Starship Asterisk*

Orion and the Ocean of Storms

Explanation: A camera on board the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured this view on December 5 as Orion approached its return powered flyby of the Moon. Below one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. Prominent on the lunar nearside Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, is the largest of the Moon's lava-flooded maria. The lunar terminator, shadow line between lunar night and day, runs along the left of the frame. The 41 kilometer diameter crater Marius is top center, with ray crater Kepler peeking in at the edge, just right of the solar array wing. Kepler's bright rays extend to the north and west, reaching the dark-floored Marius. Of course the Orion spacecraft is now headed toward a December 11 splashdown in planet Earth's water-flooded Pacific Ocean.

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I can only imagine what the imagery of things to come might be like. Picture settling down on the lunar surface with a ultra high def 360 AR video, full of detailed features, long south pole shadows, sound, or riding along with the next rover, will be quite an upgrade from this https://youtu.be/8AsfGSoUpFo

The description on my iPhone app says “ The lunar terminator, shadow line between lunar night and day, runs along the left of the frame.” However, that is not what I see. That shadow line runs along the top. So I clicked to this external website, and see that the image has been rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise!

I noticed some other placement issues in the description, All of which are remedied if you rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise.

I would be happy to send you a screenshot of the photo orientation that displays on my iPhone.

Josh@swithin.com

Noticed the same.

The orientation of the smaller image on https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221208.html, whose URL is https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2212/a ... od1024.jpg, matches the description.

The orientation of the full-size image, whose URL is https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2212/art001e002132.jpg, and which is reached by clicking the smaller image, does not match the description (rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise w.r.t. the "correct" image).

Interesting view of Luna's 'Ocean'! Nice to have
ability to view scenes from space because of
technology!

As someone who followed the entire Man's entry into Space first-hand beginning as a 1950's paper boy, I wish to salute the new/novel angles presented in the 12/08/22 APOD.

It is not clear to my WHY we are sending people to the Moon again.

heehaw wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:55 pm It is not clear to my WHY we are sending people to the Moon again.

It's meant to be the first step to sending people to Mars. Humanity can get its extraterrestrial feet wet, and gain first hand knowledge and expertise, in a nearby, much more easily accessible place before venturing on to Mars.

Or did you want to know why we are sending people into space at all? For that, all I can offer is because it's in the human DNA to be explorers. And to quote Carl Sagan, perhaps to merely not go extinct:

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/348351 wrote:Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:02 pm

heehaw wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:55 pm It is not clear to my WHY we are sending people to the Moon again.

It's meant to be the first step to sending people to Mars. Humanity can get its extraterrestrial feet wet, and gain first hand knowledge and expertise, in a nearby, much more easily accessible place before venturing on to Mars.

Or did you want to know why we are sending people into space at all? For that, all I can offer is because it's in the human DNA to be explorers. And to quote Carl Sagan, perhaps to merely not go extinct:

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/348351 wrote:Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

IMO, there is little reason to send people to the Moon, even less to Mars, and for the most part, not even into space. It sucks massive amounts of resources away from scientific exploration that offers much more. If some billionaires want to play that game, that's their business. I sure wish NASA wouldn't get involved in it, though.

If the ancient "seas" and "oceans" of the moon were flooded with lava in the past, do we know if there is still molten lava/magma deep under the moon's cold crust?