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Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 20 2015, 03:36 AM

Today and tomorrow I'm attending the New Horizons science team meeting at APL. Ted Stryk is also present and representing unmannedspaceflight.com. This afternoon we got an update on the plans for raw image data release. The responsible person is Joe Peterson at SwRI Boulder. Some of the highlights of his presentation of interest to this forum:

- The team is committed to delivering raw LORRI image data to the public.
- The team has a stated goal of delivering this data to the Web within 24 hours of receipt from the spacecraft
- The mission will probably start delivering raw image data in an automated fashion in early April (100 days before the flyby), but that date could change.
- When data comes down to the ground, there are two different processing pipelines. One, run frequently, just turns the bitstreams into Level 2 image data, with no further processing. The other, run only once a day, knows more about navigational data, and includes calibration, in particular deconvolution, producing Level 3 image data.
- The raw image pipeline is going to be run from the same process that produces Level 2 data. This is awesome because it means we're likely to get data super fast, much faster than the within-24-hours goal. However, it won't be calibrated etc.
- There is a noticeable blur to Level 2 LORRI images. It responds well to deconvolution. Amateurs may want to practice their image-sharpening skills on data from the Jupiter flyby.
- There will be a linear contrast stretch applied to the data.
- The data will be released in JPEG format.
- The team values the contributions of amateurs to public communication about the ongoing mission.
- PDS releases are scheduled for February 2016 (level 2 - uncalibrated), October 2016 (level 3 - calibrated), and March 2017 (level 5 - map products, etc). Keep in mind that while all the images will be returned by November 2015, everything except op navs will be coming down lossy-compressed; it'll be about another year after that that the entire losslessly compressed data set will be on the ground.

In the past, I've expressed concern to Alan about the automated contrast stretch during approach -- that when Pluto occupies a relatively small number of pixels, that the automated stretch could blow out all the pixels on Pluto, leaving it saturated. He's heard this concern and understands it. Saturation could very well turn out to be a problem with the first image releases but I expect the team to be responsive to dealing with that and adjusting the settings on the automated contrast stretch if it is a problem.

I asked today about metadata and Alan said that what metadata is available, how, is TBD. I'll continue to work with the mission on this to advocate for the amateur community's desires. We will have some metadata for sure -- date and time and SPICE kernels at a minimum -- I just don't know how it's going to be viewable yet. There is such a long runup with Pluto being just a few pixels across, there will be a little time to adjust things before the images get really thrilling. (Of course, it's already plenty cool to be able to see Pluto and Charon orbiting the system barycenter, and we could see that last summer).

That's it for now. I don't know of a space mission -- except maybe Juno -- that's more conscious of the role that amateurs can play in producing cool pictures for public consumption. This is going to be a fun ride

Posted by: CryptoEngineer Jan 20 2015, 05:19 AM

Thanks for you continued UMSF advocacy. I look forward to the encounter.

Posted by: Explorer1 Jan 20 2015, 06:14 AM

Amen to that last sentence about fun rides, Emily. Nine years to the day after launch, and I still barely believe that my (and a lot of other board member names!) are still on that disc hurtling towards this rendezvous...
Still a little early for real mainstream coverage, but I won't be surprised if July turns out to be as big for UMSF's hitcount as the Curiosity landing was; its going to be nuts (in a good way)!



Edit: New PI perspective on atmospheric measurement plans.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php?page=piPerspective_01_23_2015
Its funny that the web site design has not changed an iota in nine years; same buttons and everything. These days that's almost as astonishing as the mission itself!
If it ain't broke, after all...

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Jan 26 2015, 11:13 PM

Looks great (in fact I think "looks great" is almost an understatement!). One comment regarding metadata: To me the *exact* time (down to a second or even fraction of a second) when an image is obtained is by far the most important part of the metadata since when this is known the SPICE kernels can be used to determine a whole lot of addtional information like distance, subspacecraft point etc. if needed (i.e. if that information isn't also in the metadata).

Posted by: jasedm Feb 3 2015, 08:43 PM

Amazing timing Explorer- a http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php has appeared in recent days, no doubt in preparation for the interest generated by the upcoming flyby.

There is a huge amount to look forward to on this mission - I haven't had this level of UMSF anticipation since Cassini's Saturn orbit insertion burn.....

My only worries are a possible random safing-event at closest approach, or the discovery of detritus within the system too late to expedite one of the SHBOT options.

So cool to be invited along on this mission!

Posted by: ngunn Feb 3 2015, 08:58 PM

Maybe it wasn't broke but it is now. Explorer1's link doesn't work any more.

Posted by: Explorer1 Feb 3 2015, 09:10 PM

Not my fault! Everything's been redone since I posted, and it sure looks fresh....
New link to Alan's latest status here:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Perspectives.php?page=piPerspective_01_23_2015

Also a dedicated Twitter feed alongside Alan's https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons

Posted by: ngunn Feb 3 2015, 09:28 PM

Of course not. I was having a bit of a go at annoying system updates that don't carry over the older stuff properly. Thanks for the new link.