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Pre-flight and In-flight Calibration and Performance of the Terminal Tracking Cameras (TTCams) on the NASA Lucy Mission
  • +9
  • Yifan Zhao,
  • James F. Bell III,
  • Eric M Sahr,
  • Erik Lessac-Chenen,
  • Coralie D Adam,
  • Ernest Cisneros,
  • Andrew Winhold,
  • Michael Caplinger,
  • Michael A. Ravine,
  • Jacob A Schaffner,
  • Joseph M Shamah,
  • Stefano Mottola
Yifan Zhao
Arizona State University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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James F. Bell III
Arizona State University
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Eric M Sahr
Space Navigation and Flight Dynamics Practice, KinetX, Inc.
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Erik Lessac-Chenen
KinetX Space Flight Dynamics Practice
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Coralie D Adam
KinetX, Inc.
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Ernest Cisneros
Arizona State University
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Andrew Winhold
Arizona State University
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Michael Caplinger
Malin Space Science Systems
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Michael A. Ravine
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.
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Jacob A Schaffner
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc
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Joseph M Shamah
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc
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Stefano Mottola
German Aerospace Center
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Abstract

The Terminal Tracking Camera (TTCam) imaging system on the NASA Lucy Discovery mission consists of a pair of cameras that will be used mainly as a navigation and target acquisition system for the mission’s asteroid encounters. However, a secondary science-focused function of the TTCam system is to provide wide-angle broadband images over a large range of phase angles around close approach during each asteroid flyby. The scientific data acquired by TTCam can be used for shape modeling and topographic and geologic analyses. This paper describes the pre-flight and initial in-flight calibration and characterization of the TTCams, including the development of a radiometric calibration pipeline to convert raw TTCam images into radiance and radiance factor (I/F) images, along with their uncertainties. Details are also provided here on the specific calibration algorithms, the origin and archived location of the required ancillary calibration files, and the archived sources of the raw calibration and flight data used in this analysis.
20 Feb 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
10 Mar 2024Published in ESS Open Archive