Japan Moon Probe Snaps First Photos

mrcgran writes "Space.com reports, "Almost one month after Japan's successful launch of the Kaguya lunar probe, the unmanned observatory has begun its first major activities in orbit around the moon. In addition to snapping its first lunar images, the probe jettisoned one of two 110-pound (50-kilogram) "baby" satellites that will help create a detailed gravity map of the moon." The major objectives of the "KAGUYA" mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration. "KAGUYA" consists of a main orbiting satellite at about 100km altitude and two small satellites (Relay Satellite and VRAD Satellite) in polar orbit."

Not me.

[plover (150551)]

I, for one, am sick to death of welcoming 50 kilogram robotic overlord after 50 kilogram robotic overlord, only to have them fly off to the moon after a month or so, leaving us high, dry, and overlordless back here on Earth!

Then quit whining....

[by Anonymous Coward]

...SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!

Re:

[cookieinc (975574)]

From all the Japanese videos I've seen on the net, I can be 100% sure that they have sent this probe solely to hunt for more tentacled space aliens. I guess the aliens just do it for the money

The "Moon":

[Jeremiah Cornelius (137)]

A Ridiculous Liberal Myth!

Prettier webpage

[Sentri (910293)]

More user friendly version here: http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/index_e.htm [selene.jaxa.jp]

Re:Prettier webpage

[Karthikkito (970850)]

There's a high res camera -- this one is just meant to observe the antenna that's right in the middle of every shot (make sure it's oriented fine, etc, in the event of communications troubles). Just happens that the moon is in the FOV.

Re:

[fbjon (692006)]

More than that, there's an HDTV camera, apparently shooting at 1920 x 1080 pixels. Lunar observation is scheduled at 19th of October. [www.jaxa.jp]

Re:

[digitalchinky (650880)]

I guess they could only afford to send up one of their fancy 3G dual camera phones - Probably forgot to tape it on the right way around and ended up with the vga cam all arse about instead of the 5mega-pixel jibber at the back.

Re:

[fbjon (692006)]

What do you mean B&W? It's a satellite for science, not for human comfort. Besides, it's not B&W anyway.

Re:

[DreamingReal (216288)]

Besides, it's not B&W anyway.

Then it's obviously a fraud perpetrated by the Japanese. As a user of Google Moon, I am well aware of the fact that the Moon is yellow at high resolutions.

Re:

[Guysmiley777 (880063)]

The cameras on the Mars Rovers are "B&W" as well. They just image in three different wavelengths and combine them to get the color images.

Hey! Down in front!

[BadAnalogyGuy (945258)]

Nothing like a freaking high gain antenna smack-dab in the middle of every freaking shot.

That's no High Gain Antenna

[RuBLed (995686)]

That's supposed to be the tripod, I believe someone got fired...

Re:Hey! Down in front!

[Tablizer (95088)]

Nothing like a freaking high gain antenna smack-dab in the middle of every freaking shot.

The capricious manager who proposed moving the antenna at the last minute before launch must feel pretty stupid right now.
       

Re:

[phantomcircuit (938963)]

The camera is to observe the high gain antenna, not to take pictures of the moon.

Re:

[Cassius Corodes (1084513)]

At first I thought he was joking but then I read the article. How curious.

Re:Hey! Down in front!

[achurch (201270)]

Don't worry; Kaguya has a better camera [www.jaxa.jp], too.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

As it says the camera is for monitoring the high-gain antenna, I think it might not be such a stupid idea to actually have it in the photos.

So the big question is....

[ChangeOnInstall (589099)]

....did they find our fake moon landing set yet?

Re:

[Tablizer (95088)]

did they find our fake moon landing set yet?

Their probe is using the same studio, so of course they'll find it all right there as expected.
     

Proof of the moon landing maybe?

[The Tonester (1162829)]

Perhaps the Japanese can provide some unbiased evidence of the (alleged?) moon landing site. Put those pesky theories to rest...

Re:Proof of the moon landing maybe?

[RuBLed (995686)]

Conspiracy theories are designed to persist even against overwhelming evidence against it.

