3D Chinese Moon
The Moon Goddess
Waiting, she finds her silk stockings
soaked with the dew drops
glistening on the marble steps.
Finally, she is moving
to let the crystal-woven curtain fall
when she casts one more glance
at the glamorous autumn moon.
Li Bai, aka Li Po (701-762)
China published its first moon image sent back by its lunar probe Chang’e-1, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon.
The picture was pieced together from 19 images, each covering a width of 60 kilometers of the moon’s surface. The area covered by the picture, about 460 kilometers in length and 280 kilometers in width, is located within a 54 to 70 degrees south latitude and 57 to 83 degrees east longitude on the moon, according to sources with Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).
The camera aboard China’s lunar probe Chang’e-1 is a high performance CCD (Charge Coupled Device) stereo camera, which has three lenses to take photos of the lunar surface from three different angles to build up a 3D image.
Hao Xifan, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration Center of China’s Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, said that the 3D image will possibly be published in January next year.
Chang’e-1 is expected to photograph the whole lunar surface in a month, as the moon’s rotation period is one month.
After Chang’e-1 sends back the data, researchers have to spend months piecing together the data and complete the entire lunar surface image.
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Ilari Valbonesi @ November 27, 2007