KAGUYA moves to normal operations
Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 21:54 UTC
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that the operation phase of the lunar explorer, KAGUYA (SELENE) was transitioned to normal operations from its initial check out on December 21, 2007 as JAXA was able to acquire satisfactory verification results for all fifteen observation missions.
JAXA had been conducting an initial functional verification of the KAGUYA onboard systems (for both the bus and mission instruments) for about two months since the KAGUYA was injected into observation orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on Oct 18, 2007.
From now on, the spacecraft will perform regular operations for about ten months to acquire data on "Moon Science" and other studies. Although the X-ray Spectrometer and Charged Particle Spectrometer were found not performing to its full specifications JAXA will cope with the problems during the normal operations while continuing to investigate the cause.
Image Credit: JAXA/NHK
High resolution image
This still image is a snapshot from a HD movie taken by the onboard HDTV camera on November 19. The still image shows the area around the landing site of the Apollo 17 (1972) (between "Monte Taurus" from north to south in the lower center.) The left side is "Mare Serenitatis."
| Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | |
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