Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter is scheduled for launch at 7:30pm MDT tonight. A web broadcast can be viewed at: http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f13/index_e.html Kaguya (fna Selene) is a major multi-spectral lunar mapping mission on the order of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Its main visual imaging camera has a 10 meter resolution. Unlike SMART-1, a miniaturized satellite testbed, Kaguya is 3 ton behemoth measuring 2.1m x 2.1m x 4.8m. Kaguya is jam packed with the great array of multispectral imagers. http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/en/index.htm By comparison, SMART-1, a miniaturized satellite testbed, was a 287kg 1 meter cube and its main visual camera had an 80 meter resolution. Modern advanced amateur lunar imagers typically reach 250-300 meter resolutions. One of the objectives of the mission is to create a full nearside map of the Moon down to 20 meter resolution precision. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net