PHOTOGRAMMETRIC PROCESSING OF APOLLO 15 METRIC CAMERA OBLIQUE IMAGES

Abstract

The integrated photogrammetric mapping system flown on the last three Apollo lunar missions (15, 16, and 17) in the early 1970s incorporated a Metric (mapping) Camera, a high-resolution Panoramic Camera, and a star camera and laser altimeter to provide support data. In an ongoing collaboration, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center, the Intelligent Robotics Group of the NASA Ames Research Center, and Arizona State University are working to achieve the most complete cartographic development of Apollo mapping system data into versatile digital map products. These will enable a variety of scientific/engineering uses of the data including mission planning, geologic mapping, geophysical process modelling, slope dependent correction of spectral data, and change detection. Here we describe efforts to control the oblique images acquired from the Apollo 15 Metric Camera.