Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon
In 1967, Lunar Orbiter Mission 4 sent back to Earth a superb series of photographs of the surface of the Moon, despite severe degradation caused by scanning and the reconstruction processes involved in transmission from lunar orbit. Using 21st century tec
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Charles J. Byrne
Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon With 619 Illustrations and a CD-ROM
Charles J. Byrne Image Again Middletown, NJ USA Cover illustration: Earth-based photograph of the full Moon from the “Consolidated Lunar Atlas” on the Website of the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data Byrne, Charles J., 1935– Lunar Orbiter photographic atlas of the near side of the Moon 1. Lunar Orbiter (Artificial satellite) 2. Moon–Maps 3. Moon–Photographs from space I. Title 523.3 0223 ISBN 1852338865 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Byrne, Charles J., 1935– Lunar Orbiter photographic atlas of the near side of the Moon : with 619 figures / Charles J. Byrne. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85233-886-5 (acid-free paper) 1. Moon–Maps. 2. Moon–Photographs from space. 3. Moon–Remote-sensing images. 4. Lunar Orbiter (Artificial satellite) I. Title. G1000.3.B9 2005 523.3 022 3–dc22 2004045006 Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com. ISBN 1-85233-886-5 Printed on acid-free paper. © 2005 Springer-Verlag London Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc, in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed in Singapore. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com
Preface
The Moon is Earth’s nearest neighbor. Since the dawn of intelligence, our eyes have seen the Moon, puzzling over its shady figures, its phases, its motions in the sky, and its relation to tides. Even the smallest telescopes resolve the shadows into a heavily cratered surface, stimulating the imagination. Each advance of the astronomer’s art has revealed new insights into the nature of the lunar surface, until curiosity and competition led the American and Russian space programs to send orbital cameras, robotic landers and rovers, and the Apollo astronaut exploration teams to the Moon. The Lunar Orbiter program, a series of five photographic spacecraft launched in 1966 and 1967, was motivated by the need to find and certify safe and interesting landing sites for the Apollo spacecraft. When the Lunar Orbiter program was started (1964), no spacecraft had landed on the Moon, but the Apollo program was committed to safely land the Lunar Module, with two astronauts on board. At the time, I was working in