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Posts Tagged ‘NASA’

Sotheby’s Space Photography auction includes NASA ‘Red Number’ prints

28 Nov

Sotheby’s auction house is holding an online Space Photography auction that includes multiple NASA ‘Red Number’ photographs, as well as vintage silver gelatin and other chromogenic prints featuring spacecraft, astronauts, and more. Sotheby’s estimates the prints will sell for between around $ 600 and $ 9,000 each, depending on the print.

The Space Photography auction features more than 200 lots featuring vintage prints, some of which are signed by Jack Fletcher, Buzz Aldrin, LMP Fred Haise and others. A large percentage of the photos are original NASA ‘Red Number’ prints, which means they’re chromogenic color photographs that include unique NASA image ID numbers printed in red in the photo’s margin.

Some of the space prints include a watermark, such as ‘This Paper Manufacturered by Kodak,’ as well as press captions printed on the back of the prints in purple ink. NASA ‘Red Number’ prints include the launch of the Skylab 4/Saturn 1B space vehicle, pre-launch preparations, the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-1), various shots of the Space Shuttles Discovery, Atlantis, and Challenger, and more.

The auction includes other non-Red Number vintage space prints, including three that feature UFO sightings that happened in Switzerland in the 1970s, vintage large format prints of iconic NASA lunar photos, and more. The NASA ‘Red Number’ prints come from the collection of Philip Kulpa.

A total of 140 photographs are available as part of ‘The Vintage NASA Photo Collection of Philip Kulpa,’ and they’re joined by a selection of prints from the estate of Bill Taub, NASA’s first senior photographer who covered all major NASA missions from the launch of Mercury to the end of Apollo. The online auction is open to bids until December 3, 2019, at 12 PM EST, according to Sotheby’s.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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NASA shares new portrait of Jupiter captured by Hubble Space Telescope

31 Aug

The aging Hubble Space Telescope has produced a new full portrait image of Jupiter, our Solar System’s stormy gas giant. NASA shared the image earlier this month, though it was captured by the space telescope on June 27. The portrait features Jupiter’s colorful bands, as well as its iconic Giant Red Spot, a massive storm that has been raging on the planet for hundreds of years.

According to NASA, the new image features ‘a more intense color palette’ related to the clouds visible in Jupiter’s atmosphere, exceeding that of past portraits. The space agency explains that this new image was captured in visible light using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

NASA describes the importance of the image in a post, pointing out various bands and colors that hint at changes in the gas giant’s atmosphere. The two cloud bands visible below and above the Great Red Spot, for example, are moving in opposite directions, NASA explains, each separated by winds moving up to 644km/h (400mph).

The portrait comes amid ongoing work with the James Webb Space Telescope, which will eventually replace Hubble, offering newer technology and improved camera capabilities, among other things. The new space telescope is scheduled to launch in 2021.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer creates an exact replica of The Apollo 11 Hasselblad used by NASA

15 Aug

Photographer and self-described ‘space nerd’ Cole Rise has detailed his creation of a replica of the Hasselblad camera used by NASA’s Apollo 11 astronauts. The model is precise down to the finest details, including the camera’s serial number and labels. The creation process, as explained by Wired, was a lengthy one, involving the acquisition of a Hasselblad Apollo camera prototype, NASA archival photos and more.

NASA engineers had heavily modified a Hasselblad 500 EL camera for the Apollo 11 mission, including adding motors, removing the focus screen and mirror, and adding heat-resistant aluminum paint, among other things. Rise spent four years working on his replica of this camera, a process that involved machining many of the components himself, in addition to salvaging select parts from a broken Hasselblad MK-70 camera.

In addition to the modified Hasselblad 500 EL camera, the Space Camera Co. website also shows his replica of NASA’s Hasselblad 500C camera, which had been modified by NASA engineers in collaboration with an RCA contractor. Rise worked on his 500C replica before the Apollo 11 camera, saying on the Space Camera Co. website:

By going through the tedious process of remaking this camera, you begin to uncover its secrets and the thought processes that went into making it space-worthy. It was the seed that eventually cemented Hasselblad’s relationship with NASA as the de facto space camera maker. And it was the project that taught me the skills required to eventually make a functional lunar camera.

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Rise is making multiple 500C replicas for private collectors and creating a documentary that details his work. Rise’s website lists the Apollo 11 Hasselblad camera replica as currently on display in Le Marais, Paris.

Photo credits: Photos by Cole Rise, used with permission

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NASA Astronaut Drew Feustel explains how he captures racetrack images from space

28 Feb
Photograph of Drew Feustel taking a photograph outside the International Space Station while on a space walk mission.

NASA astronaut Drew Feustel has detailed his love of cars and racing in a new interview with Hot Rod Network, as well as his work photographing racetracks from space. Feustel has shared a number of these images on social media, each providing a unique look at racetracks around the world.

