Apollo Landing Sites Maps

These maps make me want to get out my paints. They look like they are painted on corrugated cardboard, don’t they? Wouldn’t it be fun to try that?

The following beauties are part of a series you likely did not know existed, and that is the Atlas of the Moon.

It is hard to imagine that our government and the military produced these gorgeous pieces of art, but they did. The U.S. Geological Survey published these geologic maps of potential early Apollo landing sites on the Moon in 1969 and 1970 .

The maps were constructed primarily by studying photographs that were provided by NASA.  Base materials for the maps are photomosaics prepared by the Army Map Service and the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center of the U.S. Air Force.

Apollo Moon Landing Site I—by Don E. Wilhelms, 1970

Apollo Landing Site 2—by Maurice J. Grolier, 1970

Apollo Landing Site 3— by N. J. Trask, 1970

Apollo Landing Site 4—by Mareta West and P. Jan Cannon, 1971

Apollo Landing Site 5—by S. R. Titley and N. J. Trask, 1969

They seem a little bit Miró to me. This is called “The Poetess”.

This land also seems like a place Totoro might want to live when he is done hanging with Satsuke and Mei. If you don’t know Totoro, you should.

See the full series of Apollo Landing Site Maps at the the Lunar and Planetary Institute.