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Japanese Probe Returns First HD Video of the Moon

Riding with Robots writes "The Kaguya probe, now in lunar orbit, has sent down the first footage of the moon's surface from its onboard high-definition TV camera. The Kaguya mission, which consists of a main orbiter and two smaller satellites in a 100-km-high, polar orbit, is slated to officially begin its science phase in December."

51 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. And while up there. . . by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 3, Funny

    it caught a glimpse of a Transformer.

    --
    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  2. I don't see any stars is this a fake video of the. by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see any stars is this a fake video of the moon.

  3. flag by Noishe · · Score: 5, Funny

    So when to we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.

    1. Re:flag by chris411 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That thing's been there for 40 years, it's not going anywhere. Though by the looks of it, it'll be another 40 years before another American astronaut even comes close to touching it. Here's hoping you don't blow up too many rockets and shuttles in the meantime.

    2. Re:flag by heretic108 · · Score: 5, Funny

      So when to we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.
      Be another few hours yet - Weta Digital have just received the raw footage, and a spec and a letter of credit from the NSA - they've done the wireframes, fills and colour correction, now they're working on the gentle waving movements, and tweaking the lights to make the edges realistic. Next, the discarded bottom half of the Lunar Excursion Module...
      </conspiracy-theory>

      --
      -- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
    3. Re:flag by mrslacker · · Score: 2, Funny

      Gotcha. New Zealanders were responsible for splitting the atom, first up Everest (probably), first powered flight (very dubious), pissing off the US with their anti-Nuclear stance _and_ faking the moon landings.

      (NZer in US)

    4. Re:flag by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

      So when do we get a picture of the american flag that's implanted on the surface somewhere.

      It's hard to identify now because someone/something spray-painted "Go Home Yankey" on it.

    5. Re:flag by david.given · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That thing's been there for 40 years, it's not going anywhere. Though by the looks of it, it'll be another 40 years before another American astronaut even comes close to touching it.

      That's okay --- just ask the Chinese to take a picture of it for you...

  4. but the video clip is SD rez? by VMaN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's like benchmarking picture quality of a HDTV thrugh an SD tvshow.

    1. Re:but the video clip is SD rez? by click2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I couldn't read the kanji & was waiting for a fansubbed version.

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  5. Psh, obviously fake by Mayhem178 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This was filmed in the desert in Arizona. Everyone knows the Radar Men don't allow spacecraft to fly near their moon.

    --

    "You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles

  6. Real Time? by __aawbkb6799 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is there anyway to find out if this video is sped up, or is that thing just flying over the surface really fast?

    1. Re:Real Time? by Overzeetop · · Score: 2, Informative

      According to another poster here, it's a 8x speed.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  7. Above the movie, it says: by diesel66 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Above the movie, it says:

    Moving image of the Moon shot by the HDTV camera (no audio)

    No audio? That sucks. I really wanted to hear the 'whooshing' noise of the probe speeding through the moon's atmosphere!

    (In space, nobody can hear your sarcasm.)

    --



    eleven plus two / twelve plus one
    1. Re:Above the movie, it says: by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

      > (In space, nobody can hear your sarcasm.)

      That wasn't sarcasm, that was a vacuous joke...

    2. Re:Above the movie, it says: by moco · · Score: 5, Funny

      No audio? That sucks. I really wanted to hear the 'whooshing' noise of the probe speeding through the moon's atmosphere! Not only that, the video is recorded in black and white...

      --
      moi
    3. Re:Above the movie, it says: by ThirdPrize · · Score: 2, Funny

      I want a 5.1 recording of the sounds in outer space to go with it. Oh wait, ...

      --
      I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
  8. Speed? by sqrt(2) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How fast is this video played at? How long does it take the probe to complete a full orbit? It might say that at the beginning of the film, but I can't read moon-runes, maybe someone here could translate. Pretty cool video anyway.

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  9. It almost looks as if... by athloi · · Score: 4, Funny

    The moon was once inhabited by an intelligent but thoughtless species that developed technology, covered the planet in concrete, and then died of their own selfishness, leaving behind a barren gray wasteland that resembles an asteroid-pocked version of Houston, Texas...

    1. Re:It almost looks as if... by plover · · Score: 3, Funny

      Could you please write a coherent statement that distinguishes between "a [concrete covered] barren gray wasteland that resembles an asteroid-pocked version of Houston, Texas" and "Houston, Texas"? 'Cause I'm having trouble telling the two apart.

      --
      John
  10. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Idiot or troll? Can't decide.

    Just in case of "idiot": Stars are not that bright and require a longer exposure time. The moon is actually very bright and a short exposure time is required to prevent the image from being washed out. The result is the stars don't appear because the camera has been desensitised to take clear pictures of bright things.

    Take a picture of any brightly lit object on a starry night and you'll likely find the stars aren't in the photo.
    =Smidge=

    P.S. Whoever gave the parent an "Insightful" mod was definately an idiot.

