· Shackleton [89.9S/0.0E, diameter : 19km]
Taken by the HDTV on Dec. 4, 2007 (JST).
Malapert Mountain and Shackleton Crater are located close to the South Pole of the Moon. It is expected that there is the permanent shade area (where there is no sunlight all the year around) in Shackleton Crater, and also there might to be the existence of "water" according to the observation results of theU.S. lunar explore "Lunar Prospector" (1998-1999). Malapert Mountain is near to Shackleton Crater, and is thought to be suitable place to communicate with the Earth and to generate electricity by solar panels because of its high altitude (approximately 5000m). According to these reasons, Malapert Mountain and Shackleton Crater are the primary sites proposed for the moon base. The moon base is proposed by the US as the international project, and planned to start construction by 2020.
The observation by KAGUYA provide useful information for this future moon base project.
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Kaguya/HDTV took the world's first high definition image data of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon on Oct. 31, 2007. This still image was cut out from a moving image.
You can see the HD movie taken by HDTV at JAXA Video Archives .
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