Celestia Forums

This thread will host the 3D terrain depicting the landing sites of the six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. I wanted to do this for a long time ever since I started work on the 2021-2022 versions of the Apollo addon. Models are derived from the NASA 3D Resources site, the finished addons will be posted here in a few short days. A huge thank you to John van Vliet for helping me making this project possible!

For use with Project Apollo (Part 4) and Surveyor 1 to 7. The following addons below contain SSC patches for Project Apollo that removes and replaces the said addon's fictional generic terrain (except Apollo 11, 12 and 14 to patch a render bug), along with some adjustments in order to become compatible with the latter two addons above

Tranquility Base
Apollo 11
Tranquility Base is a name of the landing site given by Neil Armstrong himself shortly after Apollo 11 made the first crewed lunar landing on July 20, 1969. It is located on the southwestern corner of its namesake region, Mare Tranquillitatis


Coordinates: 0.67409°N 23.47298°E
Release date: 2022-Dec-14
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo11-Landing

Statio Cognitum
Apollo 12 / Surveyor 3
Statio Cognitum is a name given to the landing site of two US space missions located on the northern shore of Mare Cognitum, in itself within Oceanus Procellarum. It was visited first by the robotic Surveyor 3 lander in April 17, 1967 then followed by the crew of Apollo 12 in November 19, 1969


Coordinates: 3.01239°S 23.42157°W
Release date: 2022-Dec-13
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo12-Landing

Fra Mauro Highlands
Apollo 13 / Apollo 14
The Fra Mauro Highlands is a widespread hilly geological area thought to have formed from ejecta created by the impact that formed Mare Imbrium about 4.25 billion years ago. The aborted Apollo 13 mission was originally planned to visit this site in April 1970, but it failed to do so after an in-flight accident. It was then decided that Apollo 14 would be retargeted to this site instead, successfully exploring the region on February 5, 1971


Coordinates: -3.6225400°S -17.4949870°W
Release date: 2022-Dec-15
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo14-Landing

Hadley-Apennine
Apollo 15
Hadley-Apennine is a region located on the eastern edge of Mare Imbrium on a lava plain known as Palus Putredinis and bordered by the Montes Apenninus range to the east, and Hadley Rille to the west. It was visited by the crew of Apollo 15 in July 30, 1971


Coordinates: 26.13222°N 3.63386°E
Release date: 2022-Dec-12
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo15-Landing

Descartes Highlands
Apollo 16
Descartes Highlands is a mountainous area located near the impact crater of the same name. The site is dominated by the Cayley Plains in the west and the Descartes formation in the east. It was visited by the crew of Apollo 16 in April 21, 1972


Coordinates: 8.97301°S 15.50019°E
Release date: 2022-Dec-14
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo16-Landing

Taurus-Littrow
Apollo 17
Taurus–Littrow is a valley located on the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis along a ring of mountains formed between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years ago when a large object impacted the Moon, forming the Serenitatis basin and pushing rock outward and upward. It was visited by the crew of Apollo 17 in December 11, 1972


Coordinates: 20.1887322°N 30.7717569°E
Release date: 2022-Dec-12
Source: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/Apollo17-Landing

IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure to install Project Apollo (Part 4) first before downloading any of the six landing sites above to prevent any compatibility issues popping up on your Celestia