Preliminary Results of the SELENE Terrain Camera

On September 14, 2007, Moon explorer SELENE (Kaguya) was launched to the Moon carrying a 10-m spatial resolution stereo-camera, the Terrain Camera (TC). Particular mission objectives of the TC include Polar regions and Mare regions such as Oceanus Procellarum, South-Pole to Aitken basin, and Mare Orientale, that have not been observed with TC's high-resolution stereoscopy. The first TC data of the Moon were obtained on Nov. 3, 2007. We confirmed 1) that the TC had not generated any defective pixels and would achieve high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) performance and 2) that the TC could provide high-quality data in the Polar regions and a 180 km region extending from 60N to 66N along 240E. We could acquire scientific information from ortho images and digital terrain models (DTMs) produced from these TC first data. On Nov. 24, 2007, we acquired several sequential strip data, from which a seamless mosaicked TC ortho image and DTMs were successfully produced. These seamless mosaicked data will be very useful for investigating large mare regions. After completion of the nominal checkout phase on Dec. 21, 2007, the TC began the nominal mission operation phase with other mission instruments. Thus, we could confirm that TC will provide fundamental assets for lunar science from the initial checkout phase data.