New Radar Images of the Moon

New Radar Maps of the Moon

February 29, 2008

February 29, 2008: NASA has obtained new high-resolution radar maps of the Moon's south pole--a region the space agency is considering as a landing site when astronauts return to the Moon in the years ahead.

"We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors four times deeper than the Grand Canyon," says Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "These data will be an invaluable tool for advance planning of lunar missions."

The following video shows the shadows on the moon... something that did not happen in the Japanese HD videos as it should have...

Lunar_Illumination_Movie

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory collected the data using the Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert. Three times in 2006, JPL scientists targeted the moon's south polar region using Goldstone's 70-meter radar dish. The antenna, three-quarters the size of a football field, sent a 500-kilowatt strong, 90-minute long radar stream 231,800 miles to the Moon. The radar illuminated the rough-hewn lunar surface over an area measuring about 400 by 250 miles. Signals were reflected back to two of Goldstone's 34-meter antennas on Earth. Scientists have been analyzing the echoes ever since, and the data were released by NASA for the first time this week.

Source: NASA

reply to post by zorgon


Kewll..at least it would be if it wasn't QT what is so good about QT anyway.

Sorry, it's just that I have been avoiding installing QT for some time now and it has become about the principal of the thing, sheesh yet another movie format.

Right rant over, I shall sit back and contemplate QT.

Sweet mother of mercy, 500 kilowatts, what happens to anything that gets in the path of that thing, any bird that crosses it's path could be southern fried chicken

So when is someone going to release the ground penetrating radar data, now that might be even more interesting.

Star+Flag.
And like the poster above me, Why QT!? Why Do I have to download it?! Doesn't NASA have servers I can mooch off of? I know I'm paying for something over there everytime I pay for something or get my check

Anyway, great to see that we are getting more images of the moon, but wasn't there a Japanese Satallite that was doing that as well? Or was/is its opperation different from the current radar maps? Also why the sudden interest in the moon again? I mean at one point no one made a passing glance or cared at all about what the moon had to hold, and now we can't help but continue to get images of the sphere in our night (and sometimes day) sky. Is something afoot?

reply to post by sherpa


Get VCL media player, it'll play whatever you throw at it.
www.videolan.org...
It's free, so no worries.
Cool, I'll definetly look at it next time I have the time to look through it.

LOL, I already have vlc aaand just played the clip, why didn't I think of that

Thanks runespider for being so helpfull, have a star

Why Quicktime? Spend even an afternoon trying to do any kind of video editing, and you'll see why they use Quicktime. Mind you, there's nothing stopping them from turning it into an HD FLV file...but government is government, right? Can't have anything be too easy and well thought out.

Originally posted by zorgon

The following video shows the shadows on the moon... something that did not happen in the Japanese HD videos as it should have...

Lunar_Illumination_Movie

did you read this :

Click on the image below to view a movie of the craggy landscape with simulated shadows twirling over the course of a complete lunar day

did you understand it ?????

PS - please give a link to the comparable JAX vids in HDTV that you think shoukld show a simliar effect

because i have not seen a JAX vid that timelapses over an entire lunar day

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
did you understand it ?????

Yeah I read it

Yeah I understood it

No I won't give you a link the Japanese thread is easy to find...

:shk:

reply to post by zorgon


i have seen various threads on ats dealing with the JAX mission and HD footage

now FFS read the question properly

i asked for a link to the comparable JAX footage - which YOU CLAIM should show shadowing

all the JAX downloads i have seen are real time flybys - thats why i want YOU to provide the evidence for YOUR claim

How much traffic is there orbiting the Moon?

How long will it take for the moon to be encircled with satellite traffic like Earth? Not very long, with the current moon rush. By the end of 2011, nine satellites could be buzzing around up there. That's a pretty good start.

There are several new projects on the boards. India (who is really starting to kick our butts in the technology area) will be launching soon, too.

But something else on this page caught my eye. If we get the quality of image back as what is being promised, it could help settle several questions:




and the caption:

Above: An example of overhead photography at 50 cm resolution, the same resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will bring to bear on the Moon

Originally posted by ignorant_apethats why i want YOU to provide the evidence for YOUR claim

When I have time I will find the relevant post that I made on the shadow issue and send it to you... without the 'post' button I don't have time right now...

Great...now they are letting just about ANYONE into the "Lunar Club":

Scotland set to join race to the moon

LOL

SCOTLAND HAS drawn nearer to the final frontier after Glasgow University revealed its ambition to join a race to the moon for a $30 million prize.

Scientists and students working at the space mission analysis design department have put out a call for collaborators to team up with them and snatch the Google Lunar X Prize, which will reward the first private company to land a robot on the moon.

The first 10 teams were announced last week and have until 2012 to complete the mission. Glasgow University threw down the gauntlet on Friday, claiming it has the technological know-how such an audacious project requires.


The man who would lead any effort, Dr Gianmarco Radice, an expert in space engineering, said: "We are looking for partners to join us - we can definitely get to the moon. It is very expensive though, so it's more a prestige thing than an economic investment. It would be quite a PR stunt, to say the least."

if you stop the play in different sections and blow it up large, it is rather easy to pick out what looks like large buildings and other objects that don't look at all like they should be where they are!!! in the middle of craters. you can easily look at many of the craters and see square features that are not normal in natural here on earth. imray again below is a link to the vid see what you think, I have firefox and can enlarge easily with it, by holding down the control key and using the scroll button on the mouse. scroll out big, scroll in small....

www.nasa.gov...