SoylentNews

NASA Releases Photos of Illuminated Dark Side of the Moon

posted by janrinok on Friday August 07 2015, @09:21PM   
from the say-Pink-Floyd dept.

fliptop writes:

We can't see the far side of the moon from Earth because the two bodies are tidally locked. NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory has captured a series of pictures as the moon passed in front of the sunlit side of Earth and will keep doing so about twice a year:

The images, taken on 16 July, show the moon moving across the Pacific Ocean towards North America. Its far side is shown in detail owing to sunlight hitting it, revealing a crater and a large plain called the Mare Moscoviense.

[...] Associate Professor Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University, said the images of the far side of the moon were "captivating".

"It's unusual because you need a spacecraft that has gone beyond the moon to get a picture of the moon like this," he said. "This was taken around one million miles from Earth. We don't normally get that perspective."

---

Original Submission

• what a history (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Friday August 07 2015, @10:06PM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday August 07 2015, @10:06PM (#219704) Journal

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Climate_Observatory [wikipedia.org]

  Originally known as Triana, named after Rodrigo de Triana, the first of Columbus's crew to sight land in the Americas, the satellite's original purpose was to provide a near-continuous view of the entire Earth and make that live image available via the Internet. Gore hoped not only to advance science with these images, but also to raise awareness of the Earth itself, updating the influential Blue Marble photograph taken by Apollo 17. In addition to an imaging camera, a radiometer would take the first direct measurements of how much sunlight is reflected and emitted from the whole Earth (albedo). This data could constitute a barometer for the process of global warming. The scientific goals expanded to measure the amount of solar energy reaching Earth, cloud patterns, weather systems, monitor the health of Earth's vegetation, and track the amount of UV light reaching the surface through the ozone layer.

  In 1999, NASA's Inspector General reported that "the basic concept of the Triana mission was not peer reviewed", and "Triana's added science may not represent the best expenditure of NASA's limited science funding." The Bush Administration put the project on hold shortly after George W. Bush's inauguration. Members of the U.S. Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences whether the project was worthwhile. The resulting report, released March 2000, stated that the mission was "strong and scientifically vital."

  Triana was removed from its original launch opportunity on STS-107 (the ill-fated Columbia mission in 2003). The $100 million satellite remained in storage for the duration of the Bush administration. In November 2008 the satellite was removed from storage and began recertification for a possible launch on board a Delta II or a Falcon 9. Al Gore used part of his book Our Choice (2009) as an attempt to revive debate on the DSCOVR payload. The book mentions legislative efforts by Senators Barbara Mikulski and Bill Nelson to get the satellite launched. NASA renamed the satellite Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), in an attempt to regain support for the project. In February 2011, the Obama administration attempted to secure funding to re-purpose the DSCOVR spacecraft as a solar observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft.

  In September 2013 NASA cleared DSCOVR to proceed to the implementation phase targeting an early 2015 launch, which had been announced in December 2012 as launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is providing management and systems engineering to the mission.

  --
  [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Informative=3, Total=3
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5