PIA12978: Surveyor 6 on the Plains of Sinus Medii
 Target Name:  Moon
 Is a satellite of:  Earth
 Mission:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
 Spacecraft:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
 Instrument:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (NAC)
 Product Size:  750 x 750 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Arizona State University
 Other  
Information: 
More details and images at LROC
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12978.tif (563.3 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12978.jpg (133.5 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

Surveyor 6 casting 18-meter long shadow with Sun just 8° above the horizon. Surveyor 6 Landed 10 November 1967 in Sinus Medii (0.5°N latitude, 358.6°E longitude), almost dead center on the front side of the Moon. One of its key experiments was measuring the surface chemistry with an alpha scattering detector, which showed the landing area to be basalt. LROC NAC image M117501284L.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center built and manages the mission for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera was designed to acquire data for landing site certification and to conduct polar illumination studies and global mapping. Operated by Arizona State University, LROC consists of a pair of narrow-angle cameras (NAC) and a single wide-angle camera (WAC). The mission is expected to return over 70 terabytes of image data.

Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Image Addition Date:
2010-03-21