Detailed mapping

LOLA was designed to assist in the selection of landing sites on the moon for future robotic and human exploration. Previous knowledge of location, direction, and magnitude of surface slopes, and variations in elevation in the region was inadequate, according to NASA.

This is one of LOLA's detailed high-resolution topographic maps of the moon's southern hemisphere.

Though the previous maps of the moon were accurate to around .5 miles to 5 miles, the newest measurements are giving NASA a look at the moon with much more detail.

The newest maps are accurate to the level of 30 meters (.19 miles) or less spatially and 1 meter vertically.