ASPRS – The Imaging & Geospatial Information Society and the NASA Commercial Remote Sensing Program (CRSP) have formally entered into a Space Act Agreement at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to perform a "10-Year Remote Sensing Industry Forecast." In announcing this agreement, NASA/Stennis Advanced Concepts Manager Mark Mick stated "With ASPRS being the lead organization representing remote sensing technologies and applications, and NASA-CRSP striving to support the growth of the industry, this relationship is a natural to provide the forecast the remote sensing community needs."
Charles Mondello of EarthData, ASPRS Primary Data Acquisition Division Director, will be the ASPRS Project Leader. Ron Rabin of Lockheed Martin, Commercial Remote Sensing, will be the NASA-CRSP contact. To initiate the Forecast, the following individuals and their employers have committed their support:
Nate Boyer, Eastman Kodak Company; Mindy Brown, Space Imaging; Gary Moll, American Forests; Alan Mikuni, US Geological Survey; John Schott, Rochester Institute of Technology; Len LaFeir, Autometric Inc.
The first phase of the industry forecast will focus on ASPRS Sustaining Members and then develop into a survey of the entire membership. At the ASPRS Annual Conference to be held in Washington, DC, on May 22-26, 2000, a Progress Report Technical Session will update the methods and progress in the forecast.
ASPRS President Mike Renslow noted that "This is an historic opportunity for ASPRS to provide information of tremendous value to our members and the remote sensing community. This joint effort will give us the baseline to determine the current state of the remote sensing industry, and advance each year to establish a ‘rolling horizon’ of forecast dates for remote sensing applications, business development, technology opportunities, and investment guidance." Renslow also stated that "the membership of ASPRS crosses government, academic, and corporate bounds. This gives the ASPRS/NASA team a perspective which truly represents the voice of remote sensing."
Details of the study will be reviewed in a monthly column in the ASPRS journal Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing and subsequently posted on the ASPRS web site http://www.asprs.org.
Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 7,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.
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