-ORIENTED

Projects
SHOWCASE
LAUREN EGTS
Lauren started interning for
NASA at 15. She has been in
NASA labs for three years.
magpi.cc/2hnYTuJ
NASA BOOT CUFF
SURFACE IMAGER
Quick
Facts
> The ALSCC
was used by
Neil Armstrong
in Little Rock
Crater
> The BCSI
can be used
all day on a
single charge
> The ASLCC
took
stereograph
photographs
> The BCSI
captures
1920×1080
digital
photographs
> The ALSCC
was 11 inches
(approx 28cm)
from the oor
When Lauren Egts spent time interning at NASA,
she used a Raspberry Pi to put a moon camera on her foot
A waterproof boot
is used to simulate
the footwear used
by an astronaut
A gyroscope is
connected to the
Raspberry Pi. The
project then takes
a photograph with
every footstep
The Camera Module
is attached to the
boot and points
straight down to the
surface
L
auren Egts has spent the
last three years interning
for NASA, where she has
worked on a range of quirky and
exciting projects.
he oot u ure
Imager) is her latest project.
It uses a Raspberry Pi Camera
Module and a gyroscope to take
oeup photogrph o the oor.
This project is a modern take on
a NASA device called the ALSCC
(Apollo Lunar Surface Closeup
Camera). This camera went all
the way to the moon and back.
“The ALSCC was designed by
Thomas Gold, a British scientist,”
explains Lauren.
“[He] created it to view surface
material from the moon. The
images that the ALSCC brought
back to Earth show what the
surface of the moon looks like from
eleven inches up. This is about the
equivalent of an Apollo astronaut
putting his faceplate to the lunar
surface and looking at it.”
NASA don’t want close-ups
of the moon’s soil for the fun
of it, says Lauren: “It was used
to discover more information
about the moon’s surface and
structure. These are things that
lunar soil brought back to Earth
can’t show because it has
been disturbed.
“The ALSCC had a right and
left lens that took a picture at
the same time and from those
2D pairs of images, scientists
32 February 2017
raspberrypi.org/magpi