From the Moon to Earth in HD

Lucas123 writes "The Japan Space Agency's Kaguya spacecraft is currently orbiting the moon and its equipment is being tested in preparation for its real mission to map the moon with high-definition images later this month. Almost as an afterthought, the space craft has recreated one of the most memorable photos in the history of spaceflight — an Earth-rise from lunar orbit."

Apollo

[kalpol]

I'm curious if they'll be able to see the Apollo landing sites. Have we had a look at them since we left? That would be the first place I'd visit if I landed on the moon - there ought to be some interesting data available from the materials left out in baking space for 30-odd years.

Re:Not in HD

[Dieppe]

The original photo was more than likely FILM, not digital. They had to wait for the astronauts to come home before developing it. From the probe they're doing "HD" resolution and the image is NOW baby! :)

I kind of like NOW over "film at 11"... but that's just me.

Re:Not in HD

[Solandri]

More shots from the sequence [nasa.gov] scanned at approx 2400x2400 resolution.

Re:Earth doesn't move

[uselessengineer]

This is quoted from http://www.digipro.com/Trials/moon.html [digipro.com] because I don't want to /. their servers.

The moon is tidal locked with Earth.

When a given moon is small enough compared to the planet it orbits (Earth-Moon) the bigger object has the ability to drastically change the orbit of the smaller one. When two rotating bodies orbit each other, they raise tides in each other. These tides cause mechanical friction. So tidal activity absorbs a lot of energy out of the rotational energy of the bodies. In other words, the energy in the form of rotational inertia is partially converted into tidal, geophysical changes in the bodies involved.

The Moon's rotational inertia has been exhausted, converted into geophysical change in the Earth and Moon. The Moon, being much smaller than the Earth, long ago dissipated enough energy to lose rotation so that its tidal bulges are now always aligned with the gravitational pull of the Earth. The Earth still raises a "tide" in the Moon but it is in a balanced, steady state now and does not stretch the rock any more -- there's no more spin for the Moon to give up.

The tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth. All these exerted forces are costs in energy. They have to come from somewhere. The Moon did have a much higher rotation rate long before anyone was living on the Earth to observe it, but the tidal forces slowed it down until it reached an equilibrium point, i.e., where keeping the same face toward the Earth was the point of least expended energy. Both will still rotate, both keeping the same face toward the opposite body.

Dark shadows: can someone explain me?

[Anonymous Coward]

How come that in these photos, the shadows on the moon surface are completely dark and not half-dark as in the Apollo photos?

A spacecraft is not an author

[bbc]

The poster writes: "Almost as an afterthought, the space craft has recreated one of the most memorable photos in the history of spaceflight -- an Earth-rise from lunar orbit."

This seems to suggest that the spacecraft makes author-like decisions. But either the camera and/or craft are remote controlled, in which case the photo is not an afterthought but a deliberate attempt to make that photo, or the camera operates completely automatic, in which case the "afterthought" comment is an anthropomorphism.

Not that the poster can be blamed much; JAXA has printed a copyright statement on the photo, which means that either they claim the photo has a (necessarily human) author, or that they are committing copyfraud.