  11. No Audio? by Danathar · · Score: 3, Funny

    The site says there is no audio. I thought there was at least a hissing sound like in 2001 and maybe some "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

  12. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
  13. sheesh. by apodyopsis · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reading these comments you'd think we're a bunch a sad obsessed geek tosspots always looking for a cheap laugh. Sheesh.

    On a more serious note, congratulations to the team for a real achievement and kudos for the excellent movie.

    If only they had aligned it slighter further to the right we could of seen the giant "Kilroy was here" on the darkside of the moon, now that would of been cool..

  14. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by sarahbau · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why is this modded insightful? There are no stars in the video because their luminosity is very low compared to the light reflected from the moon. The moon would be overexposed if stars were visible, which would make the video pointless. They wanted to video the moon, not a big glowing white ball with stars behind it.

  15. Where's the HD? by heroine · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is not HD. It's a tiny 480x272 Web 2.0 flash movie.

  16. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by Speare · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't see any stars is this a fake video of the moon.

    I don't know why this is modded at least +2 Insightful. It's either very poorly informed, or a reference to a common misconception. You generally don't see stars in space images, unless there's NO other sun-illuminated object in the near foreground (a moon, a satellite, etc.), because of the sensor's dynamic range. Any moonshot on the sunny side is like a very bright sunny day on off-white snow, and the stars just can't compete for exposure.

    The stars are a millionth the brightness of any nearby object that is sunlit. If you tune up the sensitivity to catch the faint stars, the sunlit objects overpower the sensors and you get solid white or big streaky blotches.

    The human eye's biggest advantage to manmade cameras is that of dynamic range. We have many components to our eye anatomy and physiology that let us cope with extreme differences in brightness; we can see some of the brightest stars even while fairly bright objects are nearby. We do this in part with better dynamic range, but we also cope by moving our head, shielding our eyes, squinting, and not paying attention to the brightest parts of the scene when interested in the dimmer elements. Cameras can't do all that and catch a single image.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  17. The press release by arsheive · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's shot at 8-fold speed, the following is from: http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071107_kaguya_e.html

    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.

    --
    @AlexSheive
    :wq
  18. Re:Roads on the moon? by Liquidrage · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw that same spot and actually paused it and rewinded it a few times to get a better look.

    It's very possible a collapsed lava tube, they call them sinuous rilles.

    http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/lunar/sin_rilles/Overview.html

  19. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by corifornia2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its a farse on all the douchebags that say the moon landing is fake.

  20. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by moranar · · Score: 5, Funny
    --
    "I think it would be a good idea!"
    Gandhi, about Internet Security
  21. mod parent up by arsheive · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is +5 funny. The people responding to it as a serious post must have never heard any of the moonlanding hoax arguments, or are the kind of assholes that just can't keep themselves from correcting things for long enough to consider the possibility of irony. If they're the former... new to slashdot?

    --
    @AlexSheive
    :wq
    1. Re:mod parent up by mevets · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I disagree - 'not getting it' is as slashdot as, well, / and .

    2. Re:mod parent up by toadlife · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Whenever you want information on the net, don't ask a question. Just post a wrong answer."

      -- Cancer Omega

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  22. In Related News by VoxMagis · · Score: 2, Funny

    In related news, George Lucas has announced that he will be 'updating' this video, adding little green men and trying to show that the Moon shot first.

    --
    -- I really need to bleed off some of this /. karma.
  23. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by drakaan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know why this is modded at least +2 Insightful. It's either very poorly informed, or a reference to a common misconception...

    ...or, the <humor> tag was missing and certain people are *way* too serious sometimes.

    --
    "Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
  24. Second half is better by SiliconEntity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought the second half of the footage was better, where the probe flies over the terminator into the dark side of the moon. The funny thing was at first in that segment I had the illusion of inverted relief, as though the craters were bumps. I kept telling myself that the sun was shining from over my right shoulder but I couldn't see it. Then suddenly as we get very close to the terminator and things were quite dark below, the terrain "popped" into correct relief and craters looked like craters again. An amusing optical illusion which often shows up when viewing alien landscapes, rather rare to see it disappear spontaneously like that.

  25. Re:USA HD back in 1969 by joshv · · Score: 2

    If only they were able to take about 24 pictures per second with their Hasselblad's, you might have a point.

  26. WTF? No Audio??!! by alta · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can someone let me know when they get the damn Mic fixed? We're living in a multimedia age, there's just no excuse for this half ass attempt at entertainment.

    Stereo at a minimum, preferably 7.1 THX Dolby noise reduction AC3 FLAC Lossless Acustimass full dynamic range phonographed...

    I'm hoping that they didn't have the bandwidth for the audio too and they'll upload that when they get back with the tapes. I hope it's on DAT, the only true way to record.

