3-D Virtual Moon Browser from Kaguya Data

By Nancy Atkinson - November 5, 2009 at 4:57 PM UTC | Planetary Science
kaguya-screen-shot.JPG

JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has released all the data from the Kaguya mission to the public. One of the ways to view the data is through a very nifty 3-D virtual brower. It only is available in Japanese for now (English version by the end of November, they say) so it is a little difficult to navigate, but once you figure it out, prepare yourself for loads of fun. First, you need Java. Then...

go to this page and download the browser. (If you don't have Java, when you try to open the download it will ask you if you want to add Java.) When you get everything downloaded and the page opens up, (screenshot of page, above) look for the blue buttons on the top right. If you have a modern PC or laptop, click on the left blue button. If you have an old pre-Intel Mac, click the right blue button. Then again, it takes a while for the data to download. On the left are different data sets you can view from the different instruments. Unless you are familiar with the different instruments, it is kind of a crap shoot as far as what each one is; so just click one and see what comes up. The top one is for Clementine data, but the rest are from the different instruments on Kaguya. The Moon globe will fill in with data, and you can spin around and check out virtually any location on the Moon. It's pretty wild, and addictive. If you still have a hard time figuring it out, you'll have to wait for the English version. Or you can go to this page, which is a form where you can request what data you want to see. Enjoy!

The data was gathered from December 21, 2007 to October 31, 2008, and unfortunately, doesn't include images gathered by the HD camera.

Hat tip to Jeroen van Dorp!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com