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."

Prettier webpage

[Sentri]

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

Re:Hey! Down in front!

[phantomcircuit]

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

Kaguya Hime

[Bonker]

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!'.

Re:Hey! Down in front!

[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.

Re:Prettier webpage

[Karthikkito]

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:Hey! Down in front!

[achurch]

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

The don't have the resolution

[oni]

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:Prettier webpage

[fbjon]

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:Prettier webpage

[Guysmiley777]

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.