3D Imaging of Aristarchus Crater for Human Exploration on the Moon

Abstract

In order to provide a dataset for a Virtual Reality environment for Astronaut training, 3D images of 1m/pixel of Aristarchus Crater has been produced using the CASP-GO software based on the NASA’s Ames Stereo Pipeline. In addition to the 3D images, to provide the best viewing quality, 50cm/pixel images with the least shadow are chosen to be terrain corrected with the topographical information. This research will show the selection of the images used in this dataset, their processing, and the current status of the 3D imaging datasets.

1. Introduction

The NASA ARTEMIS Programme is a human exploration programme carried out by NASA, US commercial spaceflight companies, ESA, JAXA, and CSA. The programme is the next step in establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon amongst other goals. Aristarchus is a young crater with transient features which was previously selected as a site for the Apollo 18 mission and is one of the landing site candidates for the ARTEMIS mission. To provide a VR dataset for astronaut training for the mission, the best 3D image dataset is needed, which we currently lack. This dataset can be achieved using LROC-NAC, the current highest resolution and coverage on the Moon that has been operating continuously since 2009.

A fully automated multi-resolution Digital Terrain Model processing chain for Mars stereo imagery (ESA-HRSC, NASA-MRO/CTX and HiRISE) based on the Ames Stereo Pipeline [1] has been developed at UCL within The EU-FP7 iMars project (http://www.i-mars.eu) called CASP-GO[2]. CASP-GO utilises tie- point-based multi-resolution image co-registration [3], and the Gotcha [4] sub-pixel refinement method. Since the end of the project in March 2017, thousands of CTX, and tens of HiRISE and HRSC 3D products have been processed with CASP-GO and have been published through the ESAC Guest Storage Facility (GSF) [5].

更多