Video Compression for Lunar Imaging

NASA seeks a novel technique for transmitting high-quality imagery from the Moon to Earth. Currently, both the quality and quantity of imagery is limited due to the difficulty of imaging a lunar scene; restricted size, weight, and power (SWaP) on the Moon; and low available bandwidth. We propose to develop the Lunar Event System (LES), which incorporates an event camera to reduce overall power requirements, identify scenes of interest, automate acquisition settings, reduce transmitted data size, and increase the quality of the final imagery product. In Phase I, we will prove the feasibility of this approach through software development, representative data acquisition, and algorithm validation. We will acquire data with both traditional and event cameras of scenes representative of the Moon for algorithm development and validation. We will compress the data streams from both cameras using state-of-the-art techniques with low-SWaP hardware. Finally, we will develop novel techniques for combining imagery and event data to enhance imagery quality and validate these techniques on the acquired data.

For the Artemis program, NASA requires high-quality imagery for monitoring operations, guiding automated activities, and inspiring the public. The LES will meet these needs by automatically identifying and recording scenes of interest, compressing/transmitting them over low bandwidth (in real time for most cases), and reconstructing the high-quality images on Earth. There is a large market in the scientific community (Government, private, and academic) for high-speed cameras capable of acquiring images faster than 100 kHz. Depending on the speed required, the cost of these cameras can range from expensive to prohibitive. The event and imagery fusion techniques developed for the LES can be adapted to acquire high-speed phenomenon with the combination of a lower-speed (and less expensive) camera with an event camera (comparatively inexpensive). This would allow the scientific community to spend less money on the requisite hardware and more on the research at hand.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.