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Exploring the solar system through Cornell's image library
By Linda B. Glaser
Research historian Phil Horzempa knew the images were out there somewhere. He passionately believed that the work of thousands of middle schoolers from around the country deserved to be found.
Mars Geology, Tharsis Region and Valles Marineris. Left: Regions of different surface composition, age, and terrain are represented by different colors. Right: Surface relief with color elevation scale (blue is low elevation, white is high elevation).
MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) was a citizen science and education program led by astronaut Sally Ride, part of NASA’s 2011-12 GRAIL mission. While the mission’s two small spacecraft measured the moon’s gravitational field, NASA used their cameras to take lunar photos requested by the MoonKAM kids.
Because the photos weren’t science images, NASA wasn’t required to archive them, and the images were lost. For help locating them, Horzempa turned to his research stalwart: the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF) at Cornell. “So I went on the hunt,” says Zoe Learner Ponterio, SPIF manager.
Recently, some additional image sets from MoonKAM were located, and SPIF was asked if it could become the permanent repository of the images. “Of course we accepted,” says Ponterio.
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
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