The images were captured from the International Space Station, where Feustel served as commander from June 2018 to October 2018. During the interview, Feustel explained that he would work with mission control ground support teams to coordinate times when he could attempt to capture the images.

German GP at Sachsenring Circuit — MotoGP

Feustel shot the images during his free time in space, where he’d plan ahead to capture the racetracks as the ISS passed overhead. The photography project ‘wasn’t a trivial thing,’ he said during the interview, explaining that he’d have to consider whether the conditions would be clear enough to capture the images and how he would get them.

Feustel said:

The photos were taken in my spare time—nights or weekends, or middle of the night or whenever, basically when I knew I was going to be flying over a track I would plan ahead for the day so that I had some free time to use the 5 minutes that I had to catch a track as I passed overhead, and then get back on with my work—I managed to capture all of them.

German GP at the Hockenheimring — Formula 1

The images were taken using a Nikon D5 camera with an 800mm lens and a 2x converter. Locating the racetracks from space was tricky and, in some cases, didn’t pan out:

When I looked out in the lens you could probably fit 30 tracks into the area, I couldn’t see them with the naked eye, usually, but if I pointed the camera in the right place, I could see them through the viewfinder. There were a lot of times where I couldn’t see them, and entirely missed a track because I pointed the camera in the wrong spot.

The ISS’s high-speed travel through space — it travels approximately 28,000kph / 17,000mph — compounded the difficulty, giving Feustel less than a minute to capture the racetrack before the window of opportunity closed.

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The effort paid off, however, resulting in dozens of images of racetracks located around the world. The public can view Feustel’s images on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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NASA Curiosity rover captures 360 panorama from its Vera Rubin Ridge ‘Rock Hall’ drill site

15 Feb

Last month, NASA announced that Curiosity rover had wrapped up its work at Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge and would be making its way to a clay-rich region near the Red Planet’s Mt. Sharp for additional work. In an update on that mission last week, the space agency shared a panoramic image captured by Curiosity’s MastCam at the ridge drill site before it left, as well as an interactive video of the area.

Curiosity’s last drill site on the ridge is known as ‘Rock Hall,’ and it’s located relatively close to the ‘clay-bearing unit’ that researchers will study next. A panorama from the Rock Hall location was created using images captured by the rover before it departed the site. NASA also published a 360-degree video from the images and annotated a few landmarks in it, including Mt. Sharp in the distance.

Visible near Mt. Sharp is the clay-rich region, now called ‘Glen Torridon,’ where Curiosity will help researchers uncover more details about Mars’ landscape and history. The rover is equipped with multiple cameras, including the MastCam and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which is attached to its robotic arm.

Last month, NASA shared a stitched image of the full Curiosity rover at the Rock Hall drill site; that image is made from 57 individual images that were captured using the MAHLI camera. The ‘selfie’ features the final Rock Hall drill site in the bottom center of the image.

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NASA shares high-resolution satellite images of California’s Camp wildfire

15 Nov

NASA has shared images of the California Camp Fire as seen from space. The wildfire started on November 8 and quickly spread, ultimately destroying nearly 8,000 buildings and burning 135,000 acres, according to Cal Fire, as well as claiming at least 50 lives.

Some of the images were captured using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on NASA’s Terra satellite, according to the space agency, which says the images show natural colors. Unlike images from the ground, NASA’s aerial snapshots reveal the sheer scale of the blaze and how far its smoke has dispersed westward across the state and over the ocean.

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NASA is home to its Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview, a platform that provides access to high-resolution images from more than 700 satellites. The images in this application are updated within three hours of being captured, according to NASA, providing a near-real time look at every corner of the planet. Imagery of the Camp Fire, as well as other California wildfires, can be accessed through the platform.

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NASA shares the first 8K footage from space, shot aboard the International Space Station

07 Nov

NASA has published the first 8K footage from space on its YouTube channel.

The three minute video, filmed aboard the International Space Station, details “the in-space experience and see how the international partnership-powered human spaceflight is improving lives on Earth, while enabling humanity to explore the universe.”

Throughout the video, more than a dozen experiments and devices are shown, each of which are listed and timestamped in the video’s description on YouTube. There’s even a glimpse or two of Nikon D5 cameras and Manfrotto mounting equipment.

In order to view the video in full resolution, you’ll need to either stream it on Google’s Chrome browser or download the 3GB MP4 video directly from NASA’s Image and Video Library website.

Of course, in order to watch it in all its glory, you’re going to need a display capable of showing off 8K footage — something you might not have sitting around the house or office — so keep that in mind.

NASA specifically thanks the European Space Agency, the ISS National Lab, and astronauts Alexander Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel for their efforts in the making of the video.

