Apollo 15 Site

Apollo 15 Site

(unofficial name)
 

Lat: 26.13222°N, Long: 3.63386°E, Rukl: 22

Lunar Photomap from LPI

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery images Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images

• Apollo 15 Landing Site Model (Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, Eric M. Jones).
• René Cantin has created a high-resolution, seamless portion of James Irwin's Station 10 pan showing a view of the Hadley Rille from South, through West, and around to the North ( 2.3 Mb ). Source: Eric M. Jones' Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ).
• To detect the exact location of Apollo 15's landing site (the Descent Stage of LM Falcon), add coordinates LON 3.658 / LAT 26.132 (0.5 m/pix) at the lower part of the LRO's ACT-REACT Quick Map, and hit the RECENTER button! - DannyCaes Jun 27, 2011

Maps

(LAC zone 41B4) LAC map Geologic map LM map LTO map Landing Site Topophotomap Site Traverse map
USGS Geologic Map of the Apennine-Hadley Region (I-723 1)
USGS Geologic Map of Part of the Apennine-Hadley Region (I-723 2) (the landing site of Apollo 15).

Description

Apollo 15 landed in Palus Putredinis, just to the east of Hadley Rille and just north of Mons Hadley Delta. It was the first lunar landing in which the astronauts were equipped with a motorized Lunar Rover, allowing them to explore and collect geologic samples over a much greater distance than had previously been possible.
 
 

Wikipedia

Apollo 15

Additional Information

• The position of the Apollo 15 landing site given in the title line is from Davies and Colvin, 2000. It is based on the later measured position of the Apollo 15 lunar surface experiment package (ALSEP) radio transmitter and the assumption that the lander touched down 110 m east and 56 m south of that location. The measured ALSEP location is itself probably uncertain by at least 30 m. The position plotted on the earlier DMA-prepared Topophotomap was 26.1228N, 3.6254E. The difference between the coordinate values (corresponding to an offset of about 370 m) represents a change in what is thought to be the correct coordinate system, and not a change in the estimate of the landing position relative to the lunar features.
• Apollo 15's is the most northern one of the six manned landing sites.- DannyCaes Nov 26, 2008
• NASA has selected the area explored by Apollo 15 as a Region of Interest for investigation for a possible return visit in connection with its Constellation program of exploration.

Nomenclature

• The IAU Nomenclature includes 14 minor astronaut-named landing site feature names associated with Apollo 15 reportedly culled from a list of 81 names used during the mission planning. The following explanations of the 14 official names are copied from IAU Transactions XVIB:
  • Apennine Front: The explored foothills of Hadley Delta which is part of the Apennine Mountain range on the eastern rim of Mare Imbrium.
  • North Complex: Complex of hills, craters, scarps and apparent flow fronts to the north of the landing site.
  • South Cluster: A cluster of secondary craters located to the south of the landing site. The western part of the cluster was explored on the second EVA.
  • Plain: A flat mare region on which the LM landed east of Rima Hadley.
  • Terrace: Slight projection of a basalt-mare unit out into Rima Hadley. The farthest sampling point to the west on EVA 3 was in its vicinity.
  • Bridge: Crater within Rima Hadley whose rim appears to form a bridge across the rille. Crater was used as a landmark.
  • Dune: Crater named for a dune-shaped structure on the southeast rim. Dune crater was the sampling site of Station number 4.
  • Earthlight: A crater named after an Arthur C. Clarke novel by the same name. The crater was described in detail during the second EVA.
  • Elbow: Crater at a part of Rima Hadley resembling a bent elbow. The crater was the site of sampling station number 1.
  • Index: A prominent crater near the landing site that served as the major landmark for orbital tracking and for LM descent.
  • Last:This crater was supposed to be visited on the last traverse; it became the last crater to be approached during descent. The LM landed in its vicinity.
  • Rhysling: A crater named for Rhysling, the blind poet of "The Green Hills of Earth", a science fiction story by Robert Heinlein. Sampling station number 3 is 125 m west-southwest of the crater.
  • Spur: Crater located on a small spur of the Apennine Front. The southernmost part of the second EVA traverse was in the vicinity of this crater.
  • St. George: In Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon", the moon-bound crew members celebrated a successful launch by drinking a type of wine by the name of St. George. This 2.5 km in diameter crater on the Apennine Front was the source of soil sample.

