gital Image Restoration
Mark R. Banham · 1997
he field of image restoration began primarily with the efforts of scientists involved in the space programs of both the United States and the former Soviet Union in the 1950s and early 1960s. These programs were responsible for producing many incredible images of the Earth and our solar system that, at that time, were unimaginable. Such images held untold scientific benefits which only became clear in the ensuing years as the race for the moon began to consume more and more of our scientific efforts and budgets. However, the images obtained from the various planetary missions of the time, such as the Ranger, Lunar Orbiter, and Mariner missions, were subject to many photographic degradations. These were a result of substandard imaging environments, the vibration in machinery and the spinning and tumbling of the spacecraft. Pictures from the later manned space missions were also blurred due to the inability of the astronaut to steady himself in a gravitationless environment while taking photographs. The degradation of images was no small problem, considering the enormous expense required to obtain such pictures in the first place. The loss of information due to image degradation could be devastating. For example, the 22 pictures produced during the Mariner IV flight to Mars in 1964 were later estimated to cost almost $10 million just in terms of the number of bits transmitted alone [83]. Any degradations reduced the scientific value of these images considerably and clearly cost the space agencies money.