How did they assemble Pluto image?

[Doug Nelson]

More to the point, why did it take a team? It says it took 10 minutes, so why 4 people?

Does anyone know specifically what was involved?

http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2015/07/how-plutos-most-spectacular-image-was-made-and-nearly-lost

[klev]

Re: How did they assemble Pluto image?

You don't seem to like my responses, but I'll give it a try anyway. The article indicates that they aren't using a typical capture format. They're using something better suited to linear data, which may still be weighted. I don't know what applications were used. There are a number that they may have used, but the article specifically mentions a thunderbolt display. That means they're probably using OSX rather than Linux. Even then you still have access to a lot of command line utilities and open source projects, and even a Fortran compiler.

I would imagine they had certain goals and may have been using atypical software and something other than a typical slr.

Hal Weaver, the project scientist for New Horizons, watched the data packets accumulate one by one on the server, and waited for an automated process to collate them into a FITS file—a rudimentary image. It would be a raw, lossy, black and white image of Pluto, the first to fill the frame of the spacecraft’s camera.

If all of them had significant involvement in the project, they may have wanted to offer input before any images were released. This was obvious a big deal, as you can see from the article snippet. Watching the data transmission packet by packet is otherwise atypical behavior.