    --
    Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
  27. Re:Note to JAXA by aksenkto! · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Kaguya" HD Camera footage.
    Titled: "Ocean of Storms", western side

    Filming Start Time: 20:51 (GMT) October 30, 2007
    Filming End Time: 20:59 (GMT) October 30, 2007

    Filming Start Location: 250degN, 275-282deg E
    Filming End Location: 49deg N, 275-283deg E

    "Kaguya" altitude: 110km (68 mi) above moon surface
    8 minutes of footage edited down to 1 minute (8x speed).
    ---
    Located in the left section of the Northern hemisphere of the moon, the western-most part of "Ocean of Storms" was filmed while navigating a South to North direction. The right side of the screen show the shadowy "dark oceans" and the sun-lit areas are the highlands.

    ---

    "Kaguya" HD Camera footage.
    Titled: Lunar North Pole

    Filming Start Time: 19:07 (GMT) October 30, 2007
    Filming End Time: 19:15 (GMT) October 30, 2007

    Filming Start Location: 66deg N, 274-288deg E
    Filming End Location: 87deg N, 26-161deg E

    "Kaguya" altitude: 110km (68 mi) above moon surface
    8 minutes of footage edited down to 1 minute (8x speed).
    ---
    The following was filmed while navigating from the northern area of "Ocean of Storms" to the north pole of the Moon. Due to the higher latitude of this voyage, the lower angle of the sun caused the crater formations to cast long shadows.

  28. Youtube link by chris411 · · Score: 5, Informative
  29. Hand in your geek card by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    explain that einstein?

    He just did.
    This is "News for Nerds".
    If you don't understand why he's right, /. is not for you.
    You're looking for USA Today.

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    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
  30. No audio by Beached · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like that, its cute. Makes me think, if a tree fell on the moon and everyone was there would you hear it. Forgetting about how the tree got on the moon in the first place and how the people are there too.

    --
    ---- aut viam inveniam aut faciam
  31. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    *WHOOSH!*

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  32. NO! They'll just prove the hoax theory!!! by AgentBif · · Score: 2, Insightful

    now they're working on the gentle waving movements

    Ah yes, nothing like a fresh lunar breeze...

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    Privacy Statement: We value your privacy! It is very valuable. That's why we try to sell it whenever we can.
  33. Worked for me by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Funny

    Stereo at a minimum, preferably 7.1 THX Dolby noise reduction AC3 FLAC Lossless Acustimass full dynamic range phonographed...

    I got perfect 7.1 THX dolby in my player. Sounded exactly like a satellite passing through space above the moon, I felt as if I were there with my eyes closed.

    The audio was even more pristine than my 7.1 copy of 4'33"...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  34. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by bcat24 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe, but many people mod humor as insightful, not funny. This probably has something to do with the fact that a funny mod doesn't add to a user's karma.

  35. Re:Note to JAXA by DanielJosphXhan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I enjoyed your fansub, and would like to subscribe to your moonletter.

    --
    [ think ]
  36. Re:"...and do the other things..." by geekoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    we went there because it was hard to do.

    Do you know how much money people have made because of the Apollo program? are still making today?
    You know as well as I do many new technologies were developed specifically because of a need for the mission. many of those technologies allow whole industries to be born. Industries that need people to work for them;which in turn gave people more money to spend on thing like helping people. The tax return on the Apollo investment is many, many times it's cost.

    To advance, we need a goal, the larger the better.
    We need to send men to Mars and return them safely for the goal, for the international cooperation that would be needed, and for the investment into sciences and engineering that will bring us new idea. Ideas that will create new markets.

    You want o help the poorest people in the world? You should be the flag waiver for a Mars mission.
    They will need:
    Better recycling of waste.
    Better ways to store transport and grow food on extremely limited resources, develop better plastic, metals, and maybe some new materials. Better energy storing, and creating devices.

    Poor billions into those industries will HELP the poorest people in the long run by lessoning the amount of time needed for day to day survival and give more free time to create. Create markets, create inventions, create a society that can advance beyond survival.

    The biggest key for you maybe be the needed international cooperation. The more cooperation, the more ways there will be to cooperate.

    The problem with people in poverty isn't a resource one, it's a political one.

    "The Laws of Celestial Mechanics are as unforgiving as the laws of Trickle-down economics."

    I love the fact that that poster
    Trickle-down economics, which is a farce and was called 'VooDoo economics' by George Bush Sr. for a reason. His whole point is also wrong and ignorant.

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  37. Re:I don't see any stars is this a fake video of t by hondo77 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I believe this is an improvement of the original fake with a better set and special effects. I can't get over how well this was filmed.

    Funny thing is, if it actually was a product of Hollywood it would look a lot better...and have explosions.

    --
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  38. What! - No audio?!?!?!? by spineboy · · Score: 2

    I'm just ticked off that they didn't bother with any audio. I was looing foward to hearing the zooming/swooshing spaceship noise, and the eerie background tone that I always heard on Trek (TOS)

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    ..........FULL STOP.