Far side of the moon filmed by Nasa

This amazing video has been publish by Nasa this week:



This images shows the dark side of the moon, an area of the moon that due to the rotational movement of the moon and the Earth couldn´t be observed.

But one of the twin GRAIL spacecraft launched by Nasa last September has returned its first video of the Moon's hidden side.

This video and all the data collected had been use to reconstruct a topographic map of the dark and unknown area wich is the dark side as haven´t done before.

The images show a more leaky than the visible part because it recives more impacts. In adition, we could observe the Drygalski crater, wich have acurious star form inside. This crater can be seen in the second 29 of the video in the bottom right side.

At end, an amzing image from dark side:

VIa: NASA

Artículo en Español

First High Resolution Global Topographic Lunar Map revealed

Despite the closeness between the Moon and the Earth, no global lunar map had been made until just two days ago.

On the 16th of November the dataset we had been waiting for since the Apollo era, according to Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the LROC, was revealed. The LROC (Lunar Recconnaissance Orbiter Camera) is the responsible for taking the pictures. This instrument belongs to a robotic spacecraft orbiting the Moon since 2009 with the aim of identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technology.

The LROC is made up of three cameras: two narrow and one wide angular one. A very similar camera to this last (WAC) is being used in another parallel programm around Mars.

The camera orbits at an average altitude of 50km and has a pixel scale of about 75 meters, so a WAC image swath is 70km wide around the ground-track, so it nearly covers the entire lunar surface in around one month. However we don't obtain the same images every month, but with tocks reflecting light under different conditions. This collection of stereo images are the ones that -after being treated- lead as to the final model. 69000 stereo images are need to get it. In spite of this huge amount of information, there are presistent shadows near the poles, but the spacecraft includes a laser altimeter (LOLA) that provides a precise topographic reconstruction since the spacecraft orbits converge at the poles therefore the "pole holes" can be filled.

The model is called GLD100 and covers 98,2% of the lunar surface and it was obtained this way:

The WAC stereo images arecompared one against another by pattern-matching a moving box of pixels until the best fit was found between two images with different viewing angles. Best fit pixel positions are combined with the LRO orbit position and the WAC viewing angles to define two 3D rays (lines of sight). The intersection point of these rays defines the location and the elevation of the point on the surface. Since the correlation box is bigger than 100 meters, surface details at the 100-meter scale are not fully resolved in a single stereo pair. However, each 100 meter square has an average of 26 stereo points within it , which helps to sharpen the elevation estimate. The accuracy of the elevations is estimated to be about 10 to 20 meters. Anyway, this map was built from the first year of stereo imaging, but there is already data corresponding to another year, what will make possible a more accurate model.

This project is related to our CanSat secondary mission, also consisting on creating a 3D map from previously treated images.

Via: NASA

Artículo en español

Article en français

What is our CanSat going to do?

The principal function that any CanSat has to realize is to take information of pressure and temperature. Every team must develop a secondary function in its CanSat. In our case, the CanSat is going to open two arms with two cameras to take images of the zone where it lands. Once these images are taken, we are going to treat them to make a 3D map.

Due to the fact that last year the rocket in which the CanSat was thrown crashed in a mountain, and they couldn't recover it, this year we are going to place a buzzer that will be sounding since we put the CanSat in the rocket until we recover it, in order not to lose it. In addition, we will add an accelerometer. If it is possible, we will also add a sensor of magnetic field in order to know the orientation of the CanSat all the time.

On Juan de la Cosa's map

The first world map including the American continent we have proof of, is the one designed by Juan de la Cosa, which is still today preserved in the Museo Naval in Madrid. It covers the whole Europe and Africa as well as an important part of Asia, and what is even more important: the West Indies and a great part of the American coast.

It consists of a scroll on two joined leathers measuring 1.83 meters long and 0.96 meters high. The main axis coincides with the Tropic of Cancer, which is one of the three drawn reference lines. This is the reason why it is so difficult to compare this map with an actual one. Even though, considering the then cartographic tools, Juan de la Cosa’s work is praiseworthy because of the high precision Europe and Africa’s outline is made.

In the map, there is a wide variety of illustrations. At the beginning, there is a reference to Christopher Columbus: an image of St. Christopher crossing the river with a wooden walking stick carrying on his shoulder Baby Jesus. Below there is an explanation:

Juan de la cofa la fizo en el puerto de S. mª. en el año de 1500

This means: “Juan de la Cosa made it in the Port of Santa Maria in 1500”. Under it, there is a 16-armed compass card with a Virgin at the center and a caption marking the “Marcoceanum”.

The rest of the map also has a great variety of the main geographical elements’ illustrations. In Asia they stand out the image of a headless man, referring to the monsters described by Marco Polo in his adventures or the Biblical allusions to Babel’s Tower or the Three Wise Men.

The main ports, winds and caravels are also represented.