• The landing site itself has no official name. - Jim Mosher

• A Map in Eric M. Jones' Apollo 15 Image Library reportedly lists and identifies "all the named craters and craterlets in the neighborhood of Apollo 15's landing site, chosen by Joseph P. Allenand the crew." Most of the names were not adopted by the IAU. The following list compiled and investigated by Danny Caes gives the names on the map, and some others. Those Danny believes could be observed and webcammed through telescopes on Earth are preceded by a "+".
  • Alligator chain
  • Apollo 15 Target Point (a location, not a name). Note: the exact location of Apollo 15's LM Falcon was immediately north-northwest of crater Last, and not south of it, as shown in the map. The label "Apollo 15 Target Point" (on the map) is the location of Wolverine.
  • Arbeit
  • +Arrowhead, one of the large craters in the South Cluster.
  • +Bennett Hill, west of Mons Hadley Delta.
    • According to page 84 of David M. Harland's book Exploring the Moon; the Apollo expeditions, Bennett Hill was named for Floyd Bennett, the member of the flight dynamics team who devised the steep descent which had enabled Apollo 15's LM Falcon to set down at the confined Hadley-Apennine site.
    • Surface photographs of Bennett Hill (LPI Apollo 15 Image Atlas).
  • +Big Rock Mountain, one of the peaks in Montes Apenninus, see: Swann Range, Swann Mountain, and Big Rock Mountain
  • Blinky (in South Cluster)
  • Brandy
  • +Bridge
  • Canyon
  • Chain (in North Complex)
  • Cliff (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Contact
  • Contour (on the northern slope of Mons Hadley Delta, with the fresh craterlet High a little bit further up the slope). Note: according to the LPI's descriptions, Contour should be visible in CDR David Scott's 500-mm SEVA photograph AS15-84-11237. See also Kipp Teague's medium and high resolution scans of the same photograph: AS15-84-11237 med-res and AS15-84-11237 high-res.
  • +Crackled Hills (?).
  • +Crescent, one of the large craters in the South Cluster.
  • Crook (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Crystal
  • Dandelion. Would you believe me if I say that the original meaning of this name is Lion's Tooth? Dandelion is from the French Dent-De-Lion, which means Lion's Tooth. See this Wikipedia page. Perhaps interesting to know: the planetary nebula NGC 6751 in the constellation Aquila is sometimes called the Dandelion Puff Ball because of its typical dandelion puff ball-like appearance.
  • Diamond
  • Distant (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Dome (in North Complex)
  • Domingo (Spanish for Sunday)
  • Dune (in South Cluster)
  • +Durins Bridge, the "shoulder" in Rima Hadley, west of the North Complex.
  • Eaglecrest (in North Complex)
  • Earthlight
  • "East Wall" crater (a name?)(see this Labeled section of the region south of LM Falcon's landing site)(ALSJ).
  • Elbow
  • Epic
  • Exuperay (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ?)
  • Fan
  • Fifty Five
  • Fifty Four (the year CDR David Scott graduated from West Point)
  • Fifty One (in South Cluster)
  • Flow
  • Fresh crater (a name?)(see this Labeled section of the region northwest of the South Cluster)(ALSJ).
  • Front
  • Gateway
  • Ghostbead
  • +Head Valley, the east-west running part of Rima Hadley, southwest of Saint George crater.
  • High (see notes at Contour).
  • +Hill 22, north-northwest of Mons Hadley.
  • +Hill 305 (also called Fresnel Ridge), west of Mons Hadley.
  • Icarus (in North Complex). Note: not to be confused with the pronounced farside crater Icarus. If Apollo 15's Icarus was an official name, it would have been called Icarus-Apollo (because there's already an Icarus on the other side of the moon!).
  • Index
  • Irwin's dunes Note: this name was not included on the map. It is mentioned on pages 152 and 162 of D.M.Harland's Exploring the Moon.
  • Kimbal (in South Cluster)
  • Last
  • Lightning (in South Cluster)
