The 2017 International Symposium on Remote Sensing and Mapping was held in Hongkong on August 13-16. The symposium, under the auspices of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Working Group "Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping", provided a forum for leading scientists and researchers to present their latest research and developments from the recent missions exploring the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies by NASA, ESA, Japan, India, China, and other countries.

Prof. DI Kaichang from RADI, the chair of ISPRS Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping Working Group, attended the event. Other RADI participants including LIU Bin, PENG Man, WAN Wenhui, YUE Zongyu, and ZHANG Xia presented their latest research results in planetary exploration on the symposium.

Prof. Di is the director of RADI’s Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing Laboratory. He involved in tele-operation of the Chang’E-3 rover using visual navigation and environment perception techniques, and has been leading a team to develop new vision-based techniques to support China’s future lander and rover missions. He was co-chair of ISPRS Planetary Mapping and Databases Working Group from 2008 to 2016, and he has been chair of ISPRS Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping Working Group since 2016.

Prof. Di delivered a keynote speech on Landing Site Mapping and Rover Localization for the Chang’E-3 Mission. Other keynote speakers are Prof. Raymond E. Arvidson from Washington University in Saint Louis, USA, Prof. Dr. Nicolas Thomas from University of Bern, Switzerland, Dr. Randy Kirk from U.S. Geological Survey, and Dr. Carsten Güttler from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Their speech themes cover exploring the ancient Martian geologic record, the Martian stereo surface Imaging System, planetary cartography to planetary spatial data infrastructure, and the comet exploration.

The themes covered by the symposium include: planetary remote sensing, planetary photogrammetry and robotic vision, planetary cartography, planetary GIS and database systems, planetary remote sensing data fusion, information extraction from planetary remote sensing data, reference systems of celestial bodies, data from asteroids/comets, geo-visualization of planetary remote sensing data, and planetary exploration missions.

RADI scientists attend 2017 International Symposium on Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping.