landing sites then?

After they have had time to take the pics and add CGI?

Actually I personally suspect they'll try to image tranquility base on or before the 40th anniversary rolls around. You've already come to your conlusion before seeing the first pixel though, so it's obvious that no amount of evidence will convince you it wasn't fake.

[edit on 2-7-2009 by ngchunter]

Seeing pics of all the landing sites before the the probe had time to make a few orbits while its 'cams warmed up' would have gone a long way to making me a believer.

reply to post by VitalOverdose

I think they were more concerned about making sure every thing worked properly and not burning anything out than convincing you that the moon landings were not hoaxed.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by VitalOverdose

 

I think they were more concerned about making sure every thing worked properly and not burning anything out than convincing you that the moon landings were not hoaxed.

I don't doubt your right there phage im just saying its a shame it happened that way as its just going to cast more doubt over the validity of the final pics.

Originally posted by VitalOverdose
Seeing pics of all the landing sites before the the probe had time to make a few orbits while its 'cams warmed up' would have gone a long way to making me a believer.

How could they get pics of all the landing sites before the probe had time to make a few orbits? You do realize that there are 6 landing sites, all in different areas of the Moon right? Plus LRO wasn't in the proper orbit when it first entered Lunar orbit. It was in a 220 km by 3100 km and then it spent 5 days adjusting its orbit to a 30 km by 199 km commissioning orbit. The probe is still in a commissioning phase and isn't even in it's final orbit yet. It takes time allow each team to turn on, test and calibrate each of the 7 instruments on board.

Space probes do not operate like a consumer product. You don't just push the power button and start taking pictures right away. Everything has to be checked out to make sure it's all working properly. You don't want to risk doing something that causes a $500 million dollar spacecraft to shutdown or not work properly.