Coordinates and maps of the Apollo 17 landing site

We carried out an extensive cartographic analysis of the Apollo 17 landing site and determined and mapped positions of the astronauts, their equipment, and lunar landmarks with accuracies of better than ±1 m in most cases. To determine coordinates in a lunar body‐fixed coordinate frame, we applied least squares (2‐D) network adjustments to angular measurements made in astronaut imagery (Hasselblad frames). The measured angular networks were accurately tied to lunar landmarks provided by a 0.5 m/pixel, controlled Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) orthomosaic of the entire Taurus‐Littrow Valley. Furthermore, by applying triangulation on measurements made in Hasselblad frames providing stereo views, we were able to relate individual instruments of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) to specific features captured in LROC imagery and, also, to determine coordinates of astronaut equipment or other surface features not captured in the orbital images, for example, the deployed geophones and Explosive Packages (EPs) of the Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE) or the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at major sampling stops. Our results were integrated into a new LROC NAC‐based Apollo 17 Traverse Map and also used to generate a series of large‐scale maps of all nine traverse stations and of the ALSEP area. In addition, we provide crater measurements, profiles of the navigated traverse paths, and improved ranges of the sources and receivers of the active seismic experiment LSPE

The need for international planetary cartography planning and cooperation

Cartography is fundamental to planetary science and as such, a lack of appropriate consideration of this foundation can have and has had serious and expensive consequences to both the scientific return from planetary missions and the safety of future lander missions. In this abstract we highlight the need for, and recommend cooperative planning of, such cartographic work at the national and international level. In an effort to support the planetary exploration initiatives of the various spacefaring nations, we detail specific negative consequences of not properly accounting for cartographic constraints during mission planning and execution. We will also pose several unanswered questions that must be addressed before new exploration efforts should commence. To assure the best possible return on space exploration investments, we recommend that the following planetary cartographic issues be considered: 1. Adequate resources for mapping at all stages from mission design through calibration, operations, development of processing algorithms and software, and processing to archiving; 2. Easy access to data sets and metadata from all nations; consistent (or at least well-documented) data formats; consistent cartographic standards; 3. Cooperation and support leading to the joint analysis of data sets from many nations, in turn leading to integration in a single cartographic coordinate framework at known accuracy levels, and the ability to leverage the powerful synergistic value of multiple data sets. Possible actions that could be taken to achieve these goals will also be presented

Observations of Phobos and its shadow: Implications for the Phobos orbit

The orbit of Phobos deep in the gravity field of Mars is strongly affected by various parameters of the Mars interior. The orbit of the small satellite is therefore complex and undergoing a particulate tidal evolution. Our early analysis of im-ages from High Resolution Stereo Camera / Super Resolution Channel (HRSC/SRC) on Mars Express (MEX) [4] have shown stark discrepancies between orbit models and observations of up to 12 km, a fact which renewed the interest in more detailed astro-metric analysis of Phobos data to constrain the orbit models. Since these early studies, we have made a number of new astrometric measurements using new image data and upgraded measurement techniques. The Mars Express spacecraft has continued its Phobos flyby maneuvers and has obtained many more SRC images of the satellite. In addition, the shadow of Phobos was captured on several occasions by the HRSC and the Mars Orbiting Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor, which all had not been analyzed yet. These shadow observations provide further constraints on the orbit of Phobos not affected by uncertainties in the spacecraft orbit and camera pointing. In the presentation, we will report on first preliminary results of our ongoing study titled ,Geodesy and Cartography of Phobos", funded by DFG

Analysis of Mars data using Arcobjects and Modelbuilder

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools for integration of different planetary datasets, e.g. images, spectral data, and digital terrain models which are typically given in different formats like vector and raster. We are currently involved in a project to import large volumes of data from the recent Mars missions into a planetary GIS database. Before working in GIS with such datasets, it is necessary to prepare them for import. Using ArcOBJECTS, a collection of ArcGIS programming objects, and object oriented programming languages like Visual Basic .NET, we create ESRI shape files according to a suitable specification. Regular shape files are not sufficient, because data points have often large numbers of attributes associated with them in the original ASCII dataset. Here, the MOLA (Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter) dataset is a typical example with over 33 attributes per Laser shot. These have to be imported using a .dbf database file. Once this is accomplished, it is possible to combine all these different datasets with raster information, such as HRSC (High Resolution Stereo Camera), or MOC (Mars Orbiter Camera) images, or MDIM 2.1 maps for joint analysis. Subsequently, we have developed an improved method for analysis of volumes for topographic depressions or positive relief features of large extent. ArcGIS Desktop provides a measurement tool with the “Area and Volume Statistics“ module. However, this module is very limited in scope. It is possible to “calculate statistics above plane“ or “calculate statistics below plane“ for volume. This is not accurate enough for measuring, e.g. craters or valleys covering large areas, because the reference surface may not be planar. Furthermore it is not possible to specify a selected area. The software can handle only the entire data set. In our improved measurement tool, we consider the resolution of the underlying digital terrain model, the topographic trend of very large areas and the software allows us to interactively choose defined sub-areas for accurate surface feature analysis of differential levels. We also implemented ArcOBJECTS to define our appropriate solutions for better handling large datasets and also began studying the widespread Martian drainage networks using ESRI`s “ModelBuilder” to automate the time-consuming step by step workflow. The goal is to find pour points to calculate the watersheds, for runoff water only. We have applied our GIS tools for various geologic mapping and interpretation tasks, and for 2d and 3d visualisations and analysis. We will demonstrate several examples to import, measure and project large datasets in different formats with ESRI’s object model for ArcGIS 9.X