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Crater Detection
Courtesy: James Stuby (NASA) / Wikimedia Commons A crater is a structure or geological formation that is produced as a result of impact of a smaller body upon a larger heavenly body. Craters are found on all solid heavenly bodies such as Earth, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus etc. Studying craters is important because they are time capsules to how our Solar System evolved and gives us clues to the past, present and future of the evolution of planetary bodies without humans setting foot on them. Crater densities have been correlated with surface age and crater counts have been used used to estimate the relative age of the lunar surface. There are many other uses to studying craters, so it is important to be able to detect craters quickly in an automated fashion. This research uses a novel method of detecting craters by using multiple co-registered data sources: optical images, digital elevation maps (DEMs) and slope maps of the lunar surface. The method uses a deep learning architecture