University of Arizona's Regional Planetary Image Facility

1629 E. University Blvd.
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0092
Phone: 520-621-4861
FAX: 520-621-4933

Director: Shane Byrne
Data Manager: Maria Schuchardt

Special Pages:

Exploration Posters available for download:

Introduction

The Space Imagery Center at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, is a research collection of NASA planetary photography, cartographic products, and technical documentation. The Space Imagery Center, established in 1977, is one of 18 NASA Regional Planetary Image Facilities around the world. These facilities collect and disseminate planetary mission data to local scientists, students, educators and the media.

General Information

The Space Imagery Center is located in Room 450 of the Space Sciences Building. The Center is open Monday--Friday from 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m., and is staffed by a Data Manager who can assist in selecting images.

The Collection

The facility houses a collection of hundreds of thousands of planetary images and mission information in a variety of formats. The majority of these images are non-copyrighted.

Some of the Space Imagery Center's larger data sets include: Lunar Orbiter prints and positive film copies; Apollo hand-held, metric- and pan-camera prints (negative film copies for the metric and pan camera sets); Viking 1 and 2 Orbiter and Lander standard and special products, positive prints and negative film copies; Voyager 1 and 2 standard and special products, positive prints and negative film copies; Magellan standard and special products, positive prints and negative film copies; Galileo mission products in positive print and negative film copies; a large collection of Earthbased planetary images taken by local observers; a collection of U.S. Geological Survey cartographic products; a film and videotape collection; a collection of 4,000 slides, available to University educators for use in their courses---the public may request duplicates from the collection; a CD-ROM collection of data sets.

Circulation

Most of the materials in the Space Imagery Center, such as photographic images and negatives, do not circulate. The Data Manager can arrange to have prints made at cost to the patron. The faculty, staff and graduate students of LPL/PTYS, NOAO/Kitt Peak National Observatory, Steward Observatory and the Planetary Science Institute may borrow from the slide and videotape collections. CD-ROMs are to be used in the Space Imagery Center computer lab, unless special permission is given for outside use.

Patrons must use the Space Imagery Center check-out sheet to record the items being borrowed. In addition, borrowers are asked to print the date, their name and office phone number on the check-out sheets. The loan period is indefinite, but borrowed materials may be recalled at any time. Patrons are asked not to re-file the materials they are returning.

Handling of Images

To prevent damaging the photographic products, users are asked to request assistance from the Data Manager in locating desired materials. Food and drink are prohibited in the Space Imagery Center.

Other Services

Tours. The Space Imagery Center is available for tours and image processing demonstrations. Prior arrangements must be made to avoid scheduling conflicts.

Press Releases. The Space Imagery Center receives a variety of NASA press release photos and new releases which it makes available to visitors.

Image Processing Laboratory. The image processing laboratory is available to users wanting to scan, copy or process images selected from the Imagey Center collection or downloaded from the Internet. For more information about image processing, go to PIRL, the Planetary Image Research Laboratory.

Reference Service. The Data Manager is available from 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. to answer questions about the Center and provide basic reference assistance. The DM can also refer requests to other RPIFs and the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), perform on-line database searches and provide information on acquiring image processing software and digital data on-line.

Remote users may request information or images by contacting the Data Manager eehone (520/621-4861), FAX (520/621-4933)

Last updated: 15 February 2002

Click here to learn about other Regional Planetary Image Facilities