Restoration of Motion-Blurred, High-Resolution Mars Express SRC Images of Phobos

Spacecraft imaging of planetary surfaces often suffers from motion-induced blur when the relative velocity between the spacecraft and target is high. We present an automated deblurring framework that derives a one-dimensional point spread function (PSF) directly from the spacecraft’s imaging geometry—without relying on star-field calibration—and applies Wiener deconvolution to restore image sharpness. We validate our method on fourteen sub-meter-per-pixel SRC images of Phobos acquired by Mars Express over four distinct orbits. With an approximately 40-pixel linear PSF and an assumed 16 dB noise level, our pipeline significantly enhances surface feature visibility, enabling fine-scale geological analysis. This technique is readily transferable to other motion-degraded planetary datasets.