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Historian Andy Saunders sifted through 35,000 NASA images and spent the past few years remastering photos from the Apollo 15 mission as a personal project, culminating in a book called “Apollo Remastered” due out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the lunar mission.
Commander Jim Irwin, seen above, was one of three astronauts who participated in what has been called the most scientifically intensive moon landing since mankind arrived.
Remastered photo of the Lunar Roving Vehicle dashboard
Apollo 15 was the first mission to deploy the Lunar Roving Vehicle. The LRV was a lightweight electric vehicle designed to operate in the low gravity vacuum of the Moon.
Remastered panorama of the lunar module
The lunar module, where the three astronauts lived from July 30 to August 7, 1971. Apollo 15 holds the record for the longest lunar mission at 295 hours.
Remastered panorama of the Lunar Roving Vehicle
A panoramic view of the first use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) on the moon and of Mount Hadley from 14,000 feet. The panoramas were created by stitching together Hasselblad 70mm photographs of the mission.
Remastered panorama of the first use of the LRV with annotated locations
Saunders told CBS News that “Apollo 15’s panoramic shots involve first ‘remastering’ each shot in the movie, then lining them up and stitching them together in digital processing software.”
Commander Dave Scott on the LRV
Commander David Scott drives the LRV, the first car on the moon.
NASA Acting Chief Historian Dr Brian Odom told CBS News that “Apollo 15 was a mission critical for the lunar program as it moved from a transport paradigm to pure science.” .
Remastered photo from the scientific collection
The Apollo 15 mission focused primarily on scientific gathering, with multiple spacewalks to collect lunar material. This included the famous Genesis Rock, which is 4 billion years old.
Remastered panorama of the lunar surface including LRV
A retrospective view of the lunar module, taken during a spacewalk to collect lunar material.
Odom: “See historians like Andy [Saunders] digging into this mission and producing cutting edge results is amazing and a testament to the overall importance of the program. Not only did Andy do a remarkable job in bringing to light more details about this mission, but his incredible work has also generated a lot of excitement in the public as NASA returns to the moon with the Artemis program. “
Remastered and annotated panorama of the lunar surface including LRV
Saunders: “The original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions is one of the most important and valuable films in existence. It is stored safely in a freezer to maintain its condition … the film rarely comes out of the box. The vast majority of Apollo images seen by the public over the past half century have been copies of duplicates, or copies of copies, leading to the gradual degradation of the quality of the images we see. “
Notations include the location of the lunar module and the Hadley Rille.
Before and after of the first traces of LRV on the Moon
Saunders says the original photos are “usually significantly underexposed, and any significant increase in gain / levels introduces a multitude of artifacts and glares from the scanning process. It’s a tedious and tedious process … but the reward is seeing these incredible moments in history portrayed with unprecedented clarity. ”
Remastered photo of a plaque on the LRV
Remastered photo showing the commemorative plaque on the LRV celebrating “man’s first wheels on the moon”.
Under the lunar module
A remastered photo of the lunar module anchoring system.
Remastered photo of the lunar surface
In a photo taken with the panoramic camera on the command and service module, the lunar surface emerges from the darkness.
Remastered photo of the Earth from the Moon
A shard of the Earth’s crescent rises above the lunar horizon.
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