Lucille Le Corre

Principal Investigator of a NASA grant that focused on processing and analyzing color images of asteroid Vesta using the Framing Camera (FC) onboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. I produced local and global color mosaics of Vesta, and studying the geology and composition of the surface. I was also a co-Investigator of another NASA project dedicated to calibrate and analyze data from the Hayabusa spacecraft using the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS) instrument and the Asteroid Multi-band Imaging Camera (AMICA) to study the composition of asteroid Itokawa. I was a team member of the Image Processing Working Group of the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu to help create mosaics using images from the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) and contribute to the study of space weathering effects on Bennu. In 2016, I was selected by NASA to be a Participating Scientist for JAXA Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu. I helped constrain color properties and surface composition of Ryugu in correlation with surface geology to understand surface alteration. I provided support for sample site selection, impactor site selection, rover and lander deployment, mission planning and scientific investigations of the Hayabusa2 science team by generating higher-level data products (color maps, shape model and SPICE kernels).

Senior scientist at PSI (2020-):

• Space Domain Awareness
• Participating Scientist for JAXA Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu: I generated image mosaics of asteroid Ryugu to create maps of the surface using both the camera and spectrometer data sets.
• Co-Investigator on NASA’s Janus mission (mission cancelled in 2022): I was the imaging lead for the Janus mission that was going to explore two binary near-Earth asteroids. My role focused on preparing the flyby of both targets using photometric modeling to predict expected brightness, helping with camera calibration and data processing plans, data management plan (archival in the PDS), ground-based observations of the targets, testing image geographic registration and image mosaicking for the creation of cartographic maps of the targets, and testing mission kernels (observation geometry data files) with NASA’s Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) SPICE (Spacecraft Planet Instrument Camera-matrix Events) toolkit subroutines.

Research scientist at PSI (2013-2020):

• Participating Scientist for JAXA Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu: I processed images from the ONC camera to create mosaics and topographic map products for mapping and visualizing terrains, and performed analysis of color images to understand the mineralogical composition and space weathering effects on near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. Cartographic products were generated to help with the selection of landing and sampling site for the Hayabusa2 spacecraft.
• NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, Image Processing Working Group: I integrated data from various orbital phases and generated map products in different projections. Contributed to the study of color properties of boulders on Bennu and to the search for spectral signatures linked to specific mineralogical composition. Investigated possible space weathering effects based on the trends seen in color indices derived from color images. Analysis of the boulders of exogenic origin on asteroid Bennu based on a global map of boulders in a Geographic Information System (GIS).
• Processing of Dawn FC images of asteroid Vesta (PI of a PMDAP grant): This project was focusing on calibrating and spatially adjusting NASA’s Dawn mission imaging data, studying the lithologies on Vesta, and archiving the new data in various formats in the Planetary Data System (PDS). Both my Hayabusa and Dawn projects funded by PMDAP focused on improving our understanding of the mineralogy and geologic evolution of asteroids Itokawa and Vesta.
• Hayabusa camera and spectrometer data processing of asteroid Itokawa (Co-I of a PMDAP grant): I worked on the calibration of the spectrometer (NIRS) and the camera (AMICA) from JAXA’s Hayabusa mission. The main goal of this grant was to produce cartographic products of the surface of Itokawa after improving the geographic registration of the data, produce calibrated images and spectra in various map projections and data formats, and analyze its surface composition.
• NASA Dawn mission at Ceres, associate team member. Calibration, processing and analysis of data from the Ceres phase of the mission using the Framing Camera images. Observations using IRTF/SPEX in preparation of the Ceres phase of the Dawn mission.

Research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany (2010-2012):

• NASA Dawn mission at Vesta, Framing Camera team member. I conducted research on Vesta’s geomorphology and mineralogy using the Framing Camera operated from the institute. I was responsible for developing the processing pipeline of all the color data of Vesta, and for mapping Vesta’s surface in a Geographic Information System.

Post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London (2010):

• ESA Mars Express, HRSC associate team member. Processed Mars images from Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions. Both datasets were used to create maps as well as Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) by stereophotogrammetry, to carry out analyses on the geology of former flooding areas called outflow channels. I wrote programs to process HRSC and CTX mosaics with subroutines from ISIS and JPL’s VICAR (Video Image Communication And Retrieval) software packages, and mapped geologic units in ArcGIS.

I studied for a B.Sc. in applied physics (2004) and a Master in Planetary Sciences (2006) at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, France. I got a PhD from the University of Nantes in France with the thesis “Geology of Titan from Cassini infrared spectro-imagery and radar SAR datasets” in 2010. I studied the surface of Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, using VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) and radar data from the Cassini spacecraft. During my PhD, I was a teaching fellow at the University of Nantes.