“Moon: Video Flights Above the Surface” - based on high-resolution photo images transmitted by the Kaguya lunar satellite. Google Moon Interactive App

In 2007, Japan launched an artificial moon satellite, which was named “ Kaguya" in honor of moon princess from an old Japanese fairy tale. The more official name of the mission is SELENE (from SELenological and ENgineering Explorer, i.e. “selenological and technological research apparatus”). Together with “Kaguya”, two subsatellites were launched - “Okina” and “Oyuna” (named after the fairy-tale old man and old woman who sheltered the lunar princess) - their task was, flying in independent orbits, to relay radio signals between the Earth and the main satellite and help in parts of measurements.

"Kaguya" and its subsatellites flew around the surface along various trajectories for almost two years. During this time they were transferred thousands of high resolution photos . A topographic map of the Moon was compiled with a resolution of 15 km. Hundreds of different parameters of our only natural satellite have been measured.

Since the pictures were taken from space, i.e. the Earth's atmosphere did not create interference, then the photo surface of the moon turned out super clear. In addition, the photographs also show view of the Earth from the Moon from different angles and in different positions relative to each other...

Based on the submitted photographs, many fascinating HDTV video. Here are some of the most colorful examples of lunar videos (all videos are available watch online in high definition in full screen):

1. Video of the lunar surface in the area of ​​the Copernicus crater (its diameter is 93 km)

2. Earth rising over the Moon on April 5, 2008 (closer view of the Earth)

3. Video of the Kaguya flyby of the Tycho crater. The crater is located in the southern part of the Moon and is surrounded by a system of “rays” up to one and a half thousand kilometers long.

4. Video flight over the south pole of the Moon

5. Video of the far side of the Moon (in the Moscow Sea area)

6. Short promo video for the Kaguya project

7. And finally, a short documentary about the history of lunar exploration and the Kaguya mission (in English)

Space is getting closer and closer to us. Man has already left his mark on the moon. The next step is the construction of a permanent base on it. Japan, China, India, the European Union, the USA - all of them, one way or another, are developing their own lunar programs. Flights of probes to the Moon, exploration of its surface and interior, search for water and mineral deposits are the first stage in the implementation of these plans. The Second Moon Race is in full swing. We can only hope that Russia will also find its place in this grandiose space enterprise...

However, the Moon, for all its fascinating “cosmic” nature, is perceived rather functionally. Romance seems to live on now on Mars... You can compare them by watching: “Planet Mars: video flights over the surface” - based on high-resolution photo images transmitted by the Mars reconnaissance orbiter ...

UPD.1.
On the official website of the Kaguya project (KAGUYA/ SELENE): http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/en/index.htm - you can watch and download video and photo images of the Moon in high resolution.

(The Japanese server is sometimes unavailable. Below in the comments are posted the most beautiful ones, in our opinion High resolution photographs of the Moon, taken from Kaguya's apparatus.)

