geekosystem

Ignoring the conspiracy theories about whether we landed on the Moon at all, the team behind the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, received the most questions prior to launch about the Apollo landing sites. What would we be able to see? Would we be able to see the American flags? As it turns out, yes. Detailed analysis of the images returned from the LROC has confirmed that the flags planted by most of Apollo missions are still standing where they were erected.

It's been a long time since any one has been to the moon, but we're still learning valuable information about it for use if and when someone does go back. For instance, Mark Robinson and Brett Denevi (from Arizona State University and John Hopkins University, respectively) have found, by cleverly shading some pictures from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, that the moon has a whole bunch of titanium deposits.

The Orbiter's camera images the surface at seven different wavelengths, and if you know what material absorbs what kind of light in what ways, you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of materials are on the lunar surface. It turns out there's a lot more titanium than anyone previously thought.