  • Link (in North Complex)
  • Little One (see this Labeled section of the region northwest of the South Cluster)(ALSJ).
  • Lonely (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Luke
  • Lundi
  • Mark
  • Matthew
  • Misty Doublet (in North Complex)
  • Nameless. Note: not to be confused with Apollo 14's Old Nameless.
  • +North Complex
  • Northern Twin (see: N. Twin on map)
  • Notch (slightly south of Dune). See this Labeled section of the region northwest of Station 6 and Labeled section of the region northwest of the South Cluster (ALSJ).
  • November'. Note: during CDR David Scott's SEVA (Stand-Up EVA) it seems to have been impossible to observe and to photograph crater November, although it was a bright craterlet with raised rim. Perhaps November is noticeable on the PAN made at the VIP-site (the LRV's final parking location, east of LM Falcons landingsite). November is frequently mentioned on page 84 of David M. Harland's book Exploring the Moon; the Apollo expeditions. See also this photographic map of November and surroundings, from Eric M. Jones's Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.
  • Offset (in South Cluster)
  • Orville (Orville Wright of the Wright brothers)
  • Os (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Pitane (in South Cluster)
  • Plain or The Plain. Note: the name Plain (or The Plain) was not included in the map.
  • +Pluton, the largest informally named crater in the North Complex, near or at the Schaber Hill.
  • Pooh
  • Quadrant
  • Quark (or: Quark Triplet)
  • Rhysling
  • Ridge
  • Rim
  • Ring
  • Rio
  • +Saint George, the largest one of the officially named craters near Apollo 15's landing site (Saint George's location is at the northern slope of Mons Hadley Delta).
  • Sallyport West. Note: this name was not included on the map. There's a description of it in Eric M. Jones's ALSJ, at 107:08:05 in Apollo 15's Stand-Up Eva.
  • Salyut (named after the series of Russian space-stations called Salyut)
  • Samstag
  • Scarp
  • +Schaber Hill (the central hill of the North Complex). Note: the name Schaber Hill was not included in the map.
  • "Sharp" crater (a name?)(see this Labeled section of the region south of LM Falcon's landing site)(ALSJ).
  • Side (in North Complex)
  • Slide
  • +South Cluster
  • +Silver Spur, the peak southeast of Mons Hadley Delta.
    • According to the Image Library ("106:58:07 SEVA 500-mm Pan of Silver Spur") of the Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal, the name used by the astronauts was Silver Spur after Caltech geologist Lee Silver.
    • AS15-84-11250 is a 500-mm Hasselblad close-up of Silver Spur (see also page 166 in D.M. Harland's Exploring The Moon).
    • AS15-87-11748 is one of the first color Hasselblads of Silver Spur, made during the SEVA (Stand-up EVA) of David Scott.
    • AS15-88-11916 is one of the last color Hasselblads of Silver Spur, made from the location of the "VIP-site" (east of LM Falcon). Note the absence of shadows on the mountains.
  • "Smooth, Round" crater (a name?) (see this Labeled section of the region south of LM Falcon's landing site)(ALSJ).
  • Southern Twin (see: S. Twin on map)
  • Spur
  • Subsidiary Peak (a name?). This peak's location is southwest of Mount Hadley Delta, depicted in this labeled orbital photograph (ALSJ).
  • +Swann Mountain, near Mons Hadley, see: Swann Range, Swann Mountain, and Big Rock Mountain
  • +Swann Range, in the Montes Apenninus, east of Apollo 15's site, see: Swann Range, Swann Mountain, and Big Rock Mountain
  • Tecumseh (Tecumseh)
  • Terrace or The Terrace
  • +Trophy Point, the other side of Rima Hadley's bent elbow, beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley.
  • Uttermost West (beyond the western slopes of Rima Hadley)
  • Wilbur (Wilbur Wright of the Wright brothers)
  • Window
  • Wolverine. Note: this name was not included on the map because its location is occupied by the label "Apollo 15 Target Point".

