The Chang’e-1 probe is a Chinese mission to map the Moon. It’s been returning some nice images, and — shocker — some people have doubted their authenticity.
What is surprising is that it’s not the usual boneheads here in the states, but "Chinese Internet users" who have cast doubts. A Reuters article released today says that some people in China think the images looks a bit too much like one released by NASA back in 2005.
There were two craters on a certain spot of the Chinese photo, but there was only one on that same spot of the American picture, the Beijing News quoted [Chang'e-1 chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan] as saying.
“Maybe it’s because the resolution of the American photo was not high enough, or a new pit might have been generated by an asteroid hitting the moon between 2005 and 2007,” Ouyang said.
Personally, I strongly doubt it’s a new crater, unless it was on the far side. An impact of any decent size would probably have been spotted. However, the article is short on details: I don’t know what crater they mean, what size it is, or even what 2005 NASA image they mean. NASA hasn’t had a lunar mission since Lunar Prospector crashed into the lunar south pole region in 1999. It must have been a ground-based image, or else they mean it was taken by the European probe SMART-1. Or it may have been the Hubble images released in 2005 (Hubble’s resolution of the lunar surface is only about 150-200 meters, so Chang’e-1 actually would take higher-res images). But those images were of the Moon’s northern hemisphere, not southern, which was the target of the Chang’e-1 images.
So I’m a little baffled by all this. Hopefully someone with better resources (and more time) than I have can look into this a little deeper. I’d actually like to see the two images side-by-side to see how much better the Chinese probe can do!
Hat tip to Dan Durda and the other folks who sent this to me.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
That some people inside China doubt China’s space capabilities doesn’t surprise me. Recall that China, until relatively recently, was a Maoist/Stalinist state that lied to its people so often about so many things that it made the United States seem like the mythical George Washington when it came to matters of veracity. China’s still not quite gotten over that phase (although it’s been quietly moving away from it for years, even if pointing out ideological differences is answered with a muttered “we don’t talk about it to outsiders”), and so it’s not too unreasonable for there to be doubters and denialists and… heh… Chinese Moon Hoaxers.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
Careful now Chinese Moon Hoaxers. A doubting attitude like that could get you a new job as a speed bump for tanks.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Mooncakes are people!
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 am
You mean the Chinese haven’t yet been to the Moon? I thought I saw some pictures….
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
> Careful now Chinese Moon Hoaxers. A doubting attitude like that could get you a new job as a speed bump for tanks.
As soon as we figure out how to drive them through the intertubes. Because the intertubes aren’t like a big truck we can dump tanks on, it’s more like a series of tubes we have to drive tanks through, but the tubes get clogged easily by tanks, and then we have to clear them with the Will of the People (i.e. the crew has to get out and push, and when we’re talking a 50-ton tank, that doesn’t work so well)…
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
…we have to clear them with the Will of the People…
I read that initially as “the Wii of the People”. I’m not sure how to interpret that — some sort of geeky Freudian slip, or maybe just that I need to put on my reading glasses. There’s bound to be a good joke in there somewhere, however. Something about world peace through video games…
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
The german Spiegel has these two photos, but nothing else:
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/0,1518,grossbild-1036324-521006,00.html
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I read that initially as “the Wii of the Peopleâ€.
What you were probably thinking of is “Wii the People”, the worship words of the Yangs in Star Trek – The Omega Glory Video Game.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
The german Spiegel has these two photos, but nothing else…
The left one is obviously from Clementine, which photographed the Moon’s surface in color. The right one cannot be a b/w version of it because the lighting is different. Clementine conducted a global lunar surface mapping in the early ‘90 (filling last white regions of the lunar map!) so it would be odd if it had not imaged the same region.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I think the tank crews have it hard enough, trying to unclog their tanks from the intertubes. Asking them to do it with their Wiis will just cause nasty bruising.
Oddly enough, debates here routinely remind me of “The Omega Glory,” for more reasons than one.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Obviously the Moon has rotated through about 10 degrees between those photos
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Yes, but has it imaged the alien bases and artificial structures? Where’s Richard Hoagland when we need him?
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Kullat Nunu says: “Clementine conducted a global lunar surface mapping in the early ‘90 (filling last white regions of the lunar map!) so it would be odd if it had not imaged the same region”
Being the first (and so far, only) military mission to the moon, Clementine was in polar orbit, naturally. Nobody does photo reconnaissance like the Air Force!
- Jack
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Hmmm, those Spiegel images are interesting. The sunlight direction changes, which makes some craters less obvious, others more obvious. This may have something to do with it.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I don’t see any craters missing in the pictures…
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
> Yes, but has it imaged the alien bases and artificial structures? Where’s Richard Hoagland when we need him?
Bah! Who needs Hoggie for anything, when one has the power of imagination?
Give me ten minutes with Photochop when I get home today.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Re Spiegel photos, at a quick glance it appears that the crater in the upper right in the b+w is missing. It is simply not in the picture but the angle seems to stretch it outside. Anyway this could be the problem if Spiegel is reporting what the Chinese denialists are reporting accurately… arrrgh!
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I must admit, I’m impressed with Chinese technology. Who’d have thought you could detect boneheads on Earth using a lunar orbiter?
December 4th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
To Centipede:
Just make it look like there’s something actually there!
December 4th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Folks,
The field of view between the two photos is slightly different. In fact, the Chinese photo has information (ie. craterlets) which are not within the field of view of the Clementine photo. Also, the “missing crater” is not there due to the fact it is not within the field of view. Finally and due to lighting, there are many examples of greater detail within the Chinese photo than the Clementine photo (ex. the rim of the crater to the immediate right of Gill).
For the Chinese photo to be a “clone” of the Clementine photo, I would expect the cloned result to have the same or a smaller field of view. The fact that the Chinese photo has information which is not available in the Clementine photo (ex. see bottom ledt corner as well as the large crater just to the north of the bottom left corner) excludes any sort of cloning of this particular Clementine photo.
Anthony.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
PS. The small crater in the bottom right corner of the Chinese photo is also not in the Clementine photo which further reinforces the differing field of view as well as center of the photo.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Does this mean that the Japanesse pics are fake as well?… give us a break!