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Planetary scientists from the American Ohio State University (OSU) explained the origin of the most noticeable features of the lunar landscape - the “seas” and “oceans”. Scientists believe that they were caused by a collision with an asteroid that crashed into the Moon from the opposite side. According to new research, an extremely large object once struck the invisible side of the Moon and was able to send a shock wave even through the lunar core to the side of the Moon that faces Earth. The lunar crust there “peeled off” and “burst” in places - and now the Moon has characteristic scars from that long-ago cataclysm. This discovery is of great importance for the future exploration of lunar minerals, and in addition, all this will probably help solve some terrestrial geological mysteries related to the impact of collisions with large celestial bodies on the Earth. Already the first flights of the Soviet lunar probes and the American Apollos showed that the shape of the Moon is far from an ideal sphere. And the most significant deviations from this sphere are observed in two places at once, and the bulge on the side that always faces the Earth corresponds to a dent on the invisible side of the Moon. However, for a long time it was believed that these surface features were caused only by the influence of Earth’s gravity, which “pulled” this hump from the Moon at the dawn of its existence, when the lunar surface was molten and plastic.
Now, Laramie Potts and geological sciences professor Ralph von Frese of Ohio State University have been able to explain these features as being due to ancient asteroid impacts. Potts and von Frese came to this conclusion after studying data on variations in the lunar gravitational field (which, in principle, allows one to map the lunar "innards" and find indications of the concentrations of minerals useful to humans) obtained using NASA's Clementine satellites " (Clementine, DSPSE) and "Lunar Prospector". It was expected that material displacements caused by powerful collisions with large celestial bodies with the absorption of impact energy (these places correspond to huge impact craters on the surface) could also be tracked in layers located below the lunar crust, at the level of the mantle (that is, in a vast layer , separating the metallic lunar core from its thin outer crust), but nothing more. However, it turned out that the extensive dents not only correspond to the same bulges on the opposite side of the Moon, but, moreover, there are similar bulges in the mantle layer - as if squeezed out by some powerful blow coming straight from the lunar bowels. In this way, it is possible to trace the path of shock waves that affected the lunar interior in a certain selected direction.
Beneath the lunar surface where the supposed impact occurred, a “concave region” was discovered where the mantle extends into the core. The "dent" in the core is located 700 kilometers below the surface. - Scientists say they did not expect to see traces of a “cosmic catastrophe” so deeply. It follows from this that the molten layer was unable to absorb the powerful impact of the asteroid - and the wave spread further into the Moon. Potts and von Frese believe that all the key events that determined the current pattern of the lunar "seas" occurred about 4 billion years ago, during the period when our Moon was still geologically active - its core and mantle were then liquid and filled with flowing magma . The Moon at that time was much closer to the Earth than it is now (later it gradually moved away due to tidal influences), so the gravitational interactions between these celestial bodies were especially strong. When magma was released from the depths of the Moon by collisions with asteroids and created a kind of vast “hill,” the earth’s gravity seemed to “pick up” it and did not let go of it until everything there hardened. So the distorted surface on the visible and invisible sides of the Moon and the characteristic internal features connecting the depression and the protrusion are a direct legacy of those ancient times that the Moon was never able to heal. The strange dark valleys-"sea" on the lunar side visible from Earth are explained by magma that has flowed to the surface and frozen forever (this is a "frozen ocean of magma", as von Frese puts it). Exactly how such vast volumes of magma managed to find their way to the lunar surface remains unclear, but scientists suggest that those powerful cataclysms discussed above may have triggered the appearance of a geological “hot spot” - a concentration of magma bubbles near the surface. After some time, part of the magma contained there under pressure was able to seep through cracks in the crust.

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. The planet's closest satellite to the Sun, since the planets closest to the Sun, Mercury and Venus, do not have satellites. The second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system. The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,467 km (0.002 57 AU, ~ 30 Earth diameters). The Moon is the only astronomical object outside the Earth visited by humans.

The first artificial object to overcome the Earth's gravity and fly near the Moon was the Soviet Luna 1 station. The first satellite to reach the surface of the Moon was Luna 2. The first satellite to take photographs of the far side of the Moon was Luna 3. All three of these lunar programs were successfully completed in 1959. The first successful soft landing on the Moon was carried out by the Soviet Luna 9 station. The American Apollo lunar program began in the early 60s of the last century with President Kennedy's statement that the United States would launch a man on the Moon before the end of the 60s. As a result of this program, the United States managed to carry out 6 successful flights to the Moon between 1969 and 1972. After the completion of the Apollo program, research on our natural satellite virtually ceased for a period of more than 30 years. Only at the beginning of this century, several countries, including Russia, the USA and China, announced the start of their lunar programs, the results of which should be the return of man to the Moon.

For the first time, the North American Space Agency (NASA) has posted high-resolution photographs of the Apollo lunar program on the Internet. More than 9,000 high-resolution images, which have never been seen before by anyone except specialists, were recently posted on the photo hosting site Flickr for free use. According to NASA, this is only the first step towards popularizing photographic documents of the Apollo program, and other photographs will be made publicly available in the near future.

