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VIRTUALISATION Monumental Moon map makes more missions manageable
VIRTUALISATION Monumental Moon map makes more missions manageable | Monumental Moon map makes more missions manageable |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Monday, 16 February 2009 | |
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The February 13, 2009 Science article “Lunar Global Shape and Polar Topography Derived from Kaguya-LALT Laser Altimetry” states “A global lunar topographic map with a spatial resolution of finer than 0.5 degree has been derived using data from the laser altimeter (LALT) on board the Japanese lunar explorer Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE or Kaguya).” The science team, led by a Japanese researcher, made millions of topographical observations of the complete surface of the Moon from SELENE’s position above the lunar surface—much more than the thousands of observations made previously by the NASA Clementine mission, which only imaged parts of the Moon’s surface. The SELENE mission allows us to see craters at both poles, for instance, that have never been seen before. In fact, the scientists took high-resolution measurements with the spacecraft’s laser altimeter (LALT) from about 6.77 million points on the Moon at average intervals of between five to six kilometers (3.1 to 3.7 miles). The science team reported in The Yomiuri Shimbun article “1st complete topographic map of the moon created” that prior to this measurement, only 270,000 points had been taken of the lunar surface. Objects five to six kilometers wide are now visible on the Moon, although its ability to clearly resolve features still stands at fifteen kilometers. Previous measurements with the 1994 NASA Clementine mission could only resolve features down to about 20 to 60 kilometers (12 to 37 miles). Page two talks a little bit about the naming of SELENE, along with comments from one of the authors of the paper relating to the SELENE mapping mission. |
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