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NASA photographer Bill Ingalls’ camera melted in fire caused by rocket launch

30 May
Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Last week, a tweeted image of a melted camera belonging to NASA photographer Bill Ingalls caught the Internet’s attention. In a statement clarifying the matter, the space agency explained the story behind the image, saying, “His creativity and efforts to get unique images are well known within the agency and to those who follow it.”

Ingalls has worked as a NASA photographer for 30 years. In its statement published Friday, NASA explained that Ingalls knows where to setup his cameras, and that a grass fire caused by the GRACE-FO launch on May 22 was behind the damage. Though Ingalls had placed two cameras outside of the launch pad safety perimeter, the melted camera was one of four placed within the perimeter.

Speaking with NASA, Ingalls said, “I had six remotes, two outside the launch pad safety perimeter and four inside. Unfortunately, the launch started a grass fire that toasted one of the cameras outside the perimeter.”

Despite the camera casualty, NASA says the memory card within the camera survived the fire. The space agency published a GIF of the fire as it moved toward the camera, which recorded its own demise. NASA says it’ll “likely” display the melted device at its Washington DC headquarters.

Via: NASA

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NASA is working on an aerial ‘Fluid Cam’ that can see through ocean waves

27 Apr

We know more about the surface of the moon and Mars combined than we do about our own ocean floor, according to NASA Ames scientist Ved Chirayath, which is why he is developing a camera that can remove the water from our seas to reveal 3D images of what’s below the waves. Using a grant from Earth Science Technology Office, Chirayath is working on a project that uses both hardware and software to see and map the floors below great bodies of water as though the water isn’t there at all.

In the video above, Chirayath explains that it is hard to see the ocean floor due to the waves on the surface, but his Fluid Cam uses software called Fluid Lensing to image objects in up to 10 meters of water.

While he doesn’t explain exactly how this technique works, he does say it requires a camera with a lot of processing power, as the software runs on-board. The camera he shows in the video uses a Leica Elmarit-M 28mm F2.8 lens on front of what is described as a ‘high performance’ camera. We are told it uses a 16-core processor and has 1TB of RAM, and that it outputs data at a rate of 550MB per second.

At the moment, the camera is in the test stage and has been used attached to a drone, but NASA hopes that the technology will be housed in airplanes and satellites in the near future, so wider areas can be mapped and explored.

The project was unveiled on the NASA website as part of the agency’s program to mark Earth Day. For more information, visit this link.

Press Release

New Camera Tech Reveals Underwater Ecosystems from Above

Scuba divers and snorkelers spend vacations visiting exotic coastal locations to see vibrant coral ecosystems. Researchers also don their gear to dive beneath the surface, not for the stunning views, but to study the health of the reefs that are so critical to fisheries, tourism and thriving ocean ecosystems.

But one person can only see so much coral in a dive. What if you wanted to assess coral over an entire region or see how reefs are faring on a global scale?

Enter Ved Chirayath of NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. He has developed a new hardware and software technique called fluid lensing that can see clearly through the moving water to image reefs. Imagine you’re looking at something sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool. If no swimmers are around and the water is still, you can easily see it. But if someone dives in the water and makes waves, that object becomes distorted. You can’t easily distinguish its size or shape.

Ocean waves do the same thing, even in the clearest of tropical waters. Fluid lensing software strips away that distortion so that researchers can easily see corals at centimeter resolution. These image data can be used to discern branching from mounding coral types and healthy coral from those that are sick or dying. They can also be used to identify sandy or rocky material.

So far Fluid Cam, the imaging instrument that carries the fluid lensing software, has flown only on a drone. Someday, this technique could be flown on an orbiting spacecraft to gather image data on the world’s reefs.

That amount of data would be painstaking to sort through to look for specific coral attributes. So Chirayath’s team is cataloging the data they’ve collected and are adding it to a database to train a supercomputer to rapidly sort the data into known types – a process called machine learning. Because of the technology developments in both the tools to collect the data and the machine learning techniques to rapidly assess the data, coral researchers are a step closer to having more Earth observations to help them understand our planet’s reefs.

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NASA just ordered 53 Nikon D5 DSLRs for the ISS and training purposes

27 Aug

NASA’s relationship with Nikon is as strong as ever, judging by the fact that the space agency just placed a massive order for 53 Nikon D5 DSLRs.

According to Nikon, NASA ordered the cameras as-is (no hardware modifications) and plans to use them for photography on the International Space Station, as well as astronaut training on Earth. The agency might make some changes down the line, but for now there’s no difference between the D5 cameras available to consumers and the ones being shipped to NASA.

This is the latest development in a long-running relationship between NASA and Nikon, which has provided the space agency with camera gear as far back as 1971 for the Apollo 15 space mission.

Most recently, Nikon provided NASA with 38 units of the Nikon D4 DSLR in 2013 and another 10 units of the D4 in 2016. The camera maker didn’t reveal whether NASA received any special discounts on its bulk order, but assuming NASA paid retail price, the cost could have exceeded $ 344,000 USD.

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