The Apollo program operated from 1961 to 1975. During this period, 11 manned expeditions were sent to the Earth’s natural satellite, of which 9 reached the Moon, 6 successfully landed on its surface, and one, due to an accident, was forced to fly around the Moon without landing and return home (the other 2 carried out preparatory tasks and landed on The moon was not provided). The cost of the thirteen-year program was $25 billion (139 billion in 2005 dollars), which is almost 10 times less (!) than the costs of the 9-year war in Iraq.

The six successful expeditions were Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. Apollo 13 almost suffered a tragedy due to an accident on board. It was decided to cancel the landing on the Moon, the crew was ordered to transfer from the service module to the landing module, and were emergency sent back to earth.

Especially for the readers of this blog, I posted all 9,000 photographs and made a selection of photographs from several expeditions of the Apollo lunar program.

02. Apollo 11 Expedition - July 20, 1969 First successful landing on the Moon| The lunar lander carrying Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin has undocked from the service module and is heading towards the surface of the Moon. The third crew member, Michael Collins, remained in the service module.

03. The first photo of the surface of the Moon after landing.

04. Unfortunately, this collection does not contain photographs of the exit of Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon. From the porthole, the staircase down which Armstrong was descending was not visible. His exit was recorded only by a television camera mounted on an external stand, through which a live broadcast was made to Earth. A few minutes later, Armstrong moved her to another location. All that Edwin Aldrin could photograph in those minutes was the American flag that Armstrong stuck into the lunar soil and a television camera standing in the distance.

05. If a photojournalist had been on the Moon at that time, Armstrong’s exit he filmed might have looked something like this. Here Armstrong filmed Aldrin's entrance. At this moment it was important not to slam the hatch behind you. There was no handle on the outside of the exit hatch. If the hatch had slammed shut, the astronauts would have been unable to enter the module and return to Earth.

06. As you know, the first words that Neil Armstrong uttered when he first stepped onto the lunar surface were: “One small step for man, but giant leap for mankind.”

07. Footprint of one of the astronauts in the lunar soil.

08. Few people know that the first object that the astronauts threw out of the open door was a bag of garbage (!). Very human, isn't it?

09. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walk on the moon. One poses, the other takes photographs.

10. Lunar workdays have begun. Edwin Aldrin installs a solar wind collector screen. It was a sheet of aluminum foil 30 cm wide and 140 cm long and was intended to trap helium, neon and argon ions.

12. Edwin Aldrin deploys a seismometer.

14. Soil samples are taken.

15. Edwin Aldrin poses next to the flag. This photo has been the subject of heated debate for many years. Conspiracy theorists argued that the supposedly waving flag indicates that the filming was done not on the moon, but on the earth, and here the action of the wind fluttering the flag is evident. Fortunately, anyone can now go into the photo archive of this expedition and view all the photographs that were taken that day. The bend of the flag fabric is the same in all photographs, which eloquently demonstrates the absurdity of conspiracy theorists’ suspicions. When the wind moves the fabric of the flag, its shape will change every second and it is almost impossible to repeat it.

16. It is known that when preparing the first expedition to the Moon, engineers proceeded from the assumption that over the billions of years of the moon’s history, a layer of dust several feet thick had accumulated on its surface. Therefore, the “legs” of the landing module were made long, with the expectation that during landing they would drown in dust. To the surprise of NASA developers and engineers, the layer of dust on the Moon turned out to be no more than 3-5 cm. Does this indicate the young age of the Moon, and therefore the Earth? There's a lot to think about.

17. The astronauts spent 2.5 hours on the lunar surface. When they returned to the lander, they threw away a few more items that they no longer needed - portable life support packs (the same ones they carried with them), lunar outer boots and a camera (the tapes with the footage were, of course, saved ). This was necessary to minimize the take-off weight of the module.

18. Commemorative plaque: “At this place, people from planet Earth first set foot on the Moon in July 1969 AD. We come in peace on behalf of all mankind.” The lower block of the landing module, on the stand of which the sign was attached, remained on the Moon.

