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Moon Space Science

Japanese Probe Returns First HD Video of the Moon 206

Posted by Zonk from the finally-we-can-see-the-cheese dept.
Riding with Robots writes "The Kaguya probe, now in lunar orbit, has sent down the first footage of the moon's surface from its onboard high-definition TV camera. The Kaguya mission, which consists of a main orbiter and two smaller satellites in a 100-km-high, polar orbit, is slated to officially begin its science phase in December."
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Japanese Probe Returns First HD Video of the Moon More

Japanese Probe Returns First HD Video of the Moon

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  • And while up there. . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by Apple Acolyte ( 517892 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:13PM (#21283813)
    it caught a glimpse of a Transformer.

  • I don't see any stars is this a fake video of the. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe The Dragon ( 967727 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:13PM (#21283817)
    I don't see any stars is this a fake video of the moon.

  • nuked (Score:2, Funny)

    by blhack ( 921171 ) *
    Don't we have a rule against linking directly to videos? The video is almost dead already, and as of now there aren't even any comments yet!

    on another note.

    I can has space race?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drakaan ( 688386 )

      when in doubt, check for a mirrored version [nyud.net]...typically, if you add ".nyud.net" to the hostname (or "fully qualified domain name", for the truly picky) of a slashdotted, dugg, or farked link, you'll get a cached version, if it's popular and had decent bandwidth at the beginning.

  • flag (Score:5, Funny)

    by Noishe ( 829350 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:16PM (#21283859)
    So when to we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by chris411 ( 610359 )
      That thing's been there for 40 years, it's not going anywhere. Though by the looks of it, it'll be another 40 years before another American astronaut even comes close to touching it. Here's hoping you don't blow up too many rockets and shuttles in the meantime.
      • That thing's been there for 40 years
        Sorry, 38 (and change). I was born in '69, please don't take me into my forties before it's time.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by david.given ( 6740 )

        That thing's been there for 40 years, it's not going anywhere. Though by the looks of it, it'll be another 40 years before another American astronaut even comes close to touching it.

        That's okay --- just ask the Chinese to take a picture of it for you...

    • Re:flag (Score:5, Funny)

      by heretic108 ( 454817 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @03:28PM (#21284861)

      So when to we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.
      Be another few hours yet - Weta Digital have just received the raw footage, and a spec and a letter of credit from the NSA - they've done the wireframes, fills and colour correction, now they're working on the gentle waving movements, and tweaking the lights to make the edges realistic. Next, the discarded bottom half of the Lunar Excursion Module...
      </conspiracy-theory>

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )
      So when do we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.

      It's hard to identify now because someone/something spray-painted "Go Home Yankey" on it.
           

  • but the video clip is SD rez? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by VMaN ( 164134 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:18PM (#21283883) Homepage
    That's like benchmarking picture quality of a HDTV thrugh an SD tvshow.

  • Psh, obviously fake (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mayhem178 ( 920970 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:18PM (#21283897)
    This was filmed in the desert in Arizona. Everyone knows the Radar Men don't allow spacecraft to fly near their moon.
    • This time it won't be so "windy" in Arizona. Either they will put up wind breaks, or the flags will be made of steel.
  • Needs subtitles....

    Nice images, though.

    • Re:Note to JAXA (Score:5, Informative)

      by aksenkto! ( 997298 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @03:18PM (#21284741)
      "Kaguya" HD Camera footage.
      Titled: "Ocean of Storms", western side

      Filming Start Time: 20:51 (GMT) October 30, 2007
      Filming End Time: 20:59 (GMT) October 30, 2007

      Filming Start Location: 250degN, 275-282deg E
      Filming End Location: 49deg N, 275-283deg E

      "Kaguya" altitude: 110km (68 mi) above moon surface
      8 minutes of footage edited down to 1 minute (8x speed).
      ---
      Located in the left section of the Northern hemisphere of the moon, the western-most part of "Ocean of Storms" was filmed while navigating a South to North direction. The right side of the screen show the shadowy "dark oceans" and the sun-lit areas are the highlands.

      ---

      "Kaguya" HD Camera footage.
      Titled: Lunar North Pole

      Filming Start Time: 19:07 (GMT) October 30, 2007
      Filming End Time: 19:15 (GMT) October 30, 2007

      Filming Start Location: 66deg N, 274-288deg E
      Filming End Location: 87deg N, 26-161deg E

      "Kaguya" altitude: 110km (68 mi) above moon surface
      8 minutes of footage edited down to 1 minute (8x speed).
      ---
      The following was filmed while navigating from the northern area of "Ocean of Storms" to the north pole of the Moon. Due to the higher latitude of this voyage, the lower angle of the sun caused the crater formations to cast long shadows.

