Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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International Applications Areas should:
1. Contain features and conditions not well-developed or available in the U.S.
2. Be readily accessible to all accredited scientists of other countries involved in the
Program and should not be located in countries where political instability could
adversely affect the Program.
3. Be areas in which studies can be adequately supported and which present no
logistic problems.
4.5 SELECTION OF SITES
OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
Prospective Test Sites are proposed by the instrument and/or disciplinary scientists
with approval being vested in an ad hoc “Test Site and Aircraft Committee.” This
Committee is chaired by the Chief, Natural Resources Program, or his deputy, and is composed
of the program managers of the several natural and cultural resources disciplines
and the chairmen of the “teams.” Actual investigations are carried out by scientists affiliated
with the instrument teams, in the participating Federal agencies, and at universities
under NASA contract.
4.6 CURRENT STATUS OF TEST SITE ACTIVITIES
Studies of Test Sites started in 1964 with infrared studies at the Pisgah Crater Area,
California, for geology and at the Purdue Farm for agriculture. The number of studies
increased in 1965 with additional studies in Western Kansas; Mono Craters, California;
Davis, California; Weslaco, Texas; and Willcox Playa, Arizona. Concomitantly, the work at
the original was broadened to include other sensors.
Work at the Test Sites is being carried out principally by scientists of the instrument
teams working under NASA contracts or grants. Current status of “Test Site” studies is
given in Figure 13. [Figure 13 omitted]
Many of these measurements and problems require the development of new study
concepts. For example, statistical sampling programs are being developed by geologists at
Northwestern University. Geoscientists from the University of Nevada are working with the
instruments and user scientists to determine the influence of the not usually measured
parameters on remote sensor data, as well as providing very detailed geological, mineralogical,
and micrometeorological data. Similar studies are being carried out in the other
disciplinary areas.
Airborne remote sensor data are now being acquired over a number of Applications
Areas, and are being studied and evaluated by participating user agency scientists. A number
of preliminary reports have been written describing the uses of the data. Although this program
is in its infancy, it appears that the objectives of the Applications Areas are being met.
4.7 DATA PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTING UNIT
The Data Processing and Distributing Unit (Data Unit) has been established to handle
the data recorded by several kinds of remote sensors, both electromagnetic and forcefield,
onboard NASA-conducted aircraft and other cooperating flights over selected
geoscience test sites. Additional calibration and ground-reference data is also collected at
some specific ground-site installations using contact or short-range sensors for correlation
and corroboration of the airborne remote-sensor data. The purpose of such collections is
to aid in evaluating the usefulness of apparatus and data analysis techniques for remote
sensing of [554] natural and cultural resources by means of spaceborne instrumentation.
This involves a number of different data formats (film, paper, tapes, charts, etc.) providing
records which present the data in a variety of forms, i.e., digital, analog, alphanumeric,
etc.