Kepler Crater As Seen By SMART-1

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMBGLVT0PE_index_0.html

Kepler Crater as seen by SMART-1
European Space Agency
30 June 2006

This animation, made from images taken by the advanced Moon Imaging
Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows Kepler
crater
on the Moon.

AMIE obtained this sequence on 13 January 2006 from a distance ranging
between 1613 and 1702 kilometres from the surface, with a ground
resolution between 146 and 154 metres per pixel.

The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 37.8? South and longitude
9.0? East. Kepler is a small young crater situated between Oceanus
Procellarum and Mare Insularum. It has a diameter of 32 km and it is
2.6
kilometres deep.

Kepler displays a ray system that overlaps with rays from other craters
and which extends over 300 kilometres. The outer wall shows a slightly
polygonal shape. The interior walls of the crater are slumped and
slightly terraced, and descend to an uneven floor and a minor central
rise.



[Anaglyph image of Kepler crater]

This particular sequence of images demonstrates the so called 'tracking
mode' of the SMART-1 spacecraft, used to track a fixed target when
flying over it. While flying over Kepler, the clear filter of the
camera
was always pointed to the same position.

To stay within the thermal constraints, the spacecraft had to change
its
roll during the images acquisition, thus the image is slightly rotated
when passing from one frame to the next.

Thanks to the tracking mode it is possible to obtain information about
the size and roughness properties of the soil. It also allows multiple
stereo views of the target's topography.

Kepler crater is named after Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), German
astronomer known for his three laws of planetary motion.



For more information

Jean-Luc Josset, SPACE-X Space Exploration Institute
Email: jean-luc.josset @ space-x.ch

Bernard H. Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
Email: bernard.foing @ esa.int

wrote in message
oups.com...
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMBGLVT0PE_index_0.html

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...775_anim_H.gif

I wonder what the little grey dot that moves from about 1:00 in
the upper quadrant off screen to the right is/was?

David A. Smith