On Dec 14, 1972, Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan left one final footprint on the surface of the moon as he climbed into the Lunar Module Challenger.  He and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt then blasted off, joined up with Ronald Evans in the Command Module America, and started their return journey to Earth - the last three people to visit the moon.

In the 36 years that have followed, we've looked at the moon, studied it, even sent probes there - but never actually made plans to send people back.

Until now.




This week, NASA is scheduled to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - the first mission in NASA's Vision for Space Exploration program to return astronauts to the moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond.   The LRO is like an advance scout, on a mission to map out the terrain on the moon (to select potential landing sites), identify resources on or near the surface (like water or minerals that could be used by future astronauts, instead of needing to bring everything from the Earth), and better understand the radiation environment (so we can keep those astronauts safe).

Among the different scientific instruments on board the LRO are three cameras that will map out the surface of the moon with an unprecedented level of clarity and detail.  Two "Narrow Angle Cameras" will capture high-resolution images of the surface at resolutions up to 0.5 meter per pixel - that's the same level of resolution you see in pictures today from programs like Google Earth.  And a "Wide Angle Camera" will capture images at 100 meter resolution to provide a "big picture" view of the moon, while using seven different color bands to look for spectral signatures of minerals that may be present on the moon's surface.  

And all three of these cameras rely on CCD image sensors from Kodak - KODAK KLI-5001 Image Sensors in the two Narrow Angle Cameras, and the KODAK KAI-1001 Image Sensor in the Wide Angle Camera.

When your camera needs to travel over 200,000 miles before it can take its first picture, you want to make sure it's going to work right when it gets there - and maintain the high quality that made you choose it in the first place.  And that's why we are really excited and proud that Kodak was selected to play a key part in this return mission to the moon.

So get ready - the pictures coming back from the LRO should be pretty spectacular, especially if (as planned) it does a fly-over of some of the Apollo landing sites.  (Personally, I'm hoping for a shot of the Apollo 11 landing site - just in time for the 40th anniversary of that historic mission this July.)  And remember that every one of those pictures - showing every rock, crater, boulder, and buggy - will be captured using Kodak technology.





There are a lot of different ways you can follow along with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on its mission, including web sites from NASA, the Goddard Space Flight Center web site, and Arizona State University (where the project team for the cameras is based).  You can even follow the LRO on Facebook and Twitter.  And we'll try to blog about the mission here from time to time as well.



Last summer, NASA ran a web site where you could submit your name to be included on a microchip that will fly on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (I blogged about this last year).  1.6 million people (including me) submitted their names to be a part of this mission.  And pretty soon, we'll all be up there (or at least our names will be), looking down at the moon from a height of only 30 miles from the surface.  

I can't wait to see the view.

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