NASA Center Signs First Agreement with Montana Company

(6/97) BOZEMAN - - A high-tech firm in Whitefish is the first Montana company to tap into the nation's space program through a new technology transfer center established a year ago.

Positive Systems of Whitefish has signed an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Agency to jointly develop new technology for the remote sensing industry.

The agreement is the first to be brokered by the NASA-MSU TechLink Center in Bozeman. Established last summer with the help of Sen. Conrad Burns, TechLink makes it easier to transfer NASA and other federally developed know-how to companies in Montana and surrounding states.

Through this agreement, software engineers at Positive Systems and NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi will tackle a problem that affects the entire remote sensing industry, including aerial photography and satellite imagery, said Positive Systems vice president Cody Benkelman.

Positive Systems develops airborne systems for imaging of the earth's surface. Unlike conventional aerial photography, the Positive Systems cameras do not use film but instead acquire images digitally for direct processing by computer.

One of the company's main challenges is joining together images acquired at different times that are affected by continuously changing sun angle. This creates different intensities in the images that can lead to false interpretation. The new software is expected to solve this problem through integrating a complex set of correction factors that will be based on algorithms NASA has already developed for its own internal use.

"Our clients have included urban planners, utility companies, the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, defense contractors, California wine growers, and other agricultural producers. We were even hired to provide images of the Pentagon," according to Benkelman.

Benkelman says his company's imagery can offer several advantages over currently available civilian satellite imagery, depending on the application, because of its higher ground resolution.

"Through computer processing, we can clearly recognize objects on earth that may be less than one meter in size," he said.

NASA has a strong interest in seeing industry benefit from the country's huge investment in the space program, said TechLink director Peter Perna.

"NASA is one of our government's largest research-and-development organizations. Many of the technologies developed by NASA for its space program can be readily adapted to help solve everyday problems here on earth," he said.