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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) was a citizen science and education program led by astronaut Sally Ride, part of NASA\u2019s 2011-12 GRAIL mission. While the mission\u2019s two small spacecraft measured the moon\u2019s gravitational field, NASA used their cameras to take lunar photos requested by the MoonKAM kids.<\/p>\n
Because the photos weren\u2019t science images, NASA wasn\u2019t required to archive them, and the images were lost. For help locating them, Horzempa turned to his research stalwart: the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility<\/a> (SPIF) at Cornell. \u201cSo I went on the hunt,\u201d says Zoe Learner Ponterio<\/a>, SPIF manager.<\/p>\n Recently, some additional image sets from MoonKAM were located, and SPIF was asked if it could become the permanent repository of the images. \u201cOf course we accepted,\u201d says Ponterio.<\/p>\n