Join Carter Emmart for a walk through the historic Apollo landing sites as visualized from current data sent back from a now international fleet of spacecraft imaging the Moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—the mission of which includes identifying sites close to potential resources with high scientific value, favorable terrain and the environment necessary for safe future robotic and human lunar missions–has imaged what was left on the Moon fifty years ago by Apollo 11, as well as during the Soviet era and more recent Chinese robotic rover missions. As we look forward, it is clear that Moon will be an international work place, following on the success of the International Space Station. What we learn there will prepare us for deeper adventures to Mars and beyond.
Carter Emmart is Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and has directed all five of the Hayden Planetarium’s amazing space shows. He leads a NASA-funded effort at the AMNH called OpenSpace (http://OpenSpaceProject.com) which visualizes data interactively to explore the vast amounts of imagery sent back from planetary missions, earth satellites and astronomical observatories. OpenSpace drives presentations at the Hayden Planetarium but can also be downloaded for free to run on home computers. Emmart previously worked at NASA Ames Research Center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
