Apollo Lunar Sample Photographs: Digitizing the Moon Rock Collection

Introduction: The Acquisition and Curation Office at JSC has undertaken a 4-year data restoration project effort for the lunar science community funded by the LASER program (Lunar Advaced Science and Exploration Research) to digitize photographs of the Apollo lunar rock samples and create high resolution digital images. These sample photographs are not easily accessible outside of JSC, and currently exist only on degradable film in the Curation Data Storage Facility. The Apollo Photograph Collection: During the initial examination of the lunar samples as they were returned from the moon, each rock was fully documented with a standard set of photographs. The set included 6 orthogonal views (4 sides, top and bottom) and a series of 16 stereo pairs taken at 45 degree intervals of rotation, Figure 1.