  • Real Time? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by __aawbkb6799 ( 977329 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:20PM (#21283929)
    Is there anyway to find out if this video is sped up, or is that thing just flying over the surface really fast?

  • Above the movie, it says: (Score:5, Funny)

    by diesel66 ( 254283 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:20PM (#21283941)
    Above the movie, it says:

    Moving image of the Moon shot by the HDTV camera (no audio)

    No audio? That sucks. I really wanted to hear the 'whooshing' noise of the probe speeding through the moon's atmosphere!

    (In space, nobody can hear your sarcasm.)

  • Speed? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sqrt(2) ( 786011 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:20PM (#21283945) Journal
    How fast is this video played at? How long does it take the probe to complete a full orbit? It might say that at the beginning of the film, but I can't read moon-runes, maybe someone here could translate. Pretty cool video anyway.

  • It almost looks as if... (Score:5, Funny)

    by athloi ( 1075845 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:22PM (#21283979) Homepage Journal
    The moon was once inhabited by an intelligent but thoughtless species that developed technology, covered the planet in concrete, and then died of their own selfishness, leaving behind a barren gray wasteland that resembles an asteroid-pocked version of Houston, Texas...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 )
      If you look carefully, you can see vast expanses of flat, gray, featureless land surface. These were the aliens' Wal-Mart parking lots. They are all that remains of the former Lunar society, edifices to what was a noble and advanced race, before it destroyed itself in a conflagration of bargain shopping.

    • Re:It almost looks as if... (Score:4, Funny)

      by plover ( 150551 ) * on Thursday November 08, 2007 @07:40PM (#21288203) Homepage Journal
      Could you please write a coherent statement that distinguishes between "a [concrete covered] barren gray wasteland that resembles an asteroid-pocked version of Houston, Texas" and "Houston, Texas"? 'Cause I'm having trouble telling the two apart.

  • No Audio? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Danathar ( 267989 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:25PM (#21284009) Journal
    The site says there is no audio. I thought there was at least a hissing sound like in 2001 and maybe some "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
  • Just near where the first part of the movie blanks out, there is a very interesting linear feature that spreads across a good quarter of the shot. If I was on a plane flying over a terrestrial desert and saw something like that I would say it was a road. Can anyone give a better explanation than Moon Highway #1?

  • sheesh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by apodyopsis ( 1048476 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:27PM (#21284041)
    Reading these comments you'd think we're a bunch a sad obsessed geek tosspots always looking for a cheap laugh. Sheesh.

    On a more serious note, congratulations to the team for a real achievement and kudos for the excellent movie.

    If only they had aligned it slighter further to the right we could of seen the giant "Kilroy was here" on the darkside of the moon, now that would of been cool..

  • Where's the HD? (Score:4, Informative)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:29PM (#21284077) Homepage
    This is not HD. It's a tiny 480x272 Web 2.0 flash movie.

  • The press release (Score:5, Informative)

    by arsheive ( 609065 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @02:31PM (#21284101)
    It's shot at 8-fold speed, the following is from: http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071107_kaguya_e.html [www.jaxa.jp]

    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)

    The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon.

    The image taking was performed twice on October 31. Both were eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute.) The first shooting covered from the northern area of the "Oceanus Procellarum" toward the center of the North Pole, then the second one was from the south to the north on the western side of the "Oceanus Procellarum." The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and processed by NHK.

    The satellite was confirmed to be in good health through telemetry data received at the Usuda station.

    • The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon.

      What I can't seem to find anywhere (which means it's obvious and I missed it) is what the dang resolution of the image is. HD is cool, buzzwordy, geeky, flavor-of-the-month, etc... etc... But what matters for science is the resolution of the resulting images, not the tech u

  • Hello? Earth to Kaguya. Earth to Kaguya. That's not HD. 272 lines is not even SDTV resolution! The HD specs require 720 lines, and frankly I would like to see 1080.
    • how long do you think their server would survive if they put the original 1080p footage on?
  • Wow. Very cool. However, as I expected, HD really highlights the serious crop circle problem on the moon. Looks like a Led Zeppelin CD box set down there.
  • In related news, George Lucas has announced that he will be 'updating' this video, adding little green men and trying to show that the Moon shot first.

  • All these vid's are yours, except Europa. Attempt no filmings there.

    I for one welcome our black monolithic overlords.

  • Sailor Moon ? AHAahaha aha ahahahahhhh.

    allright allright. im leaving my geek membership card at the reception ...
  • I remember men landing on the Moon. I remember a listening to a record pressed onto a sheet of vinyl from a book with the voice of JFK saying "We choose to go to the Moon in this deCADE..." I became a rocket scientist to help us continue to go.

