A Closer and More Detailed Look at the Moon

Imagine being able to view up close and in high detail photos of the Moon that were taking during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions. Now you can. Many of these photos from the 1970 are being scanned by Arizona State University, Geological Sciences Program. The resolution is at 14 bits (16,000 shades of grey per pixel).


(Image: AS15-96-13093research: David Woods)

Many of these photos have been kept safe in a freezer by NASA to preserve their quality over the last 30+ years. There are hundreds of photos of all the missions to be found at the Project Apollo Image Gallery.

The BBC News reports that:

"Prof. Mark Robinson (the principal investigator) said that the scanned images
were of such fidelity and precision that stereo measurements could be made where
the images overlapped - and therefor a follow-on project will be to make
topographic images of the Moon."