KAGUYA (SELENE): World's First Image Taking of the Moon (Forwarded)

Public Affairs Department
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building
1-6-5, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8260
Japan
TEL: +81-3-6266-6400

Joint release:
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)

November 7, 2007 (JST)

KAGUYA (SELENE)
World's First Image Taking of the Moon by HDTV

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.

Moving image of the Moon shot by the HDTV camera (480x270, no audio),
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/200...a_movie_e.html

STILL IMAGES:

(1) North Pole Area (still image cut out from the first image shooting)
[http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/200...e.html#pict01]

This is a still image taken out from the first moving image shooting
when the KAGUYA flew from the northern area of the "Oceanus Procel
larum" (*1) to the center of the North Pole.

As the altitude near the North Pole is high, the angle of the coming
sunlight was lower, thus the shade of the crater topography looks
long in the image.

The moving image was taken at 4:07 a.m. on October 31, 2007 (JST)
[1907 UTC Oct. 30, 2007] by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting
(eight minutes is converged to one minute) from the KAGUYA, and the
data was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center on the same
day.

(*1) Oceanus Procellarum:
The dark area on the Moon's surface called "ocean." It is located at
the left end of the northern hemisphere on the front side of the Moon
when we look up at it from the Earth.

(2) The western side of the "Oceanus Procellarum" (cut out from the
second image shooting)
[http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/200...e.html#pict02]

This is a still image taken out from the second moving image shooting
when the KAGUYA flew from the south to the north on the western side
of the "Oceanus Procellarum."

The dark part on the right of the above image is the Ocean (Oceanus
Procellarum,) and the light area on the left is called the "highland."
The moving image was taken at 5:51 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2007 (JST)
[2051 UTC Oct. 30, 2007] by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting
(eight minutes is converged to one minute) from the KAGUYA, and
the data was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center on the
same day.

(3) The west side of the "Oceanus Procellarum" (cut out from the
second image shooting)
[http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/200...e.html#pict03]

This is a still image taken out from the end part of the second moving
image taking.

We can observe a crater called "Repsold," whose diameter is 107 km, at
the center on the near side of this image. The channel that crosses
this crater is called the "Repsold Valley," and its length is about
180 km (equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Shizuoka on the
Tokaido Line in Japan.) The shooting time was the same as the above (2.)

Reference

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/200...a_e.html#ref01