M. Wählisch’s research while affiliated with German Aerospace Center (DLR) and other places

Planetary cartography does not only provide an extensive basis for supporting planning activities in planetary exploration, e.g., landing-site selection, orbital observations, traverse planning, but it also supports mission conduct by, e.g., observation tracking and hazard avoidance mapping. It also provides the scientific and technical basis to create science products after successful termination of a planetary mission by helping to distill data into maps. After a mission’s lifetime, experiment data and eventually higher-level data such as mosaics and digital terrain models (DTMs) are stored in archives – and eventually converted into maps and higher-level data products – to form a basis for research and for new scientific and engineering studies. The complexity of such tasks increases with every new dataset that has been put on the stack of data sources. In the same way as the complexity of autonomous probes increases, tools that support these challenges also require new levels of sophistication. In planetary science, cartography and mapping share a history dating back to the roots of telescopic space exploration and are now facing new technological and organizational challenges with the rise of new missions, new global initiatives and organizations, and opening research markets. The focus of this contribution is to summarize recent activities in planetary cartography and to highlighting current issues the community is facing to identify future opportunities in this field. By this we would like to invite cartographers/researchers to join this community and to start thinking about how to jointly solve some of these challenges.

We carried out an extensive cartographic analysis of the Apollo 17 landing site and determined and mapped positions of the astronauts, their equipment and lunar landmarks with accuracies of better than ±1 m in most cases. To determine coordinates in a lunar body-fixed coordinate frame we applied least-squares (2D-) network adjustments to angular measurements made in astronaut imagery (Hasselblad frames). The measured angular networks were accurately tied to control features provided by a 0.5 m/pixel, controlled Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) orthomosaic of the entire Taurus-Littrow Valley. Furthermore, by applying triangulation on measurements made in Hasselblad frames providing stereo views, we were able to relate individual instruments of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) to specific features captured in LROC imagery and, also, to determine coordinates of astronaut equipment or other surface features not captured in the orbital images, e.g. the deployed geophones and Explosive Packages (EPs) of the Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE), or the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at major sampling stops. Our results were integrated into a new LROC NAC based Apollo 17 Traverse Map and also used to generate a series of large-scale maps of all nine traverse stations and of the ALSEP area. In addition, we provide crater measurements, profiles of the navigated traverse paths, and improved ranges of the sources and receivers of the active seismic experiment LSPE.

Planetary cartography does not only provide an extensive basis for supporting planning activities in planetary exploration, e.g., landing-site selection, orbital observations, traverse planning, but it also supports mission conduct by, e.g., observation tracking and hazard avoidance mapping. It also provides the scientifi c and technical basis to create science products after successful termination of a planetary mission by helping to distill data into maps. After a mission's lifetime, experiment and eventually higher-level data such as mosaics and digital terrain models (DTMs) are stored in archives, and eventually converted into maps and higher-level data products, to form a basis for research and for new scientifi c and engineering studies. The complexity of such tasks increases with every new dataset that has been put on the stack of data sources. In the same way as the complexity of autonomous probes increases, tools that support these challenges also require new levels of sophistication. In planetary science, cartography and mapping share a history dating back to the roots of telescopic space exploration and are now facing new technological and organizational challenges with the rise of new missions, new global initiatives and organizations, and opening research markets. The focus of this contribution is to summarize recent activities in planetary cartography and to highlighting current issues the community is facing to identify future opportunities in this fi eld. By this we would like to invite cartographers/researchers to join this community and to start thinking about how to jointly solve some of these challenges.

At the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, we have many different ways of visualizing planetary image data. From the creation of scientific cartographic products over perspective 3D views to immersive virtual reality environments we apply many different visualization techniques to gain a better understanding of a planet's surface. Processing the data to obtain the best visual and contextual representations for scientific and engineering uses as well as for public outreach is part of our daily routine. We present some of the progress we have made in the field of data visualization during the last decade benefitting from modern techniques.

Maps are one of the most important tools for communicating geospatial information between producers and receivers. Geospatial data, tools, contributions in geospatial sciences, and the communication of information and transmission of knowledge are matter of ongoing cartographic research. This applies to all topics and objects located on Earth or on any other body in our Solar System. In planetary science, cartography and mapping have a history dating back to the roots of telescopic space exploration and are now facing new technological and organizational challenges with the rise of new missions, new global initiatives, organizations and opening research markets. The focus of this contribution is to introduce the community to the field of planetary cartography and its historic foundation, to highlight some of the organizations involved and to emphasize challenges that Planetary Cartography has to face today and in the near future.

Planetary Cartography does not only provides the basis to support planning (e.g., landing-site selection, orbital observations, traverse planning) and to facilitate mission conduct during the lifetime of a mission (e.g., observation tracking and hazard avoidance). It also provides the means to create science products after successful termination of a planetary mission by distilling data into maps. After a mission’s lifetime, data and higher level products like mosaics and digital terrain models (DTMs) are stored in archives – and eventually into maps and higher-level data products – to form a basis for research and for new scientific and engineering studies. The complexity of such tasks increases with every new dataset that has been put on this stack of information, and in the same way as the complexity of autonomous probes increases, also tools that support these challenges require new levels of sophistication. In planetary science, cartography and mapping have a history dating back to the roots of telescopic space exploration and are now facing new technological and organizational challenges with the rise of new missions, new global initiatives, organizations and opening research markets. The focus of this contribution is to summarize recent activities in Planetary Cartography, highlighting current issues the community is facing to derive the future opportunities in this field. By this we would like to invite cartographers/researchers to join this community and to start thinking about how we can jointly solve some of these challenges.

The small (approximately 500 km in diameter) satellite Enceladus is moving near the equatorial plane and deep in the gravity field of its parent planet Saturn. Owing to tidal interaction with its parent, Enceladus has adopted a pronounced 3-axial ellipsoidal shape and is tidally locked, with rotational and orbital periods of about 1.37 days. As the equator of Saturn is inclined to the planet’s orbital plane, Enceladus, like most of the other satellites of Saturn, undergoes pronounced seasons. This paper gives a summary of the current status as well as shortcomings of our current knowledge regarding Enceladus’ geodetic and dynamic parameters.