Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2007-09-09 04:00:31

Officials at JAXA (NASDA) are calling the SELENE mission the “largest lunar mission since the Apollo program”. It is already four years behind in its schedule, but JAXA officials are confident that this launch date will be successful for its newest spacecraft. Japan has done some very successful missions in the past such as probes to the Moon exploring in the early 90s with Hiten spacecraft (Muses-A) and the Japanese have done studies of comets with Suisei and Sakigake but sadly also had a number of hitches such as the Nozomi failure and ASTRO-E. Hopefully all will go well with this latest mission, and Japan will be onward to the Moon. Looks like the new launch date is September 13 Y2007

cIclops · 2007-09-09 05:36:11

Selene with its two small octagonal satellites mounted on an H-IIA launcher - imaged 28 Aug 2007

Good idea to start a thread about the SELENE mission as it's due for launch in a few days. It's a 3 ton lunar orbiter with two smaller satelites, one for comms and one for gravity field measurements. The main orbiter is stuffed with instruments including an HDTV cam for movies!

Main JAXA site

KAGUYA(SELENE) has 15 onboard instruments.The X-ray Spectrometer and the Gamma-ray Spectrometer will provide us with data on the elemental composition of the lunar surface.The Multi-band Imager and Spectral Profiler will provide data on mineralogical composition.
Data on the surface and subsurface structure,obtained by Terrain Camera,Laser Altimeter and Lunar Radar Sounder,will give us key information on the tectonic history of the Moon.The lunar Magnetometer is used to determine the remnant magnetic field of the Moon.The lunar environment will be investigated by the Charged Particle Spectrometer and Plasma Analyzer.The Upper atmosphere and Plasma Imager utilizes the unique position of the Moon for imaging the plasmasphere of the Earth.
The Relay Satellite will relay the Doppler ranging signal between the Main Orbiter and the ground station for the world's first direct measurement of the gravity field in the farside of the Moon.The differential VLBI Radio-Sources on board the Relay Satellite and the VRAD Satellite are used to determine the gravity field of the Moon most precisely.And the radio signal from the VRAD satellite is used for detecting the tenuous lunar ionoshere.
In addition,the High Definition Television System will take pictures and movies of the Earth-rize from the Moon horizon.

cIclops · 2007-09-11 05:49:15

Launch Postponement

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency would like to announce that we have decided to postpone the launch of the Lunar Orbit Explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE) by H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 13 (H-IIA F13) as adverse weather conditions are expected during the scheduled countdown operations starting from one day prior to the launch day.
The new launch date will be September 14 (Fri,) 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST.) The launch time is scheduled for 10:31:01 a.m. (JST.) We will re-examine the weather and other conditions tomorrow for the launch on the 14th. The launch was previously scheduled for September 13 (Thu,) 2007 (JST.)

"would like to announce" - launching the 13th vehicle on the 13th day was unlucky.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2007-09-13 07:43:28

Japan prepares lunar spacecraft for blastoff
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/h2a/selen … eview.html

Heralded as the most advanced lunar exploration mission in more than 30 years, a sophisticated Japanese spacecraft is on the cusp of launching the first wave of a scientific assault on the moon to probe its history and prepare for future human voyages to Earth's celestial companion.
The pickup truck-sized spacecraft will be rolled to the launch pad early Thursday atop Japan's flagship H-2A rocket. After workers make connections between the booster and its oceanfront launch pad, officials will begin final testing of the rocket's systems before pumping thousands of gallons of chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants into fuel tanks aboard the launcher.
Preparations for the launch continue to proceed as planned, according to a spokesperson with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
Clocks at the control center on Tanegashima Island are counting down to the scheduled launch time at 0131:01 GMT Friday (9:31:01 p.m. EDT Thursday). Blastoff will be in the late morning hours Friday in Japan.
Improperly installed parts aboard the Kaguya probe postponed the launch by a month as technicians replaced the suspect components. Bad weather earlier this week forced Japanese officials delay the flight an additional day because it interfered with work to prepare for the launch, according to JAXA.
The 174-foot-tall rocket will roar to life with the ignition of its LE-7A main engine in the final seconds of the countdown. Twin 50-foot-long solid rocket boosters will fire when the countdown clocks reach zero. Two smaller solid-fueled motors will ignite moments after the H-2A rocket vaults into the sky.
The H-2A will roll onto a path flying east of Tanegashima just seconds after liftoff, and the four solid rocket boosters will complete their job in the first two minutes of flight. The first stage will be shut down and jettisoned nearly seven minutes after launch, followed by ignition of the upper stage's LE-5B engine, which will power the rocket and payload into a preliminary parking orbit about 12 minutes into the mission.
After a speedy trip across the Pacific Ocean, the upper stage engine will fire again for about three-and-a-half minutes to extend the high point of its orbit to nearly 145,000 miles from Earth, or about three-fifths of the way to the moon. Deployment of the 6,360-pound satellite should occur off the west coast of South America about 45 minutes after liftoff.
Kaguya will deploy its solar panel and high gain antenna in the hours after the craft is released from the H-2A's upper stage. Next for the robotic explorer will be two burns to gradually raise its orbit over the next two weeks.
The science team will also check the $480 million mission's suite of 15 science instruments, which include two 110-pound daughter satellites and the first high-definition television camera to travel beyond Earth orbit.....

