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The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is equipped with a next-generation engineering camera imaging system that represents an upgrade over previous Mars rover missions. These upgrades will improve the operational capabilities of the rover with an emphasis on drive planning, robotic arm operation, instrument operations, sample caching activities, and documentation of key events during entry, descent, and landing (EDL). There are a total of 16 cameras in the Perseverance engineering imaging system, including 9 cameras for surface operations and 7 cameras for EDL documentation. There are 3 types of cameras designed for surface operations: Navigation cameras (Navcams, quantity 2), Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams, quantity 6), and Cachecam (quantity 1). The Navcams will acquire color stereo images of the surface with a 96 ∘ × 73 ∘ field of view at 0.33 mrad/pixel. The Hazcams will acquire color stereo images of the surface with a 136 ∘ × 102 ∘ at 0.46 mrad/pixel. The Cachecam, a new camera type, will acquire images of Martian material inside the sample tubes during caching operations at a spatial scale of 12.5 microns/pixel. There are 5 types of EDL documentation cameras: The Parachute Uplook Cameras (PUCs, quantity 3), the Descent stage Downlook Camera (DDC, quantity 1), the Rover Uplook Camera (RUC, quantity 1), the Rover Descent Camera (RDC, quantity 1), and the Lander Vision System (LVS) Camera (LCAM, quantity 1). The PUCs are mounted on the parachute support structure and will acquire video of the parachute deployment event as part of a system to characterize parachute performance. The DDC is attached to the descent stage and pointed downward, it will characterize vehicle dynamics by capturing video of the rover as it descends from the skycrane. The rover-mounted RUC, attached to the rover and looking upward, will capture similar video of the skycrane from the vantage point of the rover and will also acquire video of the descent stage flyaway event. The RDC, attached to the rover and looking downward, will document plume dynamics by imaging the Martian surface before, during, and after rover touchdown. The LCAM, mounted to the bottom of the rover chassis and pointed downward, will acquire 90 ∘ × 90 ∘ FOV images during the parachute descent phase of EDL as input to an onboard map localization by the Lander Vision System (LVS). The rover also carries a microphone, mounted externally on the rover chassis, to capture acoustic signatures during and after EDL. The Perseverance rover launched from Earth on July 30th, 2020, and touchdown on Mars is scheduled for February 18th, 2021.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) are on the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The WAC is a 7-color push-frame camera (100 and 400 m/pixel visible and UV, respectively), while the two NACs are monochrome narrow-angle linescan imagers (0.5 m/pixel). The primary mission of LRO is to obtain measurements of the Moon that will enable future lunar human exploration. The overarching goals of the LROC investigation include landing site identification and certification, mapping of permanently polar shadowed and sunlit regions, meter-scale mapping of polar regions, global multispectral imaging, a global morphology base map, characterization of regolith properties, and determination of current impact hazards.

The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) instrument aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is a wide‐angle, multispectral Charge‐Coupled Device (CCD) “push frame” imaging camera designed to provide frequent, synoptic‐scale color imaging of the Martian atmosphere and surface. MARCI uses a 1024 × 1024 pixel interline transfer CCD detector that has seven narrowband interference filters bonded directly to the CCD. Five of the filters are in the visible to short‐wave near‐infrared wavelength range (437, 546, 604, 653, and 718 nm) and two are in the ultraviolet range (258 and 320 nm). Here we describe the scientific objectives of the MARCI investigation and the basic characteristics, calibration, and in‐flight performance of the MARCI instrument. We include several examples of early scientific results and investigations enabled by an extensive preflight and in‐flight calibration program and by validation of the performance of the instrument in flight.

Junocam is a wide-angle camera designed to capture the unique polar perspective of Jupiter offered by Juno’s polar orbit. Junocam’s four-color images include the best spatial resolution ever acquired of Jupiter’s cloudtops. Junocam will look for convective clouds and lightning in thunderstorms and derive the heights of the clouds. Junocam will support Juno’s radiometer experiment by identifying any unusual atmospheric conditions such as hotspots. Junocam is on the spacecraft explicitly to reach out to the public and share the excitement of space exploration. The public is an essential part of our virtual team: amateur astronomers will supply ground-based images for use in planning, the public will weigh in on which images to acquire, and the amateur image processing community will help process the data.

The Terminal Tracking Camera system (TTCam) on the NASA Lucy Trojan asteroid Discovery mission consists of a pair of block redundant cameras and their associated electronics that are mounted on the spacecraft’s Instrument Pointing Platform and co-boresighted with the rest of the mission’s science payload instruments. The primary function of the TTCams is as a navigation system designed to provide an autonomous onboard late pre-encounter update of the location of each asteroid flyby target relative to the spacecraft. However, once the terminal tracking function is complete, the TTCam system will also provide 11.0°×8.2° field of view broadband (425-675 nm) images during the close approach phase of each asteroid flyby that will be used for scientific analyses like shape modeling and assessment of each target’s geology and topography. This paper provides an overview of the TTCam cameras and electronics, the science-focused requirements that the system is designed to meet, pointers to pre-flight calibration and in-flight calibration details for the cameras, as well as a high-level summary of the kinds of science that these images will enable for the mission.

