<p>A small portion of Eugene Shoemaker's ashes were placed on the Lunar Prospector mission. After completion of the mission's primary objectives:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Lunar Prospector was deliberately impacted onto the shadowed Shoemaker crater on the lunar surface at 09:52:02 UT July 31, 1999.<br />
<a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-prospector/in-depth/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA Mission Description</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>No coordinates are given in that source, however, the Google Earth rendering of the Moon has a placemark for the crash site.  No coordinates are listed.<br />
A <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1999/ast21jul99_1/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">source</a> from before the impact occurred lists the planned crash site as 87.70 S 42.0 E, which is very close to the placemark, and gives an estimated crash time within a minute of the actual event.</p>
<p>Thus, the likely resting place of that portion of Shoemaker's ashes may be gives as: 87.70S 42.0E, Shoemaker Crater.</p>
<p>Note: The idea of crashing into the crater was put forth by the University of Texas at Austin, and they had a small site about the crash.  I was able to find a snapshot from the period that has working links on the Internet Archive <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990819014446/http://www.ae.utexas.edu/%7Ecfpl/lunar/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.<br />
There was also an entire site devoted to the amateur astronomy aspect of the crash, also on the Internet Archive: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19991012230902/http://lunarimpact.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lunarimpact.com</a>.<br />
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19991023075849/http://www.ae.utexas.edu/%7Ecfpl/lunar/observations.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Information</a> from these sites indicates that the reason the crash time was different was due to a stronger-than-expected deorbit burn, and thus the actual crash site might be closer to 87.7S, 42.1E, which is exactly where the Google Earth marker is. The <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000511140352/http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/status/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">last mission report</a>, however, lists it as 87.7S 42E.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T19:10:24.397Z
Thanks for the speedy answer! Following your 2nd link I found [this](https://cfpl.ae.utexas.edu/the-1999-impact-of-lunar-prospector-into-the-lunar-south-pole) and [this](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL900384) (open access)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T19:20:05.497Z
Excellent!  I was actually working through the internet archive, trying to get to the right snapshot.  I'll add my links into the answer as well.
IronEagle
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T19:00:33.373Z
2020-09-02T19:38:55.523Z
2020-09-02T19:38:55.523Z
IronEagle
<p>Eugene Shoemaker was an esteemed and celebrated astronomer and planetary geologist. Is it possible to localize their final resting place with a latitude, longitude and feature name?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T17:52:54.087Z
I've linked to this question [here](https://space.stackexchange.com/a/46324/12102), hopefully it can be answered soon!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T18:33:02.670Z
Pretty certain they crashed the Lunar Prospector into the Shoemaker Crater. Is that accurate enough?
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-02T18:53:41.527Z
@RoryAlsop you're welcome to post that as an answer with the lat/lon of the crater's center, but there might be more detailed information available on Prospector's final trajectory.
uhoh
<observational-astronomy><history>
Latitude and longitude of Eugene Shoemaker's final resting place?
uhoh
# Latitude and longitude of Eugene Shoemaker's final resting place?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-02)

Eugene Shoemaker was an esteemed and celebrated astronomer and planetary geologist. Is it possible to localize their final resting place with a latitude, longitude and feature name?

**Tags:** observational-astronomy, history
> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I've linked to this question [here](https://space.stackexchange.com/a/46324/12102), hopefully it can be answered soon!  
> **username_1**: Pretty certain they crashed the Lunar Prospector into the Shoemaker Crater. Is that accurate enough?  
> **username_0**: @RoryAlsop you're welcome to post that as an answer with the lat/lon of the crater's center, but there might be more detailed information available on Prospector's final trajectory.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-09-02. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

A small portion of Eugene Shoemaker's ashes were placed on the Lunar Prospector mission. After completion of the mission's primary objectives:

> Lunar Prospector was deliberately impacted onto the shadowed Shoemaker crater on the lunar surface at 09:52:02 UT July 31, 1999.  
> [NASA Mission Description](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-prospector/in-depth/)

No coordinates are given in that source, however, the Google Earth rendering of the Moon has a placemark for the crash site. No coordinates are listed.  
A [source](https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1999/ast21jul99_1/) from before the impact occurred lists the planned crash site as 87.70 S 42.0 E, which is very close to the placemark, and gives an estimated crash time within a minute of the actual event.

Thus, the likely resting place of that portion of Shoemaker's ashes may be gives as: 87.70S 42.0E, Shoemaker Crater.

Note: The idea of crashing into the crater was put forth by the University of Texas at Austin, and they had a small site about the crash. I was able to find a snapshot from the period that has working links on the Internet Archive [here](https://web.archive.org/web/19990819014446/http://www.ae.utexas.edu/%7Ecfpl/lunar/).  
There was also an entire site devoted to the amateur astronomy aspect of the crash, also on the Internet Archive: [lunarimpact.com](https://web.archive.org/web/19991012230902/http://lunarimpact.com/).  
[Information](https://web.archive.org/web/19991023075849/http://www.ae.utexas.edu/%7Ecfpl/lunar/observations.html) from these sites indicates that the reason the crash time was different was due to a stronger-than-expected deorbit burn, and thus the actual crash site might be closer to 87.7S, 42.1E, which is exactly where the Google Earth marker is. The [last mission report](https://web.archive.org/web/20000511140352/http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/status/index.html), however, lists it as 87.7S 42E.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for the speedy answer! Following your 2nd link I found [this](https://cfpl.ae.utexas.edu/the-1999-impact-of-lunar-prospector-into-the-lunar-south-pole) and [this](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL900384) (open access)  
> **username_2**: Excellent!  I was actually working through the internet archive, trying to get to the right snapshot.  I'll add my links into the answer as well.  

---

