LRO Photos and the LEM Descent Stage

[Greg_in_CO]

The photos NASA posted late last week that the LRO took of the Apollo landing sites are amazing.

What was the eventual fate of the ascent stages after the two astronauts boarded the Command Module?

 

[casebro]

Orbit until it crashed into the moon. But with almost no atmosphere to slow it down,it would hit at a slight angle to the ground, skidding a long ways. Maybe even bounce back up, like a skipping stone?

I assume it already has, but might be wrong. The uinitial orbital speed we enogu that the command module was in a stable orbit, stable for a few days anyhow?

 

[DogB]

Without looking it up I'm pretty sure they were deliberatly crashed as a calibration tool for the ALSEP seismometers.

Even if they weren't the mascons make long term orbit stability unlikely and you can bet that they wouldn't have lasted more than a few months.

 

[geni]

Apollo 11 ascent stage was left in orbit and probably crashed into the moon after a few months.

 

[Greg_in_CO]

Thanks for the responses. I figured that little blast to get the ascent stage off the lunar surface wasn't enough to keep it there for long!

 

[shadron]

According to wiki:

After rendezvous with Columbia, Eagle's ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit at July 21, 1969 at 23:41 UT (7:41 PM EDT). Just before the Apollo 12 flight, it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the moon. Later NASA reports mentioned that Eagle's orbit had decayed resulting in it impacting in an "uncertain location" on the lunar surface.[37] The location is uncertain because the Eagle ascent stage was not tracked after it was jettisoned and the lunar gravity field is sufficiently uncertain to make the orbit of the spacecraft virtually unpredictable after a short time. NASA estimated that the orbit had decayed within months and would have impacted on the Moon.

Then, again, from http://www.sln.org/pieces/schutte/LMintro2.html this:

Where are these Lunar Modules now? The Apollo Command Module Capsules are on display at various sites throughout the U.S. and the world. The Apollo Lunar Modules were deliberately targeted to impact (crash into) the Moon to provide artificial moonquake sources for seismic experiments.Impact Sites have been recorded and coordinates listed are from the Manned Space Flight Network. Apollo - Current Locations gives the locations of the any Apollo crafts on displays and the LM crash sites. (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apolloloc.html)

Perhaps they are both right. The former is in the article on Apollo11 only, and the latter says the LM location is unknown.

 

[geni]

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_on_the_Moon

For the various bits and pices that have ended up on the moon.

 

[Greg_in_CO]

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_on_the_Moon

For the various bits and pices that have ended up on the moon.

Thanks for the link. I've gotta get in touch with Andy Griffith so we can start building that space-garbage truck so we can fly up there and Salvage all the cool stuff