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2007-09-13 17:56:52

LIVE: Japan to shoot for the moon with SELENE

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5227

cIclops · 2007-09-14 03:55:05

Successfully launched

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Lunar Orbit Explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE) by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 13 (H-IIA F13) at 10:31:01 a.m. on September 14, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 45 minutes and 34 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the KAGUYA was confirmed.

SpaceNut · 2007-09-14 05:32:45

Japan launches its first lunar orbiter; Kaguya marks latest step in international moon race

Japanese H-2A rocket launched Kaguya which will orbit the moon for about a year until it runs out of fuel.

The launch is about four years behind schedule due to rocket failures and technical glitches with its H-2A.

Lets not forget that there are more probes still to go.

China plans to launch a lunar orbiter called Chang'e 1 in the second half of this year to take three-dimensional images, and it aims to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon by 2010.
India is planning its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon in 2008, powered by a locally built rocket. It is also discussing sending a person to the moon by 2020.
The United States plans to launch a lunar orbiter next year.

070913_japanese_launch_vmed_10p.widec.jpg

cIclops · 2007-09-14 06:20:08

Nice photo SpaceNut!

SELENE has a lot of instruments, but will it have the ability to detect hydrogen or water at the poles?

Those small sats should be able to demonstrate a basic lunar communications system.

More details about the launch and mission

Officials expect SELENE to arrive in its operational orbit about 40 days after launch. A comprehensive two-month checkout of the mission's 15 science payloads is planned before the orbiter begins its observation campaign.
At least ten months of science activities are scheduled for SELENE, but the mission will likely be extended if the spacecraft is still performing well late next year.

So not much data for three months

cIclops · 2007-10-01 13:07:47

HDTV image released - 1 Oct 2007

The world's first high definition image shooting of the Earth from about 110,000 km deep in space. (Up until today, we have taken images from the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS,) which fly about 340 km away from the Earth.) The West Coast of South America looks brighter as it was day time there when the image was taken.
The moving image was taken by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute) at 9:46 p.m. on September 29, 2007 (JST,) then received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center at 9:40 a.m. on September 30, 2007 (JST). Part of the acquired moving image data was processed for this still image.

cIclops · 2007-10-01 13:14:12

Flight plan

RedStreak · 2007-10-02 12:52:04

LOI should be happening soon - I hope well for this mission. Japan has had some rotten luck as far as probe missions have gone but I think they have great potential all the same.

Now that this baby's in orbit we ought to keep a close eye on it. :shock:

EuroLauncher · 2007-10-07 21:18:32

News topics in PDF format

http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f13/topics/index_e.html

RedStreak · 2007-10-08 08:55:00

LOI achieved...next up relay satellite deployment. So far so good for JAXA.

cIclops · 2007-10-09 11:59:32

Relay Satellite Rstar deployed

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed the separation operation of one of the onboard baby satellites, the Relay Satellite (Rstar,) of the "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) and the Rstar was released at 9:36 a.m. on October 9 (Japan Standard Time, JST).
<edit>
The Relay Satellite (Rstar):
an onboard baby satellite of the KAGUYA that is the first satellite that can observe the magnetic field of the backside of the Moon. The Rstar will observe the Moon's gravity field more accurately by using a method called "radio interference" with the other baby satellite, the VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometer) satellite.

