Some people have questioned whether NASA really went to the moon or if the whole thing was faked. The probe is expected to spend at least one year mapping the moon for future manned missions, as well as several more years conducting science surveys. And the pictures won't just serve as a record of our past presence on the moon, as scientists will be able to use the information in them to make topographic maps of the lunar surface at those sites.Ībout the size of a Mini Cooper car, the $504 million LRO probe, an orbiting satellite, launched toward the moon on June 18. The images of these sites are expected to show scientists how the sites have changed since the astronauts trod across them, whether there are any new craters and how the leftover human artifacts have fared in the lunar environment. 'This is only a first glimpse,' said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., 'From now on, they're only going to get better.' 'Sitting on the surface waiting for us to come back.'Īs LRO gradually descends to a lower orbit, the images will improve and provide closer looks at the lunar landing sites. 'Of course it was fantastic to see the hardware lying on the surface, and it was exactly as we expected it to be,' Robinson said.

A few more details can be seen in the image of the Apollo 14 landing site, taken only two days ago, including scientific instruments and astronaut footprints. (The remaining site, for Apollo 12, is expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.) The lunar modules for all of these sites imaged are visible as small dots their shadows can also be seen. The Apollo 11 landing site wasn't the only one that the LRO camera (dubbed LROC) photographed: It also snapped pictures of the landing sites of the other five Apollo landings.

The Indian and Japanese missions have also snapped images of the Apollo 11 site, but they don't have the high resolution of LRO's images, Robinson said.

First man on the moon images