Hadley–Apennine
Apollo 15 · July 1971 · on the Moon, 26.13° N, 3.63° E
The first mission with the lunar rover, in a valley between the Apennine mountains and the winding Hadley Rille. Mount Hadley rises about 4.5 km above the plain. The Earth stands high in the south.
What is there
Apollo 15 descent stage (Lunar Module, NASA)
The bottom half of the Apollo 15 Lunar Module, still standing where it landed: it served as the launch pad for the top half, which carried the crew back up to the Command Module in orbit.
Apollo 15 flag (Flag, NASA)
Still standing: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos show its shadow moving as the Sun moves. A horizontal rod along the top holds it out, since there is no wind. Its colours have most likely bleached white in the sunlight.
Apollo 15 Lunar Roving Vehicle (Lunar Roving Vehicle, NASA)
Parked about 90 m east of the Lunar Module, facing it, so its TV camera could be steered from Earth to film the lift-off. It is still there, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed it.
Apollo 15 ALSEP central station (Experiment, NASA)
The hub of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package: it gathered every experiment's data and radioed it to Earth, under its sunshield, through the antenna on its mast. The stations sent data for up to eight years, until NASA switched them all off in September 1977.
Apollo 15 nuclear power generator (Experiment, NASA)
A SNAP-27 radioisotope generator: plutonium-238 heats it and its fins (around 400 °C) turn the heat into about 70 watts of electricity, day and night, for the experiments. Its fuel has been decaying since; it still gives off a little heat.
Apollo 15 passive seismometer (Experiment, NASA)
It listened for moonquakes, meteorite impacts and the crashes of spent rocket stages, under a silver blanket spread out to keep its temperature steady. Together the Apollo seismometers found the Moon rings like a bell for an hour after a hit, and revealed its crust, mantle and small core.
Apollo 15 surface magnetometer (Experiment, NASA)
Three sensors on arms a metre long, measuring the magnetic field in every direction. The Moon has no global field now, but its rocks are magnetised in patches: it once had one, made by a molten core.
Apollo 15 heat flow experiment (Experiment, NASA)
Probes lowered into two holes drilled about 2 m down measured how much heat flows up out of the Moon — a clue to how much radioactive material is inside, and so to how it formed.
Apollo 15 solar wind spectrometer (Experiment, NASA)
It measured the solar wind — the stream of charged particles from the Sun — arriving at the Moon's surface, which has no magnetic field or air to keep it off.
Apollo 15 ion detector (Experiment, NASA)
The suprathermal ion detector counted charged particles around the Moon: from the solar wind, from the Earth's magnetic tail when the Moon passes through it, and from gas the astronauts' equipment released.
Apollo 15 laser retroreflector (Experiment, NASA)
Apollo 15's large reflector, 300 corner-cube prisms: the easiest target for the observatories that still bounce lasers off the Moon to measure its distance to a few millimetres, its wobble and how fast it is drifting away.
Stand at Hadley–Apennine in Stellingo: the ground is shaped from orbiter elevation maps and photos, the hardware is placed where it really is, and the sky above — the Sun, the Earth, the stars — is the real one, at any date you choose.