Update of SELENE SPICE Kernels following PDS3 standards
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Spacecraft distance from the center of the moon, created using the new SELENE SPICE kernel. During normal operation, the aircraft flew around 100km altitude (the distance from the center from the moon radius of 1737.4km to 1837.4km), and in later operations, the altitude was reduced to around 50km.
In the lunar and planetary exploration field, ancillary data that assists the scientific analysis, such as time, orbit, and attitude, is archived in the SPICE format. The SPICE format file is called the SPICE kernel. We provides the updated SPICE kernel set for the lunar orbiting satellites SELENE (also known as KAGUYA) launched in September 2007. Later, the lunar gravitational field has been significantly updated by NASA's GRAIL lunar probe, and the orbit determination by LIDAR on SELENE has been updated accordingly. In addition, this release has the best combination for calculating the trajectory and attitude etc. of SELENE has been included in new meta kernel.
New SPICE kernels also have the information extended to comply with Planetary Data System Version 3 (PDS3) which is the long-term preservation framework. The addition of new PDS3 information makes SELENE's SPICE kernel suitable for long-term preservation.