Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project
Adventures in Techno-Archeology,
Restoring Lunar Images for a New Generation of Exploration
Friday, June 12, 2009

In the Beginning
1966-67 - five NASA
spacecraft mapped the
moon in unequaled
quality
1986 - almost 2000
original 1960’s hi-def
analog tapes were saved
2008 - last surviving tape
drives were revived from
oblivion
Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft
Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter
Camera
Two cameras:
• High resolution 24” (610 mm) aperture
• Medium resolution 8” (80mm) aperture
Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter Cameras
Friday, June 12, 2009

Spacecraft Film Scan
Friday, June 12, 2009

Imaging Process
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter Analog Tapes
Friday, June 12, 2009

Analog Tapes
Friday, June 12, 2009

Earthrise-1966
Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter
Tapes 1986
• Nancy Evans, a NASA scientist, was
asked “What to Do With These
Tapes?”
• She ordered the tapes sent to JPL
and located surplus tape drives
• Project languished due to NASA’s
lack of interest
Friday, June 12, 2009

Lunar Orbiter
Tapes 2007
Friday, June 12, 2009

Visit to Nancy’s
Friday, June 12, 2009

The Tapes
Storage at a NASA JPL offsite
climate-controlled storage
facility
Friday, June 12, 2009

The Journey to
McDonalds
Tape Drives Tapes Arrival
From Nancy’s from JPL at Ames
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Getting to Work
Friday, June 12, 2009

Drive Refurbishment
Friday, June 12, 2009

Techno-Archeology
Friday, June 12, 2009

Success!
Friday, June 12, 2009

Building an Image
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Earthrise 2008!
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Earth Detail
Friday, June 12, 2009

Earth Detail From Lunar Orbit
Friday, June 12, 2009

Quality Assessment
Reproduced Images Match the Modulation Transfer Function
of the Original 70mm Film
!
Friday, June 12, 2009

Manual Image Production Flow
Friday, June 12, 2009

Automated Production
Friday, June 12, 2009

Developing the Code
Friday, June 12, 2009

-&./01*(23405*$-5678$
!\"#$%&''()*$+*,'*$
?@/$+(*B$(*)A$
\"5'2*$%&''A$+(*$
Notice the image shear,
!\"#%&''9:;+,;<=>?$.5@(2$ correlated with the nicks
Notice the little nicks
in the left edge
No DFT DFT factor 1.0
First 2 frequencies
Friday, June 12, 2009

Got rid of the nicks
but not the shear
Got rid of the shear
(yes, they were related)
DFT Factor 1.25 DFT Factor 1.25
Friday, June 12, 2009

1 thru 4 are spread sheet tests, using actual data from runs. 5 is a record for a test in the image
processing code, using the first synchronization bucket on this data set. Note the similarity to 4. The
reason for the false signal before actual detection is the presence of a fiduciary marker in the data.
Friday, June 12, 2009

Second
Image
Life Magazine’s
“Image of the Century”
Friday, June 12, 2009

Original vs Recovered Image
The LOIRP Recovered Version Has Greater Tonal Variation Allowing
for Measurements not Available Before
Friday, June 12, 2009

Dennis:
Add Sur veyor 1 Image
Friday, June 12, 2009

Dennis:
Add Sur veyor 1 Image
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009

OpenCL
Enables deeper data sets including:
• Multi Spectral Remote sensing
• Real time navigation of images in 3D
• Multi core data processing
Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009