Not shallow at all, nop; thanks! I'll certainly send an e-mail to NHK, but hopefully a lot more Japanese citizens will do the same...they are NHK's source of revenue, and therefore their opinion really counts!

EDIT: Nop, I just checked out the NHK English pages, and can't find a "contact us" link or an e-mail address anywhere. If you can, could you please post their e-mail address?

I could not find Email address or for customar page in English, too.

here is japanese page.
https://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/css/form/web/mail_program/query.cgi

(and fax +81-3-5453-4000)


it is macine tracelation.
please someone do good tracelate.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. I hope filling in the mail address without fail according to the convenience of the system. Moreover, please select sex, the age, and the classification though filling in the name, the address, and the telephone number is arbitrary.
2. Filling in the name, the address, and the telephone number is arbitrary. It is likely to answer in the methods (telephone and letter, etc.) other than "Reply" of mail, and fill in the name, the address, and the telephone number, etc. accurately, please when the answer is hoped.
3. Please acknowledge being likely being likely to require time to answer moreover when it is not possible to answer according to the content of the inquiry beforehand.

Name (kana) [ ] (2byte character)
Name (kanji) [ ] (2byte character)
Sex [list] <please select, men,women
Age [list] <plase select, above19,20th,30th,40th,50th,60th,over70,unkown
Address [list] <plase select, last one 'Foreign countries'
[ ] <address in Japan or your country
Telephone number [ ]
Fax number [ ]
Mail address [ ] (alphanumeric character)
Program name(subject) [ ]
Media [list] <plase select, TV1, TV3, BS1,BS2, BS-hi, AM1, AM2, FM, international-broadcast, internet, unknown
Classification [list] <plase select, Inquiry, Opinion and demand, Others
Comments or opinions [ ]
(I hope excuse me within 400 characters.
(Please note that all content filled in to exceed 400 characters by the convenience of the system cannot be registered.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




Why NHK collects personal info?
I think NHK want to find watcher wituout payment. :-P

Oh, I completely forgot to show where to contact. Very sorry, nprev, and thanks a million to foe for your kindly posting detailed and quick follow-up!


I'm with you. Too much requirement for private information!
NHK seems to be reluctant to listen to its viewers ...

... Sorry, but I digress. BTW, a moviesmith in the Japanese BBS posted a nice movie on YouTube; several HDTV videos taken by Kaguya are concatenated into one with captions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ASw97KUMZ0

Foe & Nop, I sent what I could on that form (which is REALLY tough to get right using non-Japanese ASCII; had to insert a whole bunch of spaces!) Anyhow, here's what I wrote:

I am disappointed at the fact that KAGUYA's HDTV products are not being distributed publicly. The entire purpose of this instrument is public outreach, and NHK is doing JAXA a severe disservice by failing to publicize this accomplishment and thereby building public support for funding such missions. Furthermore, there is substantial international interest in the mission; therefore, NHK is missing an opportunity to market itself overseas, which may be an unwise business decision.

If anybody wants to copy & paste & send it again, feel free.

Here's a question for the image wizards on this forum. Using the stereo images taken by Kaguya's Terrain camera, do you think it may be possible to generate views of the Moon from a surface perspective? I mean, vertical and oblique views taken from orbit are interesting, but if we could look at lunar scenery as if we were standing on the surface, wouldn't that be mind-boggling? It would be possible to virtually visit places that will never be seen (either by rover or by humans) in our lifetime. Imagine standing on Tycho's rim and looking inside! Or whatever your favorite place is.

Maybe in a few years Google will have all the lunar 3D data available for viewing this way on Google Moon. In the meantime, what can we do with the images (if the Japanese make them available, of course)?

Surface perspective views at 20 meter/pixel will generally be awful in the forground and lousy in the midrange. Except for panoramas from mountain peaks and from crater rims (which don't have much foreground!), better shots could be made from low altitude, say 1/4 to 1 km+ simulated altitude.

OK, so it may not be a good idea to try to generate virtual surface views. You propose 1/4 to 1 km simulated altitude. How can we do it? Is there some software that can generate 3D views from two stereoscopic images?

The generation of a terrain model from stereo views is a complex and difficult process. It's one that you really have to leave to the instrument team. Bjorn is making awesome progress with Cassini stuff, however for pushbroom stereo cameras like HRSC or the lunar cameras etc - it's something the instrument team are going to be doing anyway.

The challenge is then to visualise this stuff - and that requires a 3d engine, decent hardware etc etc.

Essentially, it's a programming project of significant size.

Doug

I was somehow expecting that it would be more difficult than just plugging two images into a piece of software. I hope the imaging teams working on Kaguya, Chang'e and LRO will produce many interesting 3D views of the Moon. I am a bit tired of having just the Apollo, Surveyor and Luna sites to look at.

3-D movies have come
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071128_kaguya_e.html

And FYI here's another release.
Written only in Japanese, sorry, because it's a report presented at Space Activity Commission, a governmental committee.
They have successfully completed checkout of HDTV, TC, MI, SP, XRS, LMAG, LRS and GRS. Some new data are included.
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071128_sac_kaguya.pdf

Here's an example of some simulated surface views of the Apollo 17 landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. These were done pior to the mission and match up pretty well with the views actually seen by Cernan and schmitt.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.horizons.jpg

Here's an excerpt from the updated Kaguya FAQ:

"What is the data release plan for KAGUYA?
One year after the end of the nominal operation phase (about two years after the launch), all KAGUYA products will be opened for public access online. During this one year data study period for instrument teams’ data research and validation / verification, sample data will be posted on the homepage for public outreach."


Looks like we won't have any real-time raw images to sink our teeth into this time again, just the occasional "wow" image. I suppose after waiting for 35 years (I'm not counting Clementine) another year or two is bearable. I hope the people running LRO will have a different philosophy.

A new image gallery has been opened. No new images yet but presumably it will grow.

http://wms.selene.jaxa.jp/index_e.html


Confession. I hate overly complex websites like this. Just give me a list or a set of simple thumbnails.

Phil

At least it's not quite in the same league as most of my Japanese-made electronics with the typical "push Display and Channel for 5 seconds to set Hour."

Hello fine folks, experts!

I have only one question which bugged me for a while. Regarding the three-dimensional terrain images by TC camera stereo view data: How do they obtain elevation data for the areas which are "hidden" completely by shadow? There is no useful pixel information which can be correlated, is there? Or do they have additional elevation data available to complement the missing data (e.g. laser ranging)? I have been reading quite some stuff about digital photogrammetry lately (which I find very interesting btw) but this remains a mystery to me. Anybody who can literally shed some light into this, please do so. Thanks a lot