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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ LRO & LCROSS _ lroc images of different points of the moon over time

Posted by: Engineer817 Dec 22 2012, 08:01 PM

I've been trying to determine good potential landing zones on the lunar north pole but obviously I need more data then just level areas. My goal is to find how much light gets into different craters on the lunar north pole and what areas receive more then the usual 2 weeks of light. My plan of attack is to take 1 image each orbit from the lroc of the polar region and compile them into a video. Then averaging each pixel data value out to black or white and taking the final black area and overlaying it onto a topography map of that area, there by determining how much light is most likely to have entered that region and then eliminating the areas that are touched by light as sources of ice (obviously). A different approach for how much light an area receives another process however. The problem is not the programming, its the data to begin with. I don't know where to find the pictures I need. They must be in high resolution, and it would be best if they were from the same angle. Seeing as the LRO orbits right above the lunar poles, I don't think it would be too much of a problem. If any one could point me in the right direction I would be appreciative.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 23 2012, 02:47 AM

Ultimately you can find the images - by the thousands - here:

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/search/search.html#QuickSearch

This is NASA's Planetary Image Atlas. Choose LRO from the mission list, then search for images containing the north pole - you can enter latitude limits. But these are big images, you are looking at terabytes of data. The system is fairly easy to learn and I think there is online help.

The analysis you are interested in has been done already, and you might try searching for north polar illumination maps directly - the author of a paper or presentation might be willing to share pre-made maps which could save you a lot of time.

Phil

Posted by: Ron Hobbs Mar 18 2014, 06:18 PM

Well this beautiful map of the north polar region just showed up on the NASA website:

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/march/nasa-releases-first-interactive-mosaic-of-lunar-north-pole/index.html#.UyiOCKhdWYQ

"Creation of this giant mosaic took four years and a huge team effort across the LRO project," said Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the LROC at Arizona State University in Tempe. "We now have a nearly uniform map to unravel key science questions and find the best landing spots for future exploration."

Phil, were you involved in this "huge team effort"?

Ron

Posted by: Phil Stooke Mar 18 2014, 10:59 PM

No, the team wasn't that huge.

Phil