Future Of Remote Sensing A Viewpoint From Industry

This paper was written and is being presented at a critical time in the life of land remote sensing. It is a technology that is just over twenty years old, if one starts counting from the development in 1961 of the now famous multispectral scanner at the Willow Run Laboratories of the University of Michigan; now the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan. During this brief period the technology has undergone a remarkable growth, achieved a number of the goals and objectives of the research team, and provided ample evidence of the wisdom shown by the government sponsors in making the required federal investment. That this is a critical time is demonstrated by the fact that an intensive effort is under way to create a Commercial Land Remote Sensing (CRLS) system including both space and ground segments. If one takes the optimistic view then the term critical simply means that this is a major milestone in the program. There is however a large segment of the user community that believes that the program is at a make or break point in its history.