Re:

[davmoo (63521)]

Nah, won't change a thing. The "it was faked" whack-jobs will just swear up and down that the American government bought off the Japanese to doctor the photos, the American government doctored the photos themselves, or that the Japanese lunar mission itself is fake.

Re:

[timmarhy (659436)]

watch the penn and teller bullshit ep. on conspiracy theories. fucking funny.

Re:

[evanbd (210358)]

XKCD [xkcd.com] put it quite eloquently. These are not theories that any amount of rational evidence or logic will refute.

Re:Proof of the moon landing maybe?

[niklash (1134135)]

There already is.

Why don't people think of the soviets?
The one country on earth that desperatly wanted usa to fail.
The one country that had the technology to check if there really was a spaceship flying to the moon.

If there was anything even remotely fishy about the moon landing they would complain to no end.

And still they said nothing. They diden't even *try* to discredit the moon landing.

Re:

[Xiaran (836924)]

They diden't even *try* to discredit the moon landing.

And *thats* what makes the whole thing so suspicious! :)

Is it me or...

[BTWR (540147)]

Is there also an air of nerdy excitement about this new-sorta "Space Race II" (new character... Asia!) in the rest of you guys too?

Re:

[mstahl (701501)]

On the moon, nerds are spanked with moon-rocks!

Re:

[DerekLyons (302214)]

Nah. I don't generally get excited about internet memes.

Kaguya Hime

[Bonker (243350)]

Princess Kaguya is the traditional main character in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter [wikipedia.org]. She's something of a Japanese 'Tom Thumb'.

Kaguya is a golden-haired princess sent to the Earth from her Moon kingdom to learn about the joys and sadness of life. In various versions of the tale, she's required to return to the moon once she reaches adulthood.

Anime fans will note that the 'Moon Princess' motif is used repeatedly in modern stories, such as 'Sailor Moon', 'Mammotte Syugogetten' and more recently, 'Oh, Edo Rocket!'.

HD

[FrostedWheat (172733)]

These pictures are fairly low quality, probably from an engineering camera rather than a scientific one.
One thing I noticed on the website is that they also carry an HDTV camera [www.jaxa.jp]! Can't wait to see some nice HD video from lunar orbit.

Anyone for Engrish?

[Crypto Gnome (651401)]

All I want to say is hopefully their science is better than their english and/or translators.

At the CCD device, pixel defects (white blemishes) generate by space lay, so, it is expected the cyclic observation makes clear the effect of the space lay around the moon orbit. It is difficult to protect the CCD from the space lay. So we have been developed the grand system be able to compensate the white blemishes of max 20 thousands from the pick-up image.

Re:

[orcrist (16312)]

You seem to be under the impression that we native English speakers are and will continue to be the center of the world.

Oh cut the politically correct crap. Translating to English isn't generally for the benefit of the native speakers, it's to allow for as broad of an audience as possible. Why the fuck do you think we're typing this in English? Hint: it's not just because Slashdot is from the U.S. And now, think about who will have the most problems reading poorly translated English? Hint: it's not native

Gravity map?

[Slurpee (4012)]

I wonder how long it will take them to find TMA1

Re:

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

I wonder how long it will take them to find TMA1

Time to read the book again. It was the magnetic field which made it stand out, possibly maintained by current in a loop of superconductor.

There is a pretty good chance we would have found it by now. [springerlink.com]

Too much psycho-AI on the mind

[Black Parrot (19622)]

At first I read that as "Japanese moon probe snaps: first photos"

Protoss??

[Jugalator (259273)]

In addition to snapping its first lunar images, the probe jettisoned one of two 110-pound (50-kilogram) "baby" satellites that will help create a detailed gravity map of the moon.

This is the precursor to a Protoss-like Carrier in World War IV [uncyclopedia.org]. I'm just saying.

When do the giant alien monsters attack Tokyo?

[gbulmash (688770)]

Don't a handful of the Toho rubber-suit-monster movies start with a Japanese space launch getting the attention of unfriendly aliens?

Remember...

[apodyopsis (1048476)]

When they snap the Apollo landing sites and see two sets of footprints leaving the capsule..

..and three returning that you need to start worrying.

Nah, I'm no so amused about the landing site, it's the enormous "Kilroy was here" on the darkside of the moon I'm wait for....

