Preserving history … with lasers!
2016-05-11
They came bearing lasers, but meant us no harm.
On April 27, a specialty team from the National Park Service in Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record journeyed to Johnson Space Center—with laser technology reminiscent of “Star Wars”—to document the dimensions and layout of Flight Control Room-1 (FCR-1) for posterity.
FCR-1, like the White FCR before it, is getting a 21st century makeover. But before the dust and debris take hold, it’s receiving extra love and attention in its current configuration.
“Building 30, except for 30S, is a National Historic Landmark,” said Sandra Tetley, JSC’s real property officer and historic preservation officer. “Since (FCR-1 is) going to be changed out again, we document what it looks like before it’s changed. One of the technologies we have is this laser scan that recreates, in 3-D, basically a virtual reality of the room.”
Equipped with this technology and the finished scan, those interested will be able to “fly” around the room and look at FCR-1 exactly as it was when supporting past spaceflight missions.
Human spaceflight evolved from the dawn of a new era to frequent forays into the cosmos inside the walls of JSC’s renowned Mission Control Center, leading to its addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. FCR-1 was originally designed to share the workload with the third-floor Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) during the manned Gemini missions, Apollo test flights and manned Apollo missions. It also provided flight control support for six operational space shuttle flights, sharing duties with the MOCR for STS-1. In 1994, FCR-1 was phased out of shuttle flights in favor of the White FCR. More recently, in 2006, FCR-1 became the new home for flight controllers supporting NASA’s incredible laboratory in low-Earth orbit—the International Space Station.
“It’s just a great way to preserve history,” Tetley said of the National Park Service’s 3-D documentation. “It’s more interesting than just photographs, because you can really feel the dimensions, and you almost feel like you’re there. The detail that it picks up is really incredible.”
Tetley is putting together a website that will be live in June where anyone, even those outside the JSC firewall, can look not only at virtual reality representations of FCR-1, but other historic buildings and landmarks unique to JSC.
“Since the center itself turned 50 years old, we’ve had a huge increase in the number of historic buildings,” Tetley said. “Obviously, JSC is historically significant and that is why it has been declared a Historic District, which means a different level of protection for the historic fabric of the center.”
That, Tetley indicated, requires a little additional work from everyone on-site to see that what we do is preserved for generations to come. JSC is the embodiment of “history in the making.”
“We make history every day,” Tetley said. “We need to be able to document that for the future.”
Catherine Ragin Williams
NASA Johnson Space Center
On April 27, a specialty team from the National Park Service in Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record journeyed to Johnson Space Center—with laser technology reminiscent of “Star Wars”—to document the dimensions and layout of Flight Control Room-1 (FCR-1) for posterity.
FCR-1, like the White FCR before it, is getting a 21st century makeover. But before the dust and debris take hold, it’s receiving extra love and attention in its current configuration.
“Building 30, except for 30S, is a National Historic Landmark,” said Sandra Tetley, JSC’s real property officer and historic preservation officer. “Since (FCR-1 is) going to be changed out again, we document what it looks like before it’s changed. One of the technologies we have is this laser scan that recreates, in 3-D, basically a virtual reality of the room.”
Equipped with this technology and the finished scan, those interested will be able to “fly” around the room and look at FCR-1 exactly as it was when supporting past spaceflight missions.
Human spaceflight evolved from the dawn of a new era to frequent forays into the cosmos inside the walls of JSC’s renowned Mission Control Center, leading to its addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. FCR-1 was originally designed to share the workload with the third-floor Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) during the manned Gemini missions, Apollo test flights and manned Apollo missions. It also provided flight control support for six operational space shuttle flights, sharing duties with the MOCR for STS-1. In 1994, FCR-1 was phased out of shuttle flights in favor of the White FCR. More recently, in 2006, FCR-1 became the new home for flight controllers supporting NASA’s incredible laboratory in low-Earth orbit—the International Space Station.
“It’s just a great way to preserve history,” Tetley said of the National Park Service’s 3-D documentation. “It’s more interesting than just photographs, because you can really feel the dimensions, and you almost feel like you’re there. The detail that it picks up is really incredible.”
Tetley is putting together a website that will be live in June where anyone, even those outside the JSC firewall, can look not only at virtual reality representations of FCR-1, but other historic buildings and landmarks unique to JSC.
“Since the center itself turned 50 years old, we’ve had a huge increase in the number of historic buildings,” Tetley said. “Obviously, JSC is historically significant and that is why it has been declared a Historic District, which means a different level of protection for the historic fabric of the center.”
That, Tetley indicated, requires a little additional work from everyone on-site to see that what we do is preserved for generations to come. JSC is the embodiment of “history in the making.”
“We make history every day,” Tetley said. “We need to be able to document that for the future.”
Catherine Ragin Williams
NASA Johnson Space Center
FCR-1, located in the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center in Building 30, gets scanned by a National Park Service team member to later create a virtual reality rendering. Image Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz
Before FCR-1 gets a 21st century makeover, the room’s dimensions and layout are recorded—with lasers—for posterity. Image Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz