Frost (crater)

Summary

Frost is a lunar impact crater that is attached to the southern rim of the walled plain Landau, and lies on the far side of the Moon. Just to the east is Petropavlovskiy, and to the northeast along the edge of Landau is Razumov. The crater Douglass is located less than a crater diameter to the west-southwest.

Frost
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image, facing west
Coordinates37°42′N 118°24′W / 37.7°N 118.4°W / 37.7; -118.4
Diameter75 km
DepthUnknown
Colongitude120° at sunrise
EponymEdwin B. Frost
LRO image

The outer rim of Frost is eroded, but is overlaid by only one small craterlet along the northeast side. The inner wall is wider and heavier along the northern side where it has been reinforced by the former rim of Landau. The northern part of the interior floor is occupied by two smaller craters, with the larger of the two along the northwest inner wall. The southern part of the floor is relatively level and featureless.

Human activity edit

Frost was originally selected as the site of Station 5 for the Apollo 15 lunar surface operations, however astronaut David Scott elected to alter the mission plans and skip over the crater, believing that it was unlikely to be geologically distinct from the areas the Apollo 15 astronauts had already visited.[1]

Satellite craters edit

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Frost.

Frost Latitude Longitude Diameter
N 35.0° N 119.2° W 43 km

References edit

  1. ^ Harland, David M. (April 16, 2008). "The wonders of the unknown at Hadley-Apennine". Exploring the Moon. Springer New York. p. 134. ISBN 9780387746418.

Further reading edit

  • Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
  • Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". USGS. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  • Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
  • Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 978-0-936389-27-1.
  • McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). "Lunar Nomenclature". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  • Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M. doi:10.1007/BF00171763. S2CID 122125855.
  • Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
  • Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3.
  • Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4.
  • Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes (6th revised ed.). Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-20917-3.
  • Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6.
  • Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1.