Snapshots from Space:Citizen Participation in Space MissionsThrough Image Processing

Emily LakdawallaThe Planetary Society

Jim BellCornell University

Image: NASA / JPL / Gordan Ugarkovic

Who are amateur imageprocessors?

Amateurs make beautiful pictures from old and new space data

Amateurs’ goal is usually to answer question:What would it look like if I were there?

Space agencies should use these people!

(They want to be used)

Following the Mars Exploration Rover mission

James Canvin (U.K.), http://nivnac.co.uk/mer/

NASA / JPL / Cornell / James CanvinOpportunity drive direction pan sol 2369 (infrared/synthetic green/blue)

NASA / JPL / Cornell / James CanvinOpportunity drive direction pan sol 2379 (infrared/synthetic green/blue)

NASA / JPL / Cornell / James CanvinOpportunity pan sol 2420 – Intrepid crater (enhanced color)

NASA / JPL / Cornell / James CanvinOpportunity pan sol 2433 – Hecla crater (enhanced color)

Lovingly reconstructing “true-color” versions of Voyager images

Björn Jónsson (Iceland), http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/

NASA / JPL / Björn Jónsson Voyager 2 Jupiter approach mosaic (OGV, color adjusted)

(O, synthetic green, V)

New discoveries in old data:Voyager and Viking

Ted Stryk (USA), http://planetimages.blogspot.com/Daniel Macháček (Czech Republic)

NASA / JPL / Ted StrykNeptune with Despina transit & shadow transit (OGBV)

NASA / JPL / Ted StrykNeptune with Despina transit & shadow transit (OGBV)

NASA / JPL / Daniel Macháček Viking 1 landing site with dust storm and Phobos shadow

NASA / JPL / Daniel Macháček Viking 1 landing site with dust storm and Phobos shadow

NASA / JPL / Daniel Macháček Viking 1 landing site with dust storm and Phobos shadow

NASA / JPL / Daniel Macháček Viking 1 landing site with dust storm and Phobos shadow

The Planetary Societysupports amateurs

We now administer discussion forum, unmannedspaceflight.com 2500 members have uploaded 5.5 GB

attachments High number of “lurkers”

We are raising funds for dedicated image gallery to launch next year, amateurspaceimages.com

48% N. America41% Europe6% Asia4% Australia

Bjorn’s Jupiter mosaic goes viral

Hayabusa return

Phoenix landing

“How to rescue the Mars rovers” goes viral

Alan Boyle: “you’ve gotta see this!” MER view of Earth & Venus

Phoenix MECA perchlorate flap

LCROSS Impact

UnmannedSpaceflight.com: Viral events superposed on background traffic

Amateurspaceimages.com

Database-driven, with images, credits, captions

Anyone may submit an image Images to be vetted by moderation

team Images will be easy to share via

social networks Launch in March

Image: NASA / JPL / Cornell / Glen NagleSpirit sol 743 Home Plate pan, rover model inserted

Thank you

Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Societyhttp://planetary.org/blog