by rstevenson » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:06 pm
Guest wrote:I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.
That
is odd. I found many images of the rover online but a lot of them did not show any obvious wheel tracks. One of the images I found was of the rover during the Apollo 15 mission, which
does clearly show wheel tracks near some footprints. For some reason the footprints are more pressed into the surface and therefore more obvious than the wheel tracks. So maybe the wheel tracks in most pictures just aren't sufficiently different from the overall rough surface to stand out. As well, most of the images I found, like today's APOD, show the rover from a nearly front-on view, putting any wheel tracks below and behind the rover, and often in shadow.
Here's that shot from Apollo 15, and a detail of it below, showing the tracks.
Rob
[quote="Guest"]I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.[/quote]
That [i]is[/i] odd. I found many images of the rover online but a lot of them did not show any obvious wheel tracks. One of the images I found was of the rover during the Apollo 15 mission, which [i]does[/i] clearly show wheel tracks near some footprints. For some reason the footprints are more pressed into the surface and therefore more obvious than the wheel tracks. So maybe the wheel tracks in most pictures just aren't sufficiently different from the overall rough surface to stand out. As well, most of the images I found, like today's APOD, show the rover from a nearly front-on view, putting any wheel tracks below and behind the rover, and often in shadow.
Here's that shot from Apollo 15, and a detail of it below, showing the tracks.
Rob
[attachment=1]apollo-15-lunar-rover-sm.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]apollo-15-lunar-rover-detail.jpg[/attachment]