[music]
The Moon. It’s our nearest neighbor in space, and data we
gather from its features can tell us a lot about the rest of
our solar system. And through the eyes of the LRO spacecraft,
we can explore the lunar surface in all new ways in fascinating
detail. Our tour begins on the western border, where the near
side of the Moon meets the far side. The enormous feature is a
lunar crater and it’s known as the Orientale basin. Here, LRO’s
terrain map combines with surface gravity measurements
from the GRAIL mission. This data reveals structure in the
lunar crust, beneath the surface, giving us a window into
the geologic features of the Moon’s interior. Our next
location receives little direct sunlight and has some of the
coldest recorded temperatures in the solar system – the South
Pole. The highlighted spots signify potential water ice,
based on temperature readings from LRO’s Diviner instrument
and reflectance from its laser altimeter LOLA. LOLA also allows
us to peer into the darkness of Shackleton crater by bringing us
this digital elevation model. It’s 21 kilometers wide, and 4
kilometers deep, but it pales in comparison to the largest known
impact crater in the Earth-Moon system – the South Pole-Aitken
Basin. Sitting on the far side, it’s 2500 kilometers across and
13 kilometers deep. We don’t yet know exactly how old the basin
is, but it was first seen in the 1960s by spacecraft flying
around the far side. As much as we use LRO data to investigate
areas we can’t see from Earth, we also probe familiar territory
on the lunar near side, to bring back images with an all-new
level of detail. This is Tycho crater; it’s around 100 million
years old. Here, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
captures the central peak with a 100 meter-wide bolder at the
summit – the origins of which are still a mystery. Continuing
across Moon’s nearside, we will arrive in an area ripe for
future exploration, due to the diversity of impact and volcanic
materials. It features a prominent crater so bright it’s
not only visible through telescopes, but also to the
naked eye. Welcome to the Aristarchus plateau. Here,
infrared shows the mineral pyroxene in orange, and a splash
of plagioclase in blue from Aristarchus crater. This region
can tell us a lot about the rich volcanic history of the Moon.
As much as we study the Moon looking for sites to visit, we
also look back at places we’ve already been. This is because
the new data that LRO is gathering helps us reinterpret
the geology of familiar places, giving scientists a better
understanding of the sequence of events in early lunar history.
Here, we descend to the Apollo 17 landing site in the
Taurus-Littrow valley, which is deeper than the Grand Canyon.
The path the astronauts took over the course of three days is shown.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera is even able to
capture a view of the bottom half of the Apollo 17 Lunar
Lander, which still sits on the surface, as well as the rover
vehicle. These images help preserve our accomplishment of
human exploration on the Moon’s surface. Moving onward, we make
our way to our final destination. This location
contains regions that exist in permanent shadow, as well as
ones that bask in nearly perpetual light. It’s the
North Pole. Detailed terrain measurements by LOLA allow
scientists to model sunlight and shadow at the poles over decades
and centuries. Sunlit peaks and crater rims here may be ideal
locations for generating solar power for future expeditions to
the Moon. This updated visualization of the lunar
landscape stands as a testament to the functionality and
abilities of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
spacecraft. And as the mission continues to gather data, it
will provide us with many more opportunities to take
a tour of our Moon.
[beeping]