Japan released high-resolution pictures from its Kaguya orbiter, including some that have never been seen before by the public. SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) was Japan’s second lunar probe. It was renamed Kaguya, or Moon Princess, after launch as a result of a public poll. These are some stunning pictures of the Earth captured from the moon by The Kaguya (Selene) lunar orbiter, a Japanese spacecraft nicknamed after a legendary moon princess, Kaguya.
There was a live YouTube video which started streaming on 17th November 2019, following which, we could get access to these images:
The same activity happened before in 2009, and the following image, released a day after NASA launched its own moon-slamming mission, revealed a now-familiar pockmarked landscape, desolate and with stark shadows, all up-close as the spacecraft sinks lower and lower toward its final resting place.
On Oct. 31, Kaguya’s two main high definition TV cameras, each a 2.2 megapixel CCD HDTV camera, took the first high-definition images of the Moon.
A week later on Nov. 7, the spacecraft took spectacular footage of an “Earthrise,” the first since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.
Kaguya, originally named SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) was Japan’s second mission to Explore the Moon from orbit. Kaguya was equipped with a camera that captured the first high-definition video of the lunar surface along with multiple still images. The goal of the mission was to perform a globe-wide survey in order to learn more about the moon’s origins and evolution. It’s not clear why it took JAXA so long to release the Kayuga images, though it is believed that the lens flare that is visible in many of them may have been the reason. The mission carried to small satellites: Okina and Ouna, which means “honorable elderly man” and “honorable elderly woman,” respectively. The mission’s goal was to orbit the Moon to collect data on the origins and geological evolution of Earth’s only natural satellite, to study the lunar surface environment, and to carry out radio science experiments. The Japanese called it “the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program.”
