Anthropogenic (man-made) Features on the Moon

Coordinates of anthropogenic (man-made) objects on the Moon as measured by Wagner, et al. (2017) using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) NAC images combined with Earth-based laser-ranging measurements. These objects include soft-landed spacecraft, rovers, deployed scientific payloads, and spacecraft impact craters. More recent anthropogenic objects have also been included. Some objects are excluded if we have not yet located them in LROC NAC imagery. Coordinates for retroreflectors are from laser ranging; all other coordinates were calculated as described in Wagner et al. (2017), or recorded from NAC DTMs where that resulted in lower uncertainty. The method used to derive coordinates can be found in the COORD_SRC column. For more information, refer to: Wagner, R. V., Nelson, D. M., Plescia, J. B., Robinson, M. S., Speyerer, E. J., & Mazarico, E. (2017). Coordinates of anthropogenic features on the Moon. Icarus, 283, 92-103. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.05.011

When citing this product, use the following reference: Wagner, R. V., Nelson, D. M., Plescia, J. B., Robinson, M. S., Speyerer, E. J., & Mazarico, E. (2017). Coordinates of anthropogenic features on the Moon. Icarus, 283, 92-103. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.05.011

Point shapefiles are available in the IAU Moon 2000 Geographic Coordinate System in both the -180 to 180 and 0 to 360 longitude domains.

Longitude Domain Product Name
180 ANTHROPOGENIC_OBJECTS_180
360 ANTHROPOGENIC_OBJECTS_360

Shapefile Field Descriptions:

  • SHORT_NAME: An abbreviated name indicating the mission and object
  • MISSION: The mission associated with the feature
  • OBJECT: The type of man-made feature/object
  • LATITUDE: Latitude in degrees
  • LON_360: Longitude in degrees from 0° to 360°
  • LONGITUDE: Longitude in degrees from -180° to 180°
  • RADIUS: Radius of the feature in meters
  • RAD_SRC: Source of the radius information
  • COORD_SRC: Source of the latitude/longitude information
  • UNCERTAIN: Uncertainty of the coordinates in meters

Last updated: 2024-03-05

Anthropogenic Features on the Moon Shapefile