High-resolution images of the martian surface at scales of a few meters show ubiquitous erosional and depositional eolian landforms. Dunes, sandsheets, and drifts are prevalent and exhibit a range of morphology, composition (inferred from albedo), and age (as seen in occurrences of different dune orientations at the same location). Steep walls of topographic depressions such as canyons, valleys, and impact craters show the martian crust to be stratified at scales of a few tens of meters. The south polar layered terrain and superposed permanent ice cap display diverse surface textures that may reflect the complex interplay of volatile and non-volatile components. Low resolution regional views of the planet provide synoptic observations of polar cap retreat, condensate clouds, and the lifecycle of local and regional dust storms.

The NASA Curiosity rover Mast Camera (Mastcam) system is a pair of fixed-focal length, multispectral, color CCD imagers mounted approximately 2 m above the surface on the rover's remote sensing mast, along with associated electronics and an onboard calibration target. The left Mastcam (M-34) has a 34 mm focal length, an instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of 0.22 mrad, and a FOV of 20 deg × 15 deg over the full 1648 × 1200 pixel span of its Kodak KAI-2020 CCD. The right Mastcam (M-100) has a 100 mm focal length, an IFOV of 0.074 mrad, and a FOV of 6.8 deg × 5.1 deg using the same detector. The cameras are separated by 24.2 cm on the mast, allowing stereo images to be obtained at the resolution of the M-34 camera. Each camera has an eight-position filter wheel, enabling it to take Bayer pattern red, green, and blue (RGB) 'true color' images, multispectral images in nine additional bands spanning approximately 400-1100 nm, and images of the Sun in two colors through neutral density-coated filters. An associated Digital Electronics Assembly provides command and data interfaces to the rover, 8 Gb of image storage per camera, 11 bit to 8 bit companding, JPEG compression, and acquisition of high-definition video. Here we describe the preflight and in-flight calibration of Mastcam images, the ways that they are being archived in the NASA Planetary Data System, and the ways that calibration refinements are being developed as the investigation progresses on Mars. We also provide some examples of data sets and analyses that help to validate the accuracy and precision of the calibration.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission spacecraft includes the Touch And Go Camera System (TAGCAMS) three camera-head instrument. The purpose of TAGCAMS is to provide imagery during the mission to facilitate navigation to the target asteroid, confirm acquisition of the asteroid sample, and document asteroid sample stowage. The cameras were designed and constructed by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) based on requirements developed by Lockheed Martin and NASA. All three of the cameras are mounted to the spacecraft nadir deck and provide images in the visible part of the spectrum, 400–700 nm. Two of the TAGCAMS cameras, NavCam 1 and NavCam 2, serve as fully redundant navigation cameras to support optical navigation and natural feature tracking. Their boresights are aligned in the nadir direction with small angular offsets for operational convenience. The third TAGCAMS camera, StowCam, provides imagery to assist with and confirm proper stowage of the asteroid sample. Its boresight is pointed at the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule located on the spacecraft deck. All three cameras have at their heart a 2592 × 1944 pixel complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) detector array that provides up to 12-bit pixel depth. All cameras also share the same lens design and a camera field of view of roughly 44 ∘ × 32 ∘ with a pixel scale of 0.28 mrad/pixel. The StowCam lens is focused to image features on the spacecraft deck, while both NavCam lens focus positions are optimized for imaging at infinity. A brief description of the TAGCAMS instrument and how it is used to support critical OSIRIS-REx operations is provided.

The Touch And Go Camera System (TAGCAMS) is a three-camera-head instrument onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission spacecraft. The purpose of TAGCAMS is to facilitate navigation to the target asteroid, (101955) Bennu; confirm acquisition of the asteroid sample; document asteroid sample stowage; and provide supplementary imaging for OSIRIS-REx science investigations. During the almost two-year OSIRIS-REx outbound cruise phase we pursued nine TAGCAMS imaging campaigns to check, calibrate and characterize the camera system’s performance before asteroid arrival and proximity operations began in late 2018. The TAGCAMS in-flight calibration dataset provides the relevant information to enable the three cameras to complete their primary observation goals during asteroid operations. The key performance parameters that we investigated in flight included: linearity, responsivity (both point source and extended body), dark current, hot pixels, pointing, image geometry transformation, image quality and stray light. Analyses of the in-flight performance either confirmed the continued applicability of the TAGCAMS ground test results or substantially improved upon the ground test knowledge. In addition, the TAGCAMS calibration observations identified the source of a spacecraft outgassing feature that guided successful remediation efforts prior to asteroid arrival.

The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is a 2-megapixel, color camera with resolution as high as 13.9 µm pixel−1. MAHLI has operated successfully on the Martian surface for over 1150 Martian days (sols) aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity. During that time MAHLI acquired images to support science and science-enabling activities, including rock and outcrop textural analysis; sand characterization to further the understanding of global sand properties and processes; support of other instrument observations; sample extraction site documentation; range-finding for arm and instrument placement; rover hardware and instrument monitoring and safety; terrain assessment; landscape geomorphology; and support of rover robotic arm commissioning. Operation of the instrument has demonstrated that imaging fully illuminated, dust-free targets yields the best results, with complementary information obtained from shadowed images. The light-emitting diodes (LEDs) allow satisfactory night imaging but do not improve daytime shadowed imaging. MAHLI's combination of fine-scale, science-driven resolution, RGB color, the ability to focus over a large range of distances, and relatively large field of view (FOV), have maximized the return of science and science-enabling observations given the MSL mission architecture and constraints.