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Right: A composite Apollo Zone image showing the best details from multiple photographs. Left: A normal one-camera image of the lunar surface.

These show more well-lit detail from other images of the same area to create a more detailed map. In the mosaic, areas in shadows, which show up as patches of dark or black pixels are automatically replaced by lighter gray pixels. For example, part of the 2D imaging algorithms align many images taken from various positions with various exposure times into one seamless image mosaic.

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Algorithms are sets of computer code that create a procedure for how to handle certain set processes. The researchers overcame the challenge by developing new computer vision algorithms to automatically generate the 2D and 3D maps. “They were taken with the technology we had over 40 years ago with imprecise camera positions, orientations and exposure time by today’s standards.” “The main challenge of the Apollo Zone project was that we had very old data – scans, not captured in digital format,” said Ara Nefian, a senior scientist with the IRG and Carnegie Mellon University-Silicon Valley. The maps are the result of three years of work by the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at NASA Ames, and are available to view through the NASA Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP) and Google Moon feature in Google Earth. The “Apollo Zone” Digital Image Mosaic (DIM) and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) maps cover about 18 percent of the lunar surface at a resolution of 98 feet (30 meters) per pixel. With their advancement in image processing algorithms, the legacy data from the Apollo Metric Camera onboard Apollo 15, 16 and 17 can be transformed into an informative and immersive 3D mosaic map of a large and scientifically interesting part of the moon. But when you zoom out to see the bigger picture, they can create a digital photograph, like this one of our moon: For NASA researchers, pixels are much more – they are precious data that help us understand where we came from, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.Īt NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., computer scientists have made a giant leap forward to pull as much information from imperfect static images as possible. Grayscale pixels – up close, they look like black, white or grey squares.

Mosaic of the near side of the moon as taken by the Clementine star trackers.

The resolution of the images obtained from Chang’e-2 is 17 times greater than those taken by the its predecessor, the Chang’e-1.Ĭontinue reading “China Releases High Resolution Moon Maps Made From Chang’e-2 Data” The images were photographed by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera on the Chang’e-2 from heights of 100 km and 15 km over the lunar surface between October 2010 and May 2011, according to a statement from SASTIND. The map and images, released by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), are the highest-resolution photos of the entirety of the moon’s surface to be published thus far, said Liu Dongkui, deputy chief commander of China’s lunar probe project.

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6 (Xinhua) - China on Monday published a full coverage map of the moon, as well as several high-resolution images of the celestial body, captured by the country’s second moon orbiter, the Chang’e-2. China on Monday published a set of full coverage of moon map and moon images with a resolution of seven meters captured by the country’s second moon orbiter, the Chang’e-2.

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