The Japanese lunar mission SELENE: Science goals and present status Original Research Article

The Japanese lunar mission SELENE (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer) has been in development to target launch scheduled 2007 summer by H-IIA rocket. The SELENE is starting final integration test after SAR (System Acceptance Review), SRR (System Reliability Review) and instrument environment test. The SELENE is a remote-sensing mission orbiting 100 km altitude of the Moon for nominal one year and extended some months to collect the data for studying the origin and evolution of the Moon. Fourteen instruments and experiment systems are preparing for studies of the Moon, in the Moon, and from the Moon; global element and mineral compositions, topological structure, gravity field of whole moon, and electromagnetic and particle environment of the Moon. The new data center SOAC (SELENE Operation and data Analysis Center) are completed to construct in JAXA Sagamihara campus, and end-to-end test will be carried out between SOAC and data downlink stations.