cIclops · 2007-10-12 10:48:52

Separation of the VRAD Satellite (Vstar)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed the separation operation of one of the onboard baby satellites, the VRAD (Very Long Baseline Interferometer) Satellite* of the "KAGUYA" (SELENE.) The VRAD satellite was released at 1:28 p.m. on October 12, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST).
...
VRAD Satellite: a baby satellite of the KAGUYA that is equipped with a radiowave source for observing the gravity field of the Moon
..
The Relay and VRAD satellites are flying in a higher orbit than the main satellite, KAGUYA, as if they are watching over the KAGUYA as its guardians. Therefore, we selected "OKINA" and "OUNA" as their nicknames.

cIclops · 2007-10-21 08:52:31

Completion of the Critical Phase

October 21, 2007 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) injected the KAGUYA main satellite in its scheduled orbit and shifted its operation mode to the regular control mode. Both the KAGUYA main satellite and its two baby satellites are in good health. The "KAGUYA" (SELENE) is a lunar explorer launched by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 13 (H-IIA F13) on September 14, 2007, (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
We completed the KAGUYA’s critical phase and are now moving to the initial functional verification phase.
During the verification phase, we will check out onboard equipment in the current lunar orbit until mid December, then start regular observations.

cIclops · 2007-11-07 14:23:35

Moon Images Shot by the Onboard HDTV - (checkout the movie too!) 7 Nov 2007

This is a still image taken out from the first moving image shooting when the KAGUYA flew from the northern area of the "Oceanus Procellarum"(*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) 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.

cIclops · 2007-11-13 08:59:10

Image Taking of Earth-Rise by HDTV - 13 Nov 2007 (more images and video )

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking of an Earth-rise

RedStreak · 2007-11-13 15:28:21

Now that's captivating imagery. 8) Kudos to Japan!

cIclops · 2007-12-15 07:33:05

3D movie of Dyson crater flyover - (3D glasses needed) - 3 Nov 2007

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully demonstrated production of stereo movies (3 dimensional movies) of the Moon surface by using stereoscopic images obtained with the Terrain Camera (TC) onboard KAGUYA on Nov. 3, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST). This verification was performed as part of the initial check out of mission instruments onboard "KAGUYA" (SELENE), which was injected into the Moon's orbit at an altitude of about 100 km. These are the first 3-D movies of the Moon including its polar areas with an aerial resolution of 10 meters.

cIclops · 2008-03-14 05:19:34

Results presented at LPSC 2008 (PDF) - 10 Mar 2008

Follow links to summaries of papers

cIclops · 2008-04-23 07:20:35

Earthrise HDTV - imaged 6 Apr 2008

High res version

3488 · 2008-04-24 11:59:51

Cheers cIclops,

Here is a nice sequence from the same event.

Earthrise over lunar south pole Saturday 5th April 2008.

Andrew Brown.

cIclops · 2008-04-24 13:25:32

Emily Lakdawalla has also posted some details about those frames and a video based on them.

3488 · 2008-04-24 14:33:23

Emily Lakdawalla has also posted some details about those frames and a video based on them.

Cheers cIclops.

Like this one,
Half Earth above lunar south pole.

Andrew Brown.

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#1 2007-09-09 04:00:31

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#2 2007-09-09 05:36:11

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#3 2007-09-11 05:49:15

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#4 2007-09-13 07:43:28

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#5 2007-09-13 17:56:52

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#6 2007-09-14 03:55:05

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#7 2007-09-14 05:32:45

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#8 2007-09-14 06:20:08

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#9 2007-10-01 13:07:47

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#10 2007-10-01 13:14:12

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#11 2007-10-02 12:52:04

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#12 2007-10-07 21:18:32

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#13 2007-10-08 08:55:00

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#14 2007-10-09 11:59:32

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#15 2007-10-12 10:48:52

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#16 2007-10-21 08:52:31

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#17 2007-11-07 14:23:35

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#18 2007-11-13 08:59:10

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#19 2007-11-13 15:28:21

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#20 2007-12-15 07:33:05

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#21 2008-03-14 05:19:34

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#22 2008-04-23 07:20:35

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#23 2008-04-24 11:59:51

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#24 2008-04-24 13:25:32

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

#25 2008-04-24 14:33:23

Re: Kaguya (SELENE) - JAXA lunar orbiter

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