Science

SELENE is "largest lunar mission since Apollo"

by William Atkins

Sunday, 09 September 2007

SELENE is a Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft that is expected to launch on September 13, 2007, at 01:35:47 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is 10:35:47 a.m. Japan Standard Time (JST) and 9:35:47 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, September 12th).

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Officials at JAXA are calling the SELENE mission the “largest lunar mission since the Apollo program”.

The SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) mission was developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency, two of the agencies within Japan’s national space organization the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

It is already four years behind in its schedule, but JAXA officials are confident that this launch date will be successful for its spacecraft. An earlier iTWire article “Japan having problems launching SELENE orbital Moon mission” reports some of the past problems with the SELENE mission.

While orbiting the Moon, SELENE is designed to study the origins and evolution of the Moon, analyze the lunar surface especially with regard to its mineral composition and geography, and observe the Moon’s electromagnetic and gravitational fields. All of these scientific endeavors will help to better understand how to explore the Moon, both with manned and unmanned missions, in the most efficient way possible.

The one-year mission consists of the Main Orbiter, along with two small satellites.

The Main Orbiter will be positioned in an orbit about the lunar poles and about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface. The first satellite is called Relay Satellite. It will be placed in an elliptic orbit with its furthest point of the orbit at 1,440 miles (2,400 kilometers). Its mission is to relay information between the Main Orbiter and ground controllers on the Earth. The second satellite is called VRAD (Very long baseline interferometry RADio) satellite. It will measure the gravitational field of the Moon.

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