**Dark Side of the Moon Revealed-Chinese Video (mapping)

China's exploration spacecraft has just finished mapping two-thirds of the moon's surface, showing a side not normally seen from Earth.

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The satellite has been taking pictures of the dark side of the moon, not normally seen by the human eye. The front part of the lunar side which faces the earth can be seen in the sky. Wehn completed it will be utilze 200 photos

Source: www.independent.co.uk...

GO TO THE main article source for the video: It's short but Sweet.

Very impressive end result. I see they must have been able to cover up all the Alien/Ufo bases. Now they in on the cover up.... At least they put this little bit out. I can't wait to see what the final product is like.

Interested in what comes for the ATS moon minds on this one.

Enjoy.
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Originally posted by anon72
I see they must have been able to cover up all the Alien/Ufo bases. Now they in on the cover up....

Surely you jest? I can't imagine any critical thinker speaking of that as fact unless they were joking of course.

IRM

the images in the video look computer generated? it doesn't look like 'real' footage.

i don't know just the impression i got from the clip.

its mapping the darkside of the moon and creating a computer generated image of the surface? if this is the case its very disappointing and only raises more doubts.

Originally posted by anon72
I see they must have been able to cover up all the Alien/Ufo bases.

Yes, good international collaboration between the Chinese, the Americans and the Russians to all hide the images of the secret lunar bases.

But if you want to have a look anyway, here's the Chinese equivalent of google moon from the official website of the Chang'e 2 spacecraft...
月球WebGIS系统

ah... and I read the this spacecraft is going to do something new and hitherto never done before by anyone before.
A journey to the L2 position, after leaving lunar orbit.
chinadaily

P.S. Dark Side of the Moon is an album by Pink Floyd. The other side of the moon isnt any darker than this side.

I see they must have been able to cover up all the Alien/Ufo bases. Now they in on the cover up....

Assuming that the two biggest economic superpowers are in cahoots is a big assumption to make.

It is in China's interest to keep their intellectual capital to themselves particularly from the US.

reply to post by InfaRedMan


Of course. The bases are underground anyways... geez.

Them Aliens are sure tricky little buggers. Always seem to be hiding in plain sight.

Maybe they really look like moon rocks... and use the moon as Camo?

Originally posted by alfa1

Originally posted by anon72
I see they must have been able to cover up all the Alien/Ufo bases.

P.S. Dark Side of the Moon is an album by Pink Floyd. The other side of the moon isnt any darker than this side.

edit on 10-6-2011 by alfa1 because: (no reason given)

Really? What lights up the side that doesn't face the sun? As bright as the sunfacing side?

Originally posted by damwel
Really? What lights up the side that doesn't face the sun? As bright as the sunfacing side?

You are kidding?

Erm, the Sun lights the "dark side" of the moon.

www.wired.com...

reply to post by damwel


Am I being stupid, but the 'dark' side of the moon is only dark to us. Sometimes it is lit up? Like when there is an eclipse and the moon passes in front of the sun?

The moon rotates so that every side faces the sun at some point, just like the earth.
Its "day" is nearly 700 hours in length. (28 earth days)
If you're standing on the moon, you'll see the sun rise, cross the sky, and set, just like on earth except it takes longer.

Now it also happens (due to ancient tidal locking reasons) that the orbit of the moon around the earth is also 28 earth days in length, but thats got nothing to do with how "dark" any point on the moon is.
It just affects which bits of it an earthling can see.

reply to post by alfa1


Good good.

the video helps.

I was watching the moon the last two nights. Just love my new house and the wide sky view I have.

We had a contractor come by last night and we are thinking of putting a sky/roof bubble in!!!

Originally posted by JohnySeagull
the images in the video look computer generated? it doesn't look like 'real' footage.

i don't know just the impression i got from the clip.

The fly-over movie is computer generated as all of the 3D imaging is, but Chang'e-1 does take real photographic images from two different cameras.

• Optical Imaging System
- CCD Stereo Camera
- Interferometer Spectrometer Imager
The CCD is a stereo camera system to map the lunar surface in visible wavelengths.
The Interferometer Spectrometer Imager is a camera that obtains images based on the fact that different objects have different spectrum properties.

A Laser Altimeter is used to provide complementary data to the elevation data of lunar surface and to refine the lunar surface digital model.

Chang'e-1 is not a very large satellite so the optical images are not nearly as resolved as JAXA's SELENE and NASA's LRO.

At an altitude of 200 km Chang'e-1 imaging resolution is 120 meters per pixel.

reply to post by Illustronic


Impressive.

How do you know all of this? googling, first hang/hands on experience?

I would assume we won't get to see a majority of what China procures.

Originally posted by Illustronic
At an altitude of 200 km Chang'e-1 imaging resolution is 120 meters per pixel.

I think we're talking about the newer Chang'e 2 probe.
The main camera's spatial resolution will be 10 meters rather than 120 meters.

wiki

I kinda think you missed my point. Only half of the moon is lit by the sun at any given moment in time. From earth's perspective we see only the lit side of the moon or part of the lit side depending on positioning. From earth's perspective since we see only one side ever, there is a dark side of the moon. From the moons perspective there is always half of the moon that is dark.

reply to post by anon72


Actually NASA has lots of data on Chinese spacecrafts and I had to sort through about 10 different links to get to resolution data. Funny while doing that I didn't bother to look into Chang'e-2. I saw a couple of dated newswires and didn't think it was even launched yet.

Anyway that independent uk in the OP was a total waste of information, the entire article was texted in the OP here, and they didn't even name the probe! The narration in the video was equally zero informative.

To get back to the question of animation fly-overs, it still is. A satellite doesn't fly like the video, and it's much higher, and I'm not sure what the lowest orbit possible would be. 100 km is what's stated, I read LRO is going to try a 50 km orbit but didn't read a great deal on that. It's images are better than SELENE's, not as good as LRO's.

At least that Wiki link verified what I posted on Chang'e-1, it would have saved me lots of time if I just went there.

that looks like a computer sim not real imagery?

One crappy video and no images with the headline...


Looks like China are emulating NASA -

Ok...ok....
Were going to need a flashlight, 12 coathangers, 1 orange, one apple, one lemon, a magic marker, a roll of duct tape and 18 tylenol......

reply to post by Shadowalker


I think you are correct Sir.

And so well put.

Sad thing is I think only after a certain age will anyone get what you wrote.

Stick with the basics

As of tonight, June 11, 2011, 21% of the dark side of the Moon is visible from Earth:

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