19. The road home. The Apollo 11 lunar lander, after taking off from the Moon, approaches the command module that was waiting for it in orbit.

20. Apollo 12 Expedition - November 19, 1969. Second moon landing| Earth rising over the Moon.

21. Another Earthrise. Continuous phrase: "Earthrise."

22. View of the lunar surface from the landing module window.

23. Night on Earth.

24. One of the main tasks of the Apollo 12 crew was to find the robotic Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which landed on the Moon 2.5 years earlier. The crew successfully completed this task and landed the lunar module 200 meters from the Surveyor. In the photo, crew commander Charles Conrad stands next to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. The astronauts removed some parts from it and took it with them to earth. Scientists were interested in how these objects were affected by their long stay on the Moon. The Apollo 12 lander is in the background.

25. Apollo 15 Expedition - July 30, 1971. Fourth moon landing| This expedition was the first time a lunar vehicle was used.

26. Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin spent almost three days on the Moon. During this time, they made three trips to the surface with a total duration of 18.5 hours.

27. Wheel tracks of a lunar car. The astronauts traveled 28 kilometers on it.

28. One of the astronauts installs scientific equipment.

29. The lunar car was developed by Boeing engineers. The wheels are made of woven steel wire. The car ran on electric batteries and could reach speeds of up to 13 km/h, and even more. However, high speed was undesirable, since under the conditions of the Moon the lunar car weighed 6 times less than on earth, and at high speed it was tossed strongly on uneven surfaces.

30. Relatively weak gravity was the reason that when walking, a lot of lunar dust rose, which settled on clothes. Pay attention to the astronaut's feet, black with dust.

31. Apollo 16 Expedition - April 21, 1972. Fifth moon landing| Unlike previous landings, which were made on more or less flat surfaces, Apollo 16 landed in a mountainous area, on plateaus.

32. Morning jog?))

33. The astronauts have clearly gotten comfortable on the Moon. A lunar car parked near the landing module, scientific equipment, and a working astronaut. There is no longer that wariness and uncertainty that is visible in the photographs of Apollo 11.

34. One of the astronauts got the lens dirty.

35. A beautiful shot of the Earth suspended in space. We humans live somewhere on this planet. We are born, we die, we create something, we fight for some reason.... How petty and insignificant all this seems from afar, from space.

36. The surface of the Moon as the lunar module approaches.

37. Apollo 17 Expedition - December 11, 1972. Sixth and final moon landing| Thanks to the lunarmobile, astronauts were able to move several kilometers away from the landing module and descend to the bottom of huge craters.

38. During the next landing in the lunar vehicle, crew commander Eugene Cernan hooked a hammer sticking out of his pocket on the wing above one of the wheels and tore it off. If on Earth such a breakdown is not considered serious, then on the Moon everything is different. Due to the lack of a wing, dust rose during movement, which settled on the astronauts’ clothes and on the instruments of the lunar vehicle. The black color of the dust attracted heat and created a risk of overheating. The astronauts had to urgently look for a way out of the situation. They managed to attach the wing using duct tape.

39. Collection of soil samples. The astronaut's clothes are stained with lunar dust.

40. Lunomobile against the backdrop of one of the mountains.

41. Lunar relief.

42. Return of the last lunar expedition. Dawn on Earth.

43. Huge ocean spaces. Oh, if only part of these spaces were dry land.

44. Our dear blue ball.

46. ​​The relief surface of the Moon and the rising Earth.

48. The astronauts who visited the Moon were the only people who could look at the lunar craters without a telescope.

49. During the Apollo 17 expedition, the astronauts drilled 8 wells 2.5 meters deep. Explosives weighing from 50 grams to 2.5 kg were placed in the wells. After the astronauts left the Moon, on command from Earth, the explosives were detonated and scientists used instruments to measure the speed of propagation of seismic waves.

