Space
・The World's First Hi-Vision Live from Space
On November 16, 2006, Hi-Vision brought outer space down to earth. An NHK Hi-Vision camera and a Hi-Vision transmitter developed jointly by NHK and NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) were delivered to the International Space Station by the Space Shuttle and used to make the world's first live Hi-Vision broadcast from space.
Hi-Vision cameras have flown on the space shuttle before (1998, 2000), when the spectacular footage captured in orbit was recorded and returned to Earth for broadcast. But this most recent occasion was the first time a live Hi-Vision broadcast has been made from space.
As the International Space Station whirled around the Earth at a velocity of 28,000 km/h, the live Hi-Vision feed was transmitted first to a geostationary satellite at an altitude of 36,000 km, and on to a ground station. The signal then crossed the Pacific Ocean on a fiber optic cable to reach Japan.
The live feed connected the International Space Station's US experimental model Destiny with NHK's studios. The crystal-clear Hi-Vision video of the astronauts in zero-gravity conditions provided viewers with a compelling insight into the amazing phenomenon of weightlessness, and also dazzled them with the beauty of the Earth seen from space.
・The world's First Hi-Vision image of the Moon surface
The lunar orbit KAGUYA waslaunched on September 14 from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. KAGUYA equipped onboard Hi-Vision camera, which was developed for space use by NHK and JAXA(The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
“The first quarter of Earth”
KAGUYA’s first Hi-Vision image taken from about 110,000 km
away from the earth in space.
KAGUYA’s Hi-definition system consists of two Hi-Vision cameras
(telephoto and wide-angle used three 2.2M-pixel CCDs).
On October 31, 2007, the world's first Hi-Vision image of the Moon surface was successfully taken by the Hi-Vision camera.
Powerful, vivid high-definition images of huge crater of several hundred kilometers in diameter, dark patches on the surface, and the far side of the moon that cannot be seen from the Earth was delivered to the viewers.
The image of “Lunar North Pole”,
taken from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon
West side of “Ocean of Storms”
On November 7, 2007, the world’s first Hi-Vision image of an Earth-rise and Earth-set were successfully taken by the KAGUYA's onboard camera.
This is the world's first high-definition earth images taken from about 380,000 km away from the earth in space.
The image of “Earth-rise”
In the image, the Moon’s surface is near the North Pole.
The image of “Earth-rise”
In the image, the Moon’s surface is near the North Pole.
The image of “Earth-rise”