    But if we had had this video, I wonder if we would have found something better to do with our time. I don't see any enticement to heave stuff up there.

    Forgive me, follow rocket scientists, but the only "opportunity" I see here for space is for G00gl3 to launch a s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sighted ( 851500 ) *
      I hadn't remembered that vinyl recording until you mentioned it. Was it narrated by Walter Cronkite? What about missions to other planets? And is it human missions you especially object to, or all space exploration, even robotic probes?
      • I don't object to them. I have just lost the vision of why we want to go there. I worked with Greg Jarvis at Hughes. I worked at the Cape and KSC. I became disillusioned at the politics and BS it took to get a kilogram of payload up. And for what in return?

        The Laws of Celestial Mechanics are as unforgiving as the laws of Trickle-down economics. There is nothing out there worth the price of going. Does that mean we don't go? No, it just means we've passed the Point of NO return on Investment. -- A HREF="http://af2k.com/gavonslaws.asp">AF2K.com

        Now I'm involved in a not-for-profit which is trying to raise 4 billion people out of poverty. I guess I'd better turn in my Spacer's membership card.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )
          we went there because it was hard to do.

          Do you know how much money people have made because of the Apollo program? are still making today?
          You know as well as I do many new technologies were developed specifically because of a need for the mission. many of those technologies allow whole industries to be born. Industries that need people to work for them;which in turn gave people more money to spend on thing like helping people. The tax return on the Apollo investment is many, many times it's cost.

          To advance,

          • Industries that need people to work for them;which in turn gave people more money to spend on thing like helping people. The tax return on the Apollo investment is many, many times it's cost.
            Funny, this sounds like Trickle Down economics. If the tax return supposition is true, that is a perpetual motion machine, minus the entropy of politics. Which was my initial point anyway. Gee, maybe I wasn't so wrong and ignorant after all. :-P

  • Second half is better (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SiliconEntity ( 448450 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @03:09PM (#21284649)
    I thought the second half of the footage was better, where the probe flies over the terminator into the dark side of the moon. The funny thing was at first in that segment I had the illusion of inverted relief, as though the craters were bumps. I kept telling myself that the sun was shining from over my right shoulder but I couldn't see it. Then suddenly as we get very close to the terminator and things were quite dark below, the terrain "popped" into correct relief and craters looked like craters again. An amusing optical illusion which often shows up when viewing alien landscapes, rather rare to see it disappear spontaneously like that.

  • WTF? No Audio??!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by alta ( 1263 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @03:12PM (#21284693) Homepage Journal
    Can someone let me know when they get the damn Mic fixed? We're living in a multimedia age, there's just no excuse for this half ass attempt at entertainment.

    Stereo at a minimum, preferably 7.1 THX Dolby noise reduction AC3 FLAC Lossless Acustimass full dynamic range phonographed...

    I'm hoping that they didn't have the bandwidth for the audio too and they'll upload that when they get back with the tapes. I hope it's on DAT, the only true way to record.
    • Stereo at a minimum, preferably 7.1 THX Dolby noise reduction AC3 FLAC Lossless Acustimass full dynamic range phonographed...

      I got perfect 7.1 THX dolby in my player. Sounded exactly like a satellite passing through space above the moon, I felt as if I were there with my eyes closed.

      The audio was even more pristine than my 7.1 copy of 4'33"...

  • Youtube link (Score:5, Informative)

    by chris411 ( 610359 ) on Thursday November 08, 2007 @03:23PM (#21284811)
    Here. [youtube.com]
  • What's the point of recording in High-Def it's zoomed out and all in monochrome? It's kind of like recording the greatest rock concert ever with just one (albeit really good) microphone stationed way up in the bleachers.
  • Does that mean it comes with fuzzy logic?

  • No audio (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Beached ( 52204 )
    I like that, its cute. Makes me think, if a tree fell on the moon and everyone was there would you hear it. Forgetting about how the tree got on the moon in the first place and how the people are there too.
  • I hearby apologize to all Japanese people for the slashdot readers who created this tag. Not all geeks find that funny, and some of it find it very offensive.
  • Call me cynical but when I read "HD Video" I expect some 720p goodness at the least. This little baby window is not HD.

    Anyone have a link to the actual 720p video?
  • That's a very dreamy video, that is. You can almost imagine yourself gliding - no sound, just you and the moon. I love it !
  • A single picture of the Apollo landing sites and all the equipment left there by the Apollo missions would permanently shut hoax supporters up. Why nobody has done it so far?

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