Apollo (crater)

Apollo

Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image
Coordinates	36°06′S151°48′W / 36.1°S 151.8°W / -36.1; -151.8
Diameter	537 km [1]
Colongitude	161° at sunrise
Eponym	Project Apollo

Apollo, also called the Apollo basin, is an enormous impact crater located in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. This formation dwarfs the large crater Oppenheimer that is located next to the western rim. The crater Barringer lies across the northern wall. To the southeast is the crater Anders, and Kleymenov is just to the east of the rim.

Apollo is a double-ringed walled plain (or basin) whose inner ring is roughly half the diameter of the outer wall. Both the outer wall and the interior have been heavily worn and eroded by subsequent impacts, so that significant parts of the outer and inner walls now consist of irregular and incised sections of mountainous arcs.

The interior floor is covered in a multitude of craters of various sizes, some of which have been named for people associated with the Apollo program or other NASA projects.

Sections of Apollo's interior have been resurfaced with lava, leaving patches of the floor with a lower albedo than the surroundings. There is a large patch of this lunar mare in the middle part of the inner ring, which contains some ray system markings. A long stretch of the mare lies along the southern part of the crater. There is also a smaller section near the western rim.

Prior to formal naming in 1970 by the IAU, ^[2] the crater was known as Basin XVI. ^[3]

• 
  Topographic map
• 
  Gravity map based on GRAIL

Interior craters

Three craters are named after the crew of Apollo 8. In the southeast part of Apollo is Borman crater, named after commander Frank Borman. Near the southeastern margin of Apollo is Anders crater, named after William Anders. On the eastern margin is Lovell crater, named after Jim Lovell.

Many craters within and adjacent to the Apollo impact have been named to honor deceased NASA employees.

Dryden is attached to the west-northwestern exterior of the inner ring. Chaffee is a similar-sized crater that lies partly across the southwest section of the inner ring. Inside the inner ring are the craters Resnik, McAuliffe and Onizuka, and the Jarvis–McNair crater pair. The crater Smith lies across the northern part of the inner ring.

In 2006 the IAU approved a proposal to name seven interior craters to honor the astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. ^{[4] [5]}

The craters L. Clark (LC), Chawla (C), D. Brown (DB), M. Anderson (MA), McCool (M), Ramon (R), and Husband (H). Lunar Orbiter 5 image.

Crater	Coordinates	Diameter	Name source
Chawla	42°48′S147°30′W / 42.8°S 147.5°W / -42.8; -147.5	15 km	Kalpana Chawla
D. Brown	42°00′S147°12′W / 42.0°S 147.2°W / -42.0; -147.2	15 km	David McD. Brown
Husband	40°48′S147°54′W / 40.8°S 147.9°W / -40.8; -147.9	29 km	Richard D. Husband
L. Clark	43°42′S147°42′W / 43.7°S 147.7°W / -43.7; -147.7	16 km	Laurel B. S. Clark
McCool	41°42′S146°18′W / 41.7°S 146.3°W / -41.7; -146.3	21 km	William C. McCool
M. Anderson	41°36′S149°00′W / 41.6°S 149.0°W / -41.6; -149.0	17 km	Michael P. Anderson
Ramon	41°36′S148°06′W / 41.6°S 148.1°W / -41.6; -148.1	17 km	Ilan Ramon

Three of the crater names include the respective astronaut's first initials to distinguish them from the existing craters called Anderson, Brown and Clark.

Robotic exploration

China sent Chang'e 6 on 3 May 2024, which conducted the first lunar sample return from Apollo Basin on the far side of the Moon. ^[6] This is China's second lunar sample return mission, the first was achieved by Chang'e 5 from the lunar near side four years earlier. ^[7] It also carried a Chinese rover called Yidong Xiangji to conduct infrared spectroscopy of lunar surface and imaged Chang'e 6 lander on lunar surface. ^[8] The lander-ascender-rover combination was separated with the orbiter and returner before landing on 1 June 2024 at 22:23 UTC. It landed on the Moon's surface on 1 June 2024. ^{[9] [10]} The ascender was launched back to lunar orbit on 3 June 2024 at 23:38 UTC, carrying samples collected by the lander, and later will complete the another robotic rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit. The sample container will be then transferred to the returner, which will land in Inner Mongolia on June 25th, 2024, completing China's far side extraterrestrial sample return mission.

References

1. Don E. Wilhelms & Charles J. Byrne (23 January 2009). "Stratigraphy of Lunar Craters". Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
2. Apollo, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
3. Lunar Farside Chart (LFC-1A)
4. Blue, Jennifer (2006-07-27). "Names for the Columbia astronauts provisionally approved". USGS Astrogeology. Archived from the original on 30 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
5. Blue, Jennifer (2006-08-30). "Provisional Names Approved". USGS. Archived from the original on 2006-10-09. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
6. Andrew Jones [@AJ_FI] (April 25, 2023). "China's Chang'e-6 sample return mission (a first ever lunar far side sample-return) is scheduled to launch in May 2024, and expected to take 53 days from launch to return module touchdown. Targeting southern area of Apollo basin (~43º S, 154º W)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
7. Jones, Andrew (10 January 2024). "China's Chang'e-6 probe arrives at spaceport for first-ever lunar far side sample mission". SpaceNews . Retrieved 10 January 2024.
8. Jones, Andrew (6 May 2024). "China's Chang'e-6 is carrying a surprise rover to the moon". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
9. Jones, Andrew (1 June 2024). "Chang'e-6 lands on far side of the moon to collect unique lunar samples". SpaceNews . Retrieved 1 June 2024.
10. Seger Yu [@SegerYu] (June 1, 2024). "落月时刻 2024-06-02 06:23:15.861" (Tweet) (in Chinese) – via Twitter.

• Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
• Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". USGS . Retrieved 2007-08-05.
• Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-81528-4.
• Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN   978-0-936389-27-1.
• McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). "Lunar Nomenclature". Jonathan's Space Report . Retrieved 2007-10-24.
• Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M. doi:10.1007/BF00171763. S2CID   122125855.
• Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN   978-0-304-35469-6.
• Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-33500-3.
• Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-62248-6.

External links

• Media related to Apollo (crater) at Wikimedia Commons