Augmented reality could help scientists find microscopic signs of life in the most extreme environments.
— NASA Astrobiology: Exploring Life in the Universe (@NASAAstrobio) November 7, 2022
Meet Dr. Stephen Scheidt and Dr. Zachary Morse, two scientists putting new field work technology to the test inside Hawaii’s lava caves. pic.twitter.com/hKOpvo2wRN
Author Archives: sscheidt77
RISE2 Field Campaign Kilbourne Hole, NM 2022
RISE2 Field Campaign to Kilbourne Hole, NM 2021
Field Campaign in Iceland 2021
Capturing Aerial Images from UAVs in Iceland 2019
Science, Art and Engineering
- UPDATE: This made my day.
My main function: analyze geospatial data on the computer. The data show images looking down at Earth and Mars and are interesting to look at: lava flows, sand dunes, river channels, mountains. These are valuable to science, but the patterns and abstractness have artistic value. Many people recognize this and celebrate this by contributing to The Art of Planetary Science Exhibition in Tucson, AZ. There were many submissions from almost a hundred artists, and I’m happy to be one this year in 2018. I carved a HiRISE DTM, my first completed 3D carve of topography. I’m happy with the way it turned out!
Description of Piece: A place on Mars in miniature Fissure and Channel Southeast of Olympus Mons. Carved by a homemade computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine; surface tone painted by hand. Image data were provided by The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in orbit around Mars, which were processed into a digital terrain model by the HiRISE Science Team.
- The location of the data is from a location (square mark) east of Olympus Mons, Mars.
- Perspective digital rendering of the HiRISE visible image data showing the fissure and channels.
- Perspective digital rendering of the HiRISE DTM data.
- This is the table top of my CNC machine. On the right is a practice carve, aka, attempt No. 1.
- Carving in progress. You can’t see the spindle and milling bit because of the dust shoe. A 4″ hose is connected to a blower, pulling dust off the piece as it carves.
- This is the completed carve after roughing (1/4″ square end mill, 1500 mmpm, 3 mm doc) and finishing (1/16″ ball end mill, 1500 mmpm, 0.254 doc, 0.33 mm stepover). I would definitely do it differently next time as I made many mistakes. Even though a machine is doing the carving, there are still plenty of “artistic” choice to make.
- Because of the scale of the model, topography is subtle. The large cut in the middle is actually about 500 meters wide. On the model, it’s only about 1.5 cm.
- Finished it with a black border, a typical view when viewing satellite data on a computer. Hand painted the surface. Ready for this weekend’s exhibition.
- Just another view. I was experimenting with the piece upside down. (The bottom is North.)
RIS4E Field Campaign Aden Volcanic Field, NM 2017
Iceland Field Campaign 2016
I have to admit: Flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) such as the Trimble UX5-HP is a lot easier than flying a kite over lava flows. We covered several square kilometers in no time with this bird! There were two location: the south of Iceland (the Laki lava flow) and in the north of Iceland (the Holuhraun lava flow). We worked with a great group of students in the field participating in the Keck Geology Consortium. They helped us run our mobile UAV airport! I’ll post more details about our field work and the student projects soon. For now, here are a few images of us doing our volcanological mapping. The data will result in orthoimage data at 1-4 cm per pixel, and digital terrain models at 10 cm per pixel!
- This is a taste of the data we’re creating at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. On the left is an orthoimage of a series of cones along a fissure in the Laki lava flow. On the right is a colorized digital terrain model (DTM) of the same area. No scale; map oriented north.
- Setting up for launch near the Holuhraun lava flow
- Ground control; our mobile UAV port.
- Stepping through launch preparations with Dr. Christopher Hamilton.
- Removing the pitot tube cover just before launch.
- Somewhere out there is an expensive bird that we’re tracking.
- Going through post-flight checklist.
- It took several flights to cover the area surrounding the vent of the Holuhraun lava flow with the UX5-HP.
Video Goes Live on NASA Hyperwall
PI Tim Glotch discussing the scales at which we observe the Solar System on the NASA Hyperwall. #AGU15 pic.twitter.com/DGPTzwGeos
— RIS4E Science (@RIS4E_SSERVI) December 18, 2015
Check out the full video I created using the image and digital terrain model collected using a kite aerial photography (KAP) system.
Artistic Portraits of Earth
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Tucson, AZ. I made a submission of kite aerial photographs to the Third Annual Art of Planetary Science exhibition at University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Creative works of art inspired by the exploration of our Universe were featured next to works that would otherwise only be scientific data. It was a fantastic and unique juxtaposition, with over 200 submissions and over 100 artists.
I’ve been using kite aerial photography as a research tool to gather my own remote sensing data. I started this while I was a postdoc at the Smithsonian, and now, at LPL. I use the images to create three dimensional models and to make comparisons of landforms to other planetary surfaces, but I saw an opportunity to show these data as art. Out of tens of thousands of aerial images I’ve collected, I selected eight, and I had them printed on aluminum.
The Art of Planetary Science is an all-volunteer, public outreach effort run by graduate students at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. You can find out more online at www.lpl.arizona.edu/art and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lpltaps). Enjoy my image submissions below.
Wind and Water at Great Sand Dunes, Colorado
- Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
- Sand Creek, Colorado
Lava Flow Surfaces, Reminiscent of Mars
- Hilina fault system, south flank of Kilauea, Hawaii
- Holuhraun, Iceland
Lava fields, El Malpais, New Mexico
- Inflation Pits, McCartys, NM
- Fractures, McCartys, NM
Planetary Particles (phi, 4 to -6)
- Askja, Iceland
- Bruneau Dunes, Idaho