Japan marvels at its Moon movies

[Mike]

Take a look at this movie made by the Japanese Kaguya probe going around the moon - http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071107_kaguya.swf

[mickw]

And here's Kuguya's version of the Apollo "Earth Rise"

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=071113-earth-rise-02.jpg&cap=Earth-rise%3A+In+the+image%2C+made+from+a+moving+image+taken+onboard+the+Kaguya+spacecraft%2C+a+region+of+the+moon%27s+surface+near+its+north+pole+is+shown.+The+Arabian+Peninsula+and+Indian+Ocean+can+be+observed+on+the+Earth.+Credit%3A+JAXA%2FNHK

Mick

[Mike]

WOW!!   

[Rick]

From the department of very cool videos come two real corkers. Japan's space agency (JAXA) has released two high definition videos of Earthrise and Earthset, as witnessed by its lunar explorer SELENE, which is now orbiting our largest natural satellite.

Links here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/15/moon_earthrise_set/

[Rick]

Stunning high-definition movies of the Moon's surface have been sent back by a Japanese space probe.

Selene, or Kaguya, arrived at the Moon late last year and carries a large HDTV camera to shoot footage as it flies 100km above the lunar surface.

The video gives an idea of the vistas seen decades ago by the Apollo astronauts as they approached the Moon.

The very latest footage was unveiled at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7291525.stm

[Rick]

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will be keeping its eyes peeled tomorrow for some brief fireworks when its Kaguya lunar orbiter slams into the Moon's surface at 6,000 km/h.

Since launching in September 2007, Kaguya (formerly called Selene), has probed the Moon's gravitational field, surface and composition, in the process sending back some nice HD video of Earth rise and Earth set via two smaller data relay satellites it deployed on reaching orbit around our satellite.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/09/kaguya_lunar_impact/

[mickw]

The Japanese space agency, JAXA, today released a series of images that document the final moments of the Kaguya lunar probe just before it slammed into the moon last week.

The images, released a day after NASA launched its own moon-slamming mission, reveal a now-familiar pockmarked landscape, desolate and with stark shadows, all up-close as the spacecraft sinks lower and lower toward its final resting place.

There is an increasingly somber feel of the photographs as Kaguya slides into darkness and demise, aiming at a landing site on an unlit part of the moon.

The intent was to end the mission with a controlled crash that could be observed from Earth, which was accomplished.

On LiveScience, the series of final photographs have been put into a "Farewell, Kaguya" Album.

More:   http://www.space.com/news/090619-kaguya-moon-crash-images.html

A movie would have been nice 

[doug]

     Click on the link that says "video" at the bottom of the text, Mick, and lo, and behold..... moving pix!!!!  Doug.

[mickw]

Doh