Japan’s Kaguya lunar surveyor craft has sent back fresh HD clips as its orbit slowly degrades, bringing it closer than ever to the surface. In two days it will crash-land, bringing its mission to an end, but until then, it’s keeping the ultra-crisp, almost surreal lunar footage coming.
The top clip here was shot from an altitude of just seven miles, while the second one below is from 13 miles up:
Just like the first HD video we saw from the craft two years ago (at a height of 62 miles), it’s sharpness almost makes it look like an animation. But in fact this is the real thing, from a vantage point only a handful of humans have ever seen. These came out on Friday, and if you haven’t already spent your weekend ogling them, please begin to do so now.