NASA Crater Detection Challenge
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft recently made headlines by capturing stunning images of the Moon’s surface during its flyby of Earth on October 16, 2022. This event marked the first of three gravity assists that the spacecraft will utilize on its journey to explore the Trojan asteroids. The images collected are not just visually striking; they also hold significant scientific value. Crater rims, which are essential landmarks for planetary science and navigation, can be challenging to detect in natural imagery due to factors like shadows, lighting variations, and the irregular edges of the craters themselves. Recognizing this challenge, NASA is now inviting the public and scientific community to participate in a project aimed at developing advanced methods for accurately fitting ellipses to these crater rims, which could play a crucial role in future space exploration missions.
The project’s primary focus is on enhancing the crater detection process, which is vital for next-generation terrain-based optical navigation systems. NASA plans to equip spacecraft with visible-light cameras to capture detailed orbital images of lunar terrain. The goal is to develop a system that can not only detect crater rims in these images but also match them to a pre-existing catalog of craters and estimate the spacecraft’s position based on the identified features. This endeavor is particularly significant because natural imagery can vary greatly in lighting conditions, affecting the clarity and completeness of crater rim detection. By improving the accuracy of crater detection, NASA aims to enhance navigation capabilities for future missions to the Moon and beyond.
To incentivize participation in this innovative project, NASA is offering a total of $55,000 in prizes for those who can contribute effective solutions to the crater detection challenge. The project is set to open for submissions on November 25, 2025, and will close on January 19, 2026. This initiative not only highlights NASA’s commitment to advancing space exploration technology but also encourages collaboration and creativity from individuals and teams around the world. For more details on how to get involved, interested participants can visit the project page at Topcoder. This is a unique opportunity for aspiring scientists, engineers, and space enthusiasts to contribute to the future of lunar exploration and make a tangible impact on the field of planetary science.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured images of the Moon’s surface on Oct 16, 2022, after flying by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists.
Crater rims are vital landmarks for planetary science and navigation. Yet detecting them in real imagery is tough, with shadows, lighting shifts, and broken edges obscuring their shape.
This project invites you to develop methods that can reliably fit ellipses to crater rims, helping advance future space exploration.
In the pursuit of next generation, terrain-based optical navigation, NASA is developing a system that will use a visible-light camera on a spacecraft to capture orbital images of lunar terrain and process the imagery to:
detect the crater rims in the images,
identify the craters from a catalog, and
estimate the camera/vehicle position based on the identified craters.
The focus of this project is the crater detection process.
Natural imagery varies significantly in lighting and will impact the completeness of crater rims in the images.
Award: $55,000 in total prizes
Open Date: November 25, 2025
Close Date: January 19, 2026
For more information, visit:
https://www.topcoder.com/nasa-crater-detection
