Comments on: Kaguya’s final moments

By: Markle

Markle — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:33:14 +0000

There's now a video of Kaguya's final flight into oblivion on YouTube.

By: craig

craig — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:03:16 +0000

funny that the kaguya took thousands of photos and yet only a handfull are available for view to the public. smells just as fishy as nasa. something seems to be being covered up.

By: Petrolonfire

Petrolonfire — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:49:07 +0000

Yeah, why not?

…. Done …

…. &, yeesh, they’ve got a young-earth creationist nutter writing for Satya’s mob too:

“Young earth creationist, Paul Giem, PhD on radiometric dating”

What a sad pack of fools.

By: Darren Garrison

Darren Garrison — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:12:09 +0000

Wanna have some more fun with the nut?

http://www.examiner.com/x-12038-SF-Astrology-Examiner~y2009m6d19-What-is-life?#comments

By: Impacto profundo: últimas imagens da sonda Kaguya antes da sua queda na Lua « Eternos Aprendizes

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:31:53 +0000

[...] Astronomy: Kaguya’s final moments por Phil [...]

By: drow

drow — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:42:16 +0000

“Oh moon, we are sorry for what our ancestors did. Please show us on this doll where the bad scientists touched you.”

By: Stone Age Scientist

Stone Age Scientist — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:08:54 +0000

Jules (Julia) @ #3, OMG!! I think I see Robin Williams' head whizzing about the surface. And now I know why people tend to look at the moon romantically; evidence being the heart-shaped crater.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:45:11 +0000

How dare they use violence in the name of science. Crashing a probe into the moon is like dropping nukes on a city to study the results. Did they ask the Moon for permission to attack it?

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:30:59 +0000

In Kaguya’s final moments
Came some pictures clear
Of our planet’s satellite
Far, and yet so near

Keep the mission, speed it onward
Till our footsteps fall
Once again on Luna’s soil
Thus, so say we all.

It messes up the original rhyme scheme, and the wording leaves something to be desired (and, fairly obviously, I read the spacecraft’s name as “Kayuga” until I took another look.)
But hey, not bad for a first cut.

By: Charlie Young

Charlie Young — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:11:50 +0000

@ 12
The original trips to the moon took along Hasselblad equipment for some of the most hi res film images ever seen from there. Most we see today were taken by a Hasselblad.

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:04:46 +0000

The Moon’s not dead, he’s restin’.

The Moon’s surface remodeling processes takes longer than Earth for obvious reasons. But wouldn’t eventually a meteorite clean away any damage done? Btw, what is the odds for the original landing places looking pristine after 40 years – I assume LRO has as a task to look into meteorite statistics and damage.

If we go there I do hope we avail ourselves of its resources in various forms including tourism and dust graffiti, instead of relying on the currently stressed Earth. (I also hope we will take care of any important clues for various sciences, but that is another matter.)

By: USS Kevin

USS Kevin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:29:26 +0000

Daniel Fischer asked:

“Why not link to JAXA’s English site about the final pictures?”

Because then we would not have a smelly furniture store on the Moon now, would we?

Preserve the Moon for geological purposes and protect our historical sites there, but otherwise it has no climate or ecology to save, so let us not get PC absurd here, shall we folks?

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:07:04 +0000

22:
Ah, Little Bunny, but what will you do when the Big Bad Wolf comes calling?

AH, the pristine moon, a wonderful, clean(danged dust), unspoiled wilderness,,,er, what’s that Jerry? Oh, right, I forgot, IT’S A FREAKING DEAD HUNK OF ROCK!!!

HAving said that, I too hope we cordon off the first landing sites or at least ask the Chinese to show a little respect,,,

AH, Chinese food on the moon. What more could one ask?

GAry 7

By: Naked Bunny with a Whip

Naked Bunny with a Whip — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:46:51 +0000

I agree with BJN and Big Al. Human suck, and anything they touch is by definition ruined.

Let the rabbits take over. We certainly won’t overpopulate the place once we’re at the top of the food chain. Trust me!

By: Phil Plait

Phil Plait — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:40:27 +0000

Daniel (#19) Because it wasn’t up yet when I wrote this piece?

By: Darren Garrison

Darren Garrison — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:35:59 +0000

Here’s a version of the story of Kaguya-hime:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14665347/Japanese-Fairy-Tale-Series-Extra-Princess-Splendor-the-Woodcutters-Daughter

By: Daniel Fischer

Daniel Fischer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:22:24 +0000

Why not link to JAXA's English site about the final pictures?

By: Todd W.

Todd W. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:00:37 +0000

Regarding the translation of kaguya, kagu means furniture, in Japanese, and -ya is a suffix that denotes a store. So, “furniture store”.

Kaguya is also the name of a princess from the moon in a 10th century Japanese folk tale. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter)

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:49:28 +0000

If you were like me and wondering why there was a smelly furniture store on the moon, it would appear that those are rather amusingly bad translations of “Kaguya”.

Incredible photos. It seems strange that once again, we’re heading to the Moon. Maybe this is the start of the second era of space exploration?

By: Bar

Bar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:36:06 +0000

Hopefully in the future we are more careful. Plymouth Rock was an ecological disaster.

We should start showing more respect for the Moon.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:26:09 +0000

Phil, I got to see the LRO launch live, thanks to your Tweets. It was pretty awesome! Do you know when will be near / in orbit around the Moon?

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:25:41 +0000

The first three pictures in that series reminds me of the quote from one of the Apollo astronauts – I think it was Gene Cernan, who said he can now look up at the moon and say, “That’s more than a bright circle in the sky. That’s a place. I’ve been there.”

Spacecraft such as Kaguya and, I hope, the LRO, give us all a chance to say that.

By: T.E.L.

T.E.L. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:06:58 +0000

Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum Said:

“With no atmosphere it’s possible to have a perilune of less than a kilometer, though on another orbital pass there might be a mountain there blocking your orbit… Pow!”

Jim Irwin said in his autobiography that there were times when his spacecraft’s orbit dipped below the peaks of many lunar mountains. He said that it was rather worrisome, watching whole ranges of them whooshing by, but that he and the other two guys kept silent and assumed that the people at Mission Control knew what they were doing.

This reminds me of Clarke’s short story Maelstrom II.

By: Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:06:57 +0000

HDTV= 1,920 * 1,080 pixels, or a mere 2.7 Megapixels…which is only slightly more than I had in my very first digital camera, a Kodak D165, which had 1.4 MPix.

If you want really impressive photos, launch the equivalent of a Hasselblacd CF-39 sensor, which is 39Mpix. Or better.

What’s the raw resolution of LRO?

By: Charlie Young

Charlie Young — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:05:50 +0000

I can “smell” a “furniture store” on the surface of the moon!