Vr Mapping Flies with NASA
Houston, Texas, June 14th 2005 - Cardinal Systems, LLC is pleased to announce that its Vr Mapping Software has been selected by NASA for use in 3D analysis of potential tile and wing leading edge damage on upcoming Shuttle flights.
NASA will be utilizing VrOne® with VrTwo to quantify tile damage once the Shuttle is in orbit if needed. An astronaut will go outside the vehicle to inspect for and photograph any Shuttle Thermal Protection System (TPS) and leading wing edge damage. The digital images will be down-linked to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas where the Image Science and Analysis Group will process them. For the next few flights photogrammetry will be used as a backup to the active sensor suite on the OBSS boom. Other Cardinal products such as VrOrtho and VrMosaic may also be used in this effort.
Vr Mapping facilitates the use of images from hand-held cameras for three-dimensional measurement and analysis of any damage. Cardinal will be conducting Training at the Johnson Space Center and will also supply on-site Technical Assistance during STS-114 and STS-121 Shuttle missions.
Mike Kitaif, Cardinal's software development manager, credits close attention to the design of VrTwo which makes it both proficient at standard aerial mapping and capable of performing close-range photogrammetry.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to work with NASA in applying photogrammetry for Shuttle vehicle analysis while in space. Photogrammetry makes a lot of sense for this application. We’re honored to be a small part of NASA’s ‘Return to Flight’ effort," Kitaif said.
VrOne® is a photogrammetric data collection and editing program that includes interactive data collection and editing, batch processing, DTM processing with draping, and plotting and data translation capability.
VrTwo is stereo setup and viewing configured with VrOne and runs seamlessly, giving the user all the functionality of VrOne while in stereo.
VrOrtho is a stand-alone program that generates digital orthophotos from aerial photography. This program allows the processing of small jobs interactively or large jobs in batch mode.
VrMosaic is a stand-alone, real-time seam line editor with the ability to mosaic and combine and balance for new orthophoto sheets.
