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  NASA's release of high resolution photographs

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Author Topic:   NASA's release of high resolution photographs
Silver
Member

Posts: 62
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2015

posted 02-14-2017 10:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Silver   Click Here to Email Silver     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So, I've been looking through the photos of the week, which are fantastic, and seeing the ads for "hi-res image discs" and people selling large prints from ultra-high resolution originals online. I also have spent a fair amount of time on official government sources looking for images from all sorts of missions but rarely finding files that are larger than a couple megs.

With the exception of classified images, which wouldn't be available for obvious reasons, why is it so hard to find free full resolution images of NASA missions? Aren't they supposed to be public record and public domain? Secondly, where did these folks selling discs or prints get access to large numbers of these hi-res files that are seemingly inaccessible to others?

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 02-14-2017 10:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Silver:
Aren't they supposed to be public record and public domain?
Sure but only if you have someone (and the budget for, or a volunteer) to scan the images (or the material). Physical and monetary resources are not there, in case you haven't noticed!

NASA has (presumably) all the space-related cartoons that appeared in the press over the years. I'd love to have access to those (okay, there are copyright issues here).

J.L
Member

Posts: 674
From: Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Registered: May 2005

posted 02-14-2017 10:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for J.L   Click Here to Email J.L     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The short answer is that NASA will probably never have the time or resources to make them all available. Most of the "Best of" material is scattered about online in various spots.

I have spent a good chunk of my life seeking out, and purchasing 8x10 NASA prints and 4x5 transparencies from sources all over the world. This does not include the time and money spent traveling to various archives and doing research for additional purchases. The vast majority of this material ends up on the discs that I sell on Retro Space Images.

A side note to those interested in discs, working on a new website now. There will be a price reduction as well. All of the $39.95 discs will be reduced to $29.95. Contact me for details if interested.

Philip
Member

Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 02-18-2017 10:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Indeed, in the 1980s traveling to NASA HQ in Washington D.C. offered an opportunity to stack up on missing crew photos and individual portraits for one's collection.

kyra
Member

Posts: 583
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 02-23-2017 11:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for kyra   Click Here to Email kyra     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I would suggest checking the National Archives online search. All the photos taken inflight by the crews are there including ET Separation, Earth observations, in-cabin activities, and payload deployments. The quality is hit or miss, but all are in high resolution. As an example, from STS-38, I have downloaded about 400 images!

This archive and those on NASA Spaceflight's L2 forum makes up about 90% of my STS imagery collection. There is a high resolution collection of mission emblem art there as well.

The other 10% I have found by searching the mission on Google then searching for other sizes then finding the best quality. Wikipedia has a few dozen nice ones as well.

NASA's GRIN (Great-Images in NASA) also has some that are worth collecting, although I agree with earlier posts that NASA's own selection and quality leaves much to be desired.

Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member

Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 02-24-2017 12:56 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hart Sastrowardoyo   Click Here to Email Hart Sastrowardoyo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA probably never thought of the demand for high-res images until recently. I have a similar problem, looking for images that can be printed out as 8x10s to get signed. (And I'm looking for "casual" images, not the standard portrait shots.)

From professional experience, digital files get corrupted, or servers change and files don't carry over, leaving hard copies as the only form of existence. Or storage may be at a premium, and thus older photos get the ax.

Pre-STS-79 they are extremely hard to come by, unless they're a popular image that got reprinted online somewhere (like Jemison "dancing" in zero-G.)

I've resorted to buying original photos as I see them on eBay, storing them against the day I meet them. Or using photos of them in the civilian post-NASA life, which are easier to come by.

There used to be a place in Texas where if you knew the photo ID number, they would make a print of it. As well, there was someone here on cS (whose name I've forgotten; it's not Heng) where if you tell them what you were looking for, they'd shoot you an email with thumbnails, you'd make the selection and they'd print it out for you. Haven't used it since 2011, because quite frankly, I needed a photo and it was delayed in sending it to me, to the point where it arrived after the event.

Mike Dixon
Member

Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 02-24-2017 01:21 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Have to say that since they're not sent out anymore, be they lithos or glossies (no blame attended to anyone for that by the way), it seems to be an oversight. The HSG is a prime example. Once was my prime focus, now no longer updated.

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