SELENE Off To The Moon September 13

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is readying the lunar orbiter named SELENE for its launch on September 13. The Japanese organization is calling the mission the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program.

The mission is already four years behind its original launch date, so the organization is moving with deliberate speed and caution to make sure that the probe lifts off this time.

The probe will orbit the moon, conducting mineral analysis and geography study, as well as close observation of the magnetic field and gravitation of our closest celestial neighbor.

The probe, which actually consists of three discrete pieces, will have a mission duration of one year, which is why the study will be able to gather so much information. The main orbiter will be positioned in a polar orbit, at a mean distance of 60 miles from the lunar surface.  The relay satellite will be in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 1440 miles from the lunar surface, and will be relaying information from the main orbiter to the ground stations on Earth. The third piece called VRAD, standing for very long baseline interferometry radio satellite, will be doing all the analysis of the lunar gravitation.

[tags] JAXA, SELENE, VRAD, moon mission, Apollo missions, space exploration [/tags]