Apollo Lunar Landing Sites
Not a single student of lunar history
would fail to answer the question "Where did the first
human set foot on the Moon?" The answer is, of course,
Tranquility Base in Mare Tranquillitatis.
But even scientists sometimes give conflicting
answers as to where exactly the lunar module Eagle
landed. Why? Because scientists often use different coordinate
systems when referring to locations on the Moon.
The table below, prepared by NASA, shows the
variables between the different coordinate systems ... all of
which work out to be the exact same location!
Landing Site Coordinates
Site coordinates are based on the IAU Mean Earth Polar Axis coordinate system,
as described in Davies and Colvin, J. Geophys. Res., v. 105, pp. 20,227 -
20,280, 2000.
In this table, "ALSEP" refers to the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package,
a tracking network set up on the Moon by the last five Apollo landing teams.
(For more information on the ALSEP project, please click here.) "LRRR" refers
to the Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment deployed on Apollos 11, 14, and
15, which were able to reflect laser beams from the lunar surface back to
observatories on Earth. (For more information on the LRRR project, please
click here.)
The full locations used are given below:
degrees N degrees E
latitude longitude
Apollo 11
LRRR 0.67337 23.47293
Lunar Module 0.67408 23.47297
Apollo 12
ALSEP -3.00942 -23.42458
Lunar Module -3.01239 -23.42157
Apollo 14
LRRR -3.64421 -17.47880
ALSEP -3.64398 -17.47748
Lunar Module -3.64530 -17.47136
Apollo 15
LRRR 26.13333 3.62837
ALSEP 26.13407 3.62981
Lunar Module 26.13222 3.63386
Apollo 16
ALSEP -8.97537 15.49812
Lunar Module -8.97301 15.50019
Apollo 17
ALSEP 20.19209 30.76492
Lunar Module 20.19080 30.77168
More About
Existing Apollo Spacecrafts...
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