Hubble Space Telescope Looks at the Moon to Prospect for Resources (Apollo 17 Landing Region)

  • Released Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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The Hubble Space Telescope looked at specific areas of the moon prospecting for important minerals that may aid future sustained human presence on the moon. Initial analysis of the data indicate the likely presence of titanium and iron oxides. These minerals can be sources of oxygen, essential for human exploration.

This visualization starts with a view of the moon as seen from Earth using a USGS Apollo derived artist rendered texture (airbrushed). The camera then zooms into the Apollo 17 landing region using Clementine data (the outer area after the camera pauses), high resolution HST data (the inner area), and Apollo 17 derived topgraphy.

Exposure Time: 2.5 minutes

Filters: F250W (250nm), F344N (344nm), F502N (502nm), F658N (658nm)

Data from these multiple filters were used to produce the mosaic Apollo 17 landing site image.

Push in and fly-around of HST imagery of Apollo 17 landing site. The darker region outside of the lighter interior patch is Clementine data. The lighter interior patch is the high resolution HST data.

HST imagery of the Apollo 17 landing site draped over Apollo 17 derived topography

HST imagery of the Apollo 17 landing site draped over Apollo 17 derived topography

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Additional credit to Zoltan G. Levay (STScI)

This page was originally published on Tuesday, October 18, 2005.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:56 PM EDT.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Series

This page can be found in the following series:

Datasets used

  • [HST: ACS]

    ID: 174
    Sensor: ACS Dates used: 2005/08/16 - 2005/08/21
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  • 750-nm Basemap [Clementine: UVVIS Camera]

    ID: 545
    Type: Mosaic Sensor: UVVIS Camera Dates used: 2005/08/16 - 2005/08/21
    See all pages that use this dataset

  • Photography Frames 9552, 9557, 9554, 9559 [Apollo 15: Panoramic Camera]

    ID: 577
    Sensor: Panoramic Camera Dates used: 2005/08/16 - 2005/08/21

    litt_dem.bilDEM of the Littrow area of the Moon in an RAW binary format.
    Simple Cylidrical, 1 band. Arc: describe LITT_DEM
    Description of Grid LITT_DEM Cell Size(deg/pxl)=0.00034049743634 Data Type: Unsigned Int
    Number of Rows = 4308
    Number of Columns = 4619 

           BOUNDARY                                STATISTICS
    Xmin = 29.904 Minimum Value = 1420.000
    Xmax = 31.477 Maximum Value = 4108.602
    Ymin = 19.387 Mean = 2432.915
    Ymax = 20.854 Standard Deviation = 630.217 
                          COORDINATE SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
    Projection GEOGRAPHIC
    Datum NONE Note: Cell size in projection Sinusoidal is 10 meters/pixel
    Note: Null value is 0 litt_dem.bil -> raw image DEM
    litt_dem.hdr -> text header file
    litt_dem.blw -> text georeferencing world file
    litt_dem.stx -> text stats. file Trent M. Hare
    US Geological Survey
    thare@flagmail.wr.usgs.gov
    (520) 556-7126 Misc notes: -Compiled by Frank Schafer (USGS) at DMA Houston
    -This is a preliminary map before DMA control net was finished
    -datum was arbitrarly set
    -no specific project applied frames used for photogrammetry:
    Apollo 15 panoramic photography frames 9552,9557,9554,9559 frames used for control:
    -Apollo 15 frames 1112, 1113 by using camera orientation data
    -scale established from lunar orbiter IV, H-78 Sited in book:
    Apollo17 Preliminary Science Report

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  • Lunar Composite Texture [Clementine and HST: HIRES and the Telescope]

    ID: 578
    Sensor: HIRES and the Telescope
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  • [HST: WFPC2]

    ID: 655
    Sensor: WFPC2

    Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) was installed in Dec 1993 and used to obtain high resolution images of astronomical objects. This camera was removed in the last servicing mission so it is no longer in service.

    This dataset can be found at: http://www.stsci.edu/hst/wfpc2/wfpc2_diag.html

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Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.