A few miles from my house in Maryland lies NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, home of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. The LRO is a satellite taking high-res photos of the surface of the moon, and it has discovered quite a few cool artifacts, both man-made and natural. I'm a huge fan of space exploration, so I thought it would be fun to compile some of the most interesting finds to share with you.

A Footpath

In July 2010 the LRO was able to photograph five of the six Apollo mission landing sites (the Apollo 12 site, the only one remaining, will be photographed soon). The Apollo 14 site actually shows the astronauts' footpath between the lander module and a scientific instrument station. Read more about how lighting conditions affected the LRO's photographs of the sites here.

A Rolling Stone

At some point in the moon's long history, a 10-meter diameter boulder rolled and bounced silently down a hill and into a crater, like a lunar Tiger Woods hole-in-one. The LRO photographed the path and the final resting place in this outstanding shot. This is one rolling stone that definitely gathers no moss.

The Lunokhod-1 Rover

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 17 delivered the Lunokhod-1 Rover to the moon in 1970. The rover traveled more than 10 km across the Mare Imbrium during almost a year of operation, and was operational concurrently with both the Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 NASA missions. Because the reflector on the craft is too weak to be seen from Earth (unlike most other moon junk), the Soviets were never sure precisely where the rover was at any given moment and subsequent earthbound attempts to locate it have failed. The LRO discovered it in March of 2010. Read more about the long search for Lunokhod-1 here.

The Lunokhod-2 Rover

In 1973 the Soviet Union launched the Lunokhod-2 lunar rover, which drove across the Mare Serenitatis for five months, leaving a 37-km track on the moon's surface. That's the longest path ever left by humans (or our technology) on any extraterrestrial body. The rover is currently owned by Richard Garriott, founder of computer game designer Origin Systems, Inc. and currently chairman Space Adventures, Ltd., a private space exploration company, who purchased it in a Sotheby's auction in 1998. He is the only individual who owns property on an extraterrestrial body. Garriot's father, Owen Garriott, flew two space missions with NASA in 1973 and 1983. Read more about the rover and how it was powered for so long here.

Holes

This fascinating image shows a hole in moon, one of at least ten located by the LRO. Scientists believe they are collapsed lava tubes, just like those found on Earth, from the moon's distant molten past. Scientists are currently examining the holes to try to determine whether the tubes beneath them are still open and might be accessible by a manned or unmanned mission. If the network is found to be extensive and accessible, it could open new prospects for sub-surface human habitation of Luna.

The LRO continues it's work, and I'm looking forward to more interesting photos of the surface of our sister the moon. I'll update as new ones are released.

Special thanks to The Register and @spacefuture for making this post possible.