NASA TECHNOLOGY HELPS SMITHSONIAN PRESERVE THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

[Harald Schenk <hschenk@EXCEL.NET>]

Here's an item that brought back some memories. Perhaps one of you list
members can give me some feedback?

During the 1950's, I read several news reports regarding US Air Force
attempts to experiment with infra-red cameras. Researchers reported that
after imaging a parking lot in infra-red, they could make out cars that had
left the lot as much as 30 minutes before the image was started. Images were
clear enough to make out a licence plate number. The articles suggested that
research might let us look into the "past". Articles were in the German
magazine "Der Stern". I have not heard anything else about this since that time.

Thanks,
Harald Schenk


> RELEASE:  98-201
>
> NASA TECHNOLOGY HELPS SMITHSONIAN
> PRESERVE THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
>
>     A NASA infrared camera developed to explore Mars will
> assist the Smithsonian Institution in its three-year project
> to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner.
>
>     The camera, built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
> Greenbelt, MD, is taking images this week of the historic
> flag in infrared light to help preservationists identify
> deteriorated and soiled areas not obvious to the human eye.
> The camera, called the Acousto-Optic Imaging Spectrometer
> (AImS), was developed by Dr. David Glenar at Goddard.

-snip-