19-November-2008, 01:51 AM
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Order of Kilopi
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 13,458
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Extended mission
Planetary Society Weblog: Kaguya now in its extended mission
Quote:
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For its primary mission, Kaguya circled the Moon in a polar orbit at 100 kilometers altitude (much as Chandrayaan-1 is now doing). Kaguya will continue doing this until March of next year, when it will shift to a low-altitude orbit, and I mean low. At first, it will reduce its altitude by half, circling at 50 kilometers altitude. At this much lower level, Kaguya will be sensitive to much finer-scale variations in the gravity field of the Moon than it was during the primary phase of its mission. Then, in May, it will shift to a more elliptical orbit, back up to 100 kilometers at apolune but diving to an incredible 20 kilometers at perilune, which will be over the south pole and the very interesting Aitken Basin.
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And it crashes to an end between June and August.
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