Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. The land and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined, or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might block the sensor’s view of the surface on any single day. Two different types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data. Topographic shading is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center. MODIS observations of polar sea ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s AVHRR sensor—the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. The cloud image is a composite of two days of imagery collected in visible light wavelengths and a third day of thermal infra-red imagery over the poles. Global city lights, derived from 9 months of observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, are superimposed on a darkened land surface map.

The deadline for participation is July 25, 2008, hurry!

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first mission in NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, a plan to return to the moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond. LRO will launch no earlier than November 24, 2008, with the objectives to finding safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.

The disk will be part of a relic of an ancient unmanned spacecraft named Phoenix, which landed on the planet in 2008. Possibly preserved as a historic memento, perhaps long abandoned and forgotten, the Phoenix will have kept its secret. And now, at last, its time had come and its message revealed. The ancient digital format of the small disk may pose a problem, but surely not an insurmountable one for these technologically advanced pioneers. Soon the images will appear on their screens, bearing greetings from visionaries of a distant time, on a distant world.”

“Visions of Mars” is a message from our world to future human inhabitants on Mars, which will launch on its way to the Red Planet in 2007 aboard the spacecraft Phoenix. Along with personal messages from leading space visionaries of our time, the message will include a priceless collection of Mars literature and art, and a list of hundreds of thousands of names of space enthusiasts from around the world. The entire collection will be encoded on a mini-DVD provided by The Planetary Society, which will be affixed to the spacecraft.

Fly your name to Mars on Phoenix now!

JAXA will launch the lunar orbiter SELENE on a H-IIA Launch Vehicle from Tanegashima Space Center in the summer of 2007. SELENE stands for SELenological and ENgineering Explorer, which consists of three separate spacecraft — a main spacecraft that will circle the Moon in an elliptical orbit and two small relay satellites that will assume a polar orbit. This project that aims to collect closely featured scientific data on the formation of the moon and its transitional history up to today, which is the biggest lunar exploration project since the Apollo Project.

JAXA is now accepting public names and messages to deliver to the moon aboard the SELENE. Fly your wishes to the Moon now!