The Wolverine case

Exploring the LPI's online scans of Apollo 15's Hasselblad photographs is always an interesting pastime, because it (this exploration) could reveal a series of unexpected discoveries, such as the name Wolverine, which must have been a small craterlet west of LM Falcons landing site. The name Wolverine is not included on the above mentioned map of the landing site (which shows more than 50 names of small surface formations in the neighborhood!).
 Wolverine is included in the LPI's descriptions below the 3 photographs AS15-82-11192, 11193, and 11194. The eastern Swann Range (the Apennine front) is noticeable in the background. The dark dot near the centre of each photograph is LM Falcon. The diffuse "fog" which is visible near the central part of each photograph is (was) probably a temporary moisty coating on the inside of the camera's lens system, or a thin layer of dust on the primary lens's outer surface. This effect is visible on several Hasselblad frames of Apollo 15, and also on several Apollo 12 frames.
 - DannyCaes Dec 18, 2010
 
 A message from Eric M. Jones of the online Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ):
  Danny,
  During Apollo 15's EVA-3 drive from the LM to Station 9, at about 164:50:27 in http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.trvsta9.html, Scott and Irwin encounter a large, shallow depression or crater. At 164:51:25, Irwin suggests that the inner slope is about 3 degrees and that the depth is 200 feet (60 m). During the post-mission debriefing, he said the slope was 5 degrees and the depth 150 feet (45 m). Using 4 degrees and 175 feet, the implied radius is 760 feet (230 m). At 164:51:01, Scott says that the depression appears to be elongated on an east-west axis. At 164:52:11, Irwin says he is going to call the crater "'Wolverine". The mascot of the University of Michigan athletics teams is the Wolverine. Scott, Irwin, and CMP Al Worden were all graduates of the University of Michigan.
  The shallow inner slope mean that the crater/depression doesn't show up well in the LROC images. Unless the Sun is within a few degrees of the horizon, the slopes facing the Sun will show up as slightly lighter in color and the slopes facing away from the Sun will be slightly darker. I have Sketch an approximate location of Wolverine on a detail from LROC image M117467833R, taken when the Sun was something like 20 degrees above the western horizon:
 
  At 164:52:42, when they are on the north side of the depression, Irwin report a range to the LM of 600 meters, so the size and location of the outline I sketched using variations in brightness of the surface seems to be credible.
 
  Hope this helps.
 
  Eric Jones, ALSJ
 
 

LPOD Articles

• Measuring a Serpent.
• Handheld Moon (3D Bas-relief map of Mons Hadley
• Mons Hadley Delta
• Rima Hadley Hill 305, Bennett Hill, Swann Range).

LROC Articles

• Retracing the Steps of Apollo 15: Constellation Region of Interest
• The Apollo 15 Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector - A Fundamental Point on the Moon!
• Layers near Apollo 15 landing site
• Hadley Rille and the Mountains of the Moon
• The Original Interplanetary Mountaineers
• Soaring over Mighty Mount Hadley
• Follow the Tracks

Bibliography

• Saal, A. E. et al (2013). Hydrogen Isotopes in Lunar Volcanic Glasses and Melt Inclusions Reveal a Carbonaceous Chondrite Heritage – Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1235142 (published online 9 May), 2013.
• Chi, P. J. et al (2011). Restoration of Apollo Magnetic Field Data: Accomplishments and Outstanding Issues – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Dawson, M. D. et al (2011). Apollo Lunar Sample Integration into Google Moon: A New Approach to Digitization – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Garcia, P. A. et al (2011). Restoration and PDS Archive of Apollo Lunar Rock Sample Data – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Isaacson P. J. et al (2011). Reflectance Spectroscopy of Ilmenite: New Constraints from Apollo Sample Measurements – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Kong, W. G. et al (2011). Ti Distribution in Grain-Size Fractions of Apollo Soils 10084 and 71501 – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Kim, T. et al (2011). Robust Orbital Refinement of the Apollo Trajectory Data for the Ames Stereo Pipeline – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Lofgren, G. E. et al (2011). Apollo Lunar Sample Photographs: Digitizing the Moon Rock Collection – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Moratto, Z. et al (2011). Stereo Reconstruction from Apollo 15 and 16 Metric Camera – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Petro, N. E. et al (2011). Digitization and Reanalysis of Apollo Surface Traverses – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Ross, D. K. et all (2011). Fe-SEM, FIB and TEM Study of Surface Deposits on Apollo 15 Green Glass Volcanic Spherules – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Williams, D. R. et al (2011). PDS Lunar Data Node: Restoration of Apollo Surface and Orbital Data – 42nd LPSC Conference (Mar), 2011.
• Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal
• Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report; Chapter 5. Preliminary Geologic Investigation of The Apollo 15 Landing Site
• Apollo Over the Moon, Chapter 2: Regional views, Figure 29.
• Harland, David M. 1999. Exploring The Moon; The Apollo Expeditions (Springer).
• Weaver, Kenneth F. 1972. "Apollo 15 Explores The Mountains Of The Moon." National Geographic (February issue).
• Wilhelms, D. E. 1986. Selection of the Apollo 15 landing site. Workshop on the Geology and Petrology of the Apollo 15 Landing Site. A Lunar and Planetary Institute Workshop held November 13-15, 1986, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, in Houston, Texas. Edited by Paul D. Spudis and Graham Ryder. LPI Technical Report 86-03, p.116

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