SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) Spacecraft

The Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya (SELENE) was successfully launched by 
            an H2A rocket on September 14, 2007. On October 4, 2007, after passing 
            through a phasing orbit 2.5 times around the Earth, Kaguya was inserted 
            into a large elliptical orbit circling the Moon. After the apolune altitude
            was lowered, Kaguya reached its nominal 100 km circular polar observation 
            orbit on October 19. During the process of realizing the nominal orbit, 
            two subsatellites Okina (Rstar) and Ouna (Vstar) were released into 
            elliptical orbits with 2400 km and 800 km apolune, respectively; both 
            elliptical orbits had 100 km perilunes. After the functionality of bus 
            system was verified, four radar antennas and a magnetometer boom were 
            extended, and a plasma imager was deployed. Acquisition of scientific 
            data was carried out for 10 months of nominal mission that began in 
            mid-December 2007. During the 8-month extended mission, magnetic fields 
            and gamma-rays from lower orbits were measured; in addition to this, 
            low-altitude observations were carried out using a Terrain Camera, a 
            Multiband Imager, and an HDTV camera. New data pertaining to an intense 
            magnetic anomaly and GRS data with higher spatial resolution were 
            acquired to study magnetism and the elemental distribution of the Moon. 
            After some orbital maneuvers were performed by using the saved fuel, the 
            Kaguya spacecraft finally impacted on the southeast part of the Moon.

Kaguya Spacecraft

Text-based and an interactive map-based search interface for finding and downloading desired orbital observations

Kaguya

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