50. On his way home, astronaut Ronald Evans performs a routine inspection of his spacecraft.

52. Crew commander Eugene Cernan and astronaut Ronald Evans.

53. What kind of device is so unusual? Looks like someone's brain under glass.

54. Ronald Evans shaves on his way to Earth.

55. The Command and Service Module America awaits docking with the lunar module that last launched from the surface of the Moon. The flight of Apollo 17 became the longest manned flight to the Moon. A record number of lunar rock samples were brought to Earth. Records were set for the duration of astronaut stay on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. Apollo 17 was the most productive and almost problem-free lunar expedition.

56. More than 40 years have passed since the last time man walked on the moon. Will people return to the moon again? And is there any point in flying to the Moon again if it is now known for certain that there is nothing valuable there?

57. The Apollo lunar program is completed. The last look at the mountain range on the surface of the Moon, which rises above the Earth every night and illuminates our fields with its white light, is reflected as a light path in our seas, and shines through our windows while we sleep.

Photos: NASA

A photo archive of all 9,000 photographs in full resolution can be found on photo hosting

In high resolution from the Chang"e-2 lunar orbiter. Chinese scientists have compiled a global map of the Moon using photographs taken by the Chang"e-2 spacecraft with an unprecedented accuracy of 7 meters. Credit: China Space Program More global lunar images below.

Chinese scientists have compiled a high-resolution map of the entire Moon and released a series of global photographs of the Moon on Monday, February 6th.

The composite lunar maps were created from more than 700 high-resolution single photographs taken by China's Chang'e-2 spacecraft and published by the country's State Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), according to reports from Xinhua government agencies and new agencies. CCTV.

"The map and photographs are high-resolution photographs of the completeness of the lunar surface that have been published so far," said Liu Dongkui, a spokesman for the commander-in-chief of China's lunar probe project, Xinhua reported.

Of course, there are much higher resolution photographs of many single locations on the Moon, photographed from the orbit of other countries and from the surface by the lunar landing Apollo astronauts, as well as Russian and American landers and research mobile vehicles.

China has released a high-resolution global map of the Moon from the Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter. Credit: China Space Program.

Chang'e-2 is China's second lunar probe and it reached orbit around our nearest neighbor in space in October 2010. It was launched on October 1, 2010 and named after the legendary Chinese Moon Goddess.

The high-resolution photographs were taken between October 2010 and May 2011 using a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera as the spacecraft flew overhead in a highly elliptical orbit at altitudes ranging from 15 km to 100 km.

Chang'e-2's maps have a resolution of 7 meters, which is 17 times greater than that of China's first lunar orbiter; Chang'e-1 launched in 2007.

Global lunar map of the Chinese lunar orbiter Chang'e-2. Credit: China Space Program

In fact, the maps are detailed enough that Chinese scientists were able to detect traces of the Apollo landers, said Yan Yun, chief application scientist for the China Lunar Exploration Project.

Chang'e-2 also captured high-resolution images of the Sinus Iridum region, or Gulf of Rainbows, where China could land its next mission. The camera had a resolution of 1 meter at its lowest height.

The satellite left lunar orbit in June 2011 and currently orbits the Moon at the second Lagrange point (L2), located more than 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

Chinese space program officials hope for a 2013 launch of the Chang'e-3 lunar exploration module, which was the first to land on another astronomical body. China's next step after the research module may be to attempt a mission in 2017.

Demonstrating the ability to successfully conduct an unmanned lunar landing is a key milestone that must be achieved before China can land astronauts on the Moon, possibly within the next decade.

NASA's GRAIL twins recently reached lunar orbit over the New Year's holiday. The probe duo was simply renamed "Ebb and Flow" - the winning contestants in a naming contest submitted by 4th year US students from Bozeman, Montana.

At this time, NASA does not have a funded or approved robotic lunar landing mission due to severe budget cuts. And even harmful NASA cuts will soon be announced!

Russia hopes to send the Lunar Glob spacecraft around 2015.

Since the US unilaterally killed its plans to return to the US, it is very possible that the next flag placed on the people will be Chinese.