The don't have the resolution

[oni (41625)]

The resolution will be 10 meters per pixel. That's not good enough to see the lander bases from apollo, let alone any footprints.

wiki article [wikipedia.org] (look for the data on the Terrain Camera)

Re:

[apodyopsis (1048476)]

...darn.

...but it can pick up the giant Killroy okay, right?

What a vain probe!

[Quiet_Desperation (858215)]

Geez, nothing but pictures of itself! Should have named it PRINCESS.

Re:

[Sentri (910293)]

For a well measured and written comment, that certainly harbours alot of fear and mistrust. Do you have a basis for those fears or are they more of a phobia? Im wondering because when a country is destroyed and then left to moulder I can see why it would harbour resentment, but I was under the impression the US helped with Japan's rebuilding efforts.

Re:

[timmarhy (659436)]

"and are physically and culturally linked to China, one of our gravest threats."

umm i hate to rain on your parade there kiddo but china and japan hate each other. there's a few centuries of mistrust and ill will between them - they love america far far more.

Re:Weapons

[vux984 (928602)]

And that is the key. Defeated enemies tend to become the strongest allies when you take the time to stick around and rebuild the country so that it is nicer than it was when you first showed up. Japan is an ally because we were allowed to finish the job and did not "cut and run".

Oh for crying out loud, the thinly veiled reference to Iraq is ludicrous.

We didn't unilaterally invade Japan. They were at war prior to our involvement with them.

Japan wasn't harboring long term resentment over American oppression and manipulation at the individual level the way many Iraqi's 'hate america'.

Japan wasn't already on the point of a civil war due to multiple mutually hostile internal factions that were barely being contained by the brutal dictator we installed and propped up.

So it was largely the government that was at war with the US, not the 'people'.

So when Japan surrendered after the nuclear weapons attacks, and the government was dissolved and reformed they really did surrender, and the whole country especially the average civilians were pretty unified in their desire to get on with the rebuilding. Iraq has gone a completely different direction; with multiple competing hostile factions that were there all along going at each other with America caught in the middle of it.

Even if the US manages to ultimately succeed, it will be by siding with one of the factions and helping them become dominant and rebuilding with them... this will only alienate the other factions who will just become even more hostile to the US, and they will gather with allies in Afghanistan, Iran, etc.

At -best- its going to be Israel all over again. Sure we have a great ally in the faction we helped dominate and claim and rebuild the space, but at what cost? perpetual war and festering anti-american sentiment from the displaced/neighboring factions.

Re:

[dltaylor (7510)]

"to the point of reasoning with them" makes the erroneous assumption that humans (other than a rare few) are consistently capable of reason. On any subject where "belief" is involved (religion, political and economic theory, child-rearing, ...), reason is literally not possible by the believer. You can no more reason with an Islamic fundamentalist or George W. Bush regarding their respective delusions, than a significantly afflicted schizophrenic off his medication, and probably less.

"Peaceful relations"

Re:Got a snap of the American flag they left behin

[Farmer Tim (530755)]

What about the buggy thingamees that they left up there?

Everything left on the moon worked perfectly! (That slapping sound you hear is a horde of retired NASA engineers throwing down gauntlets)

I want to see if these conspiracy theories can be put to rest for good. Can they photograph the equipment left behind?

These are people who don't accept the existing film, photographs, hunks of moon rock, etc, as evidence; more photos won't make a scrap of difference. The only way to refute conspiracy theorists is to take them to the moon and push them out an airlock without a space suit so they can experience the low gravity and hard vaccuum first hand (and even then they'd probably use their last breath attempting to argue that it couldn't have been done in the 1960's...).

Re:

[edwardpickman (965122)]

Yes but if you took them all you could end the argument. I vote ship two we load up with middle management types and phone sanitizers.

Re:At least someone thinks the moon is a good idea

[susano_otter (123650)]

...to bad the Americans only care about conquest of the middle east and ethnic cleansing of Muslims so their god will be happy.

Well, that and Mars (MER), Jupiter and its moons (New Horizons), Pluto (New Horizons), Saturn (Cassini), the Heliopause (Voyager), and incidentally the Moon (Orion), right?