I FOR ONE FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE LANDER COULD BE THE CAUSE...
Well, all 4 legs are wrapped in mylar. Actually, it's a mix of aluminized pyloymide mylar and h-film. It's interwoven with inconel on some other alloy backing. It's a mega-insulator and reflective, so it blocks heat from the sun. NASA was not sure how the surface of the moon was going to react to giant metal landers. Think of the design philosophy for the bases in the South Pole and Arctic regions. Minimal thermal footprint.
So why blame the landers and not the lunar probes both we and the Soviets had sent for years, or the lunar buggy? We left one of them parked up there. Or two.. Using thermal expansions to find a car, however, makes sense if you can't hear the beep when you press the clicker due to there not being any air. So scientists were just having a 'dude, where's my car' moment?
All this being said, my theory is that this is the culprit. ASLEP.
https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/...
Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 carried aslep packages that contained plutonium-238 and thermocouples to generate 70 watts of power.
large fins on them, of course. I am sure the radiators work both ways, heating up quite a bit when they are in direct sunlight.
Anyhow, this is all obvious, so why would they release an article saying it's the landers, which are thermally isolated from the surface? So well insulated that they could never be the cause?