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Spinoff story
Laser Imaging Helps Archaeologists Dig Up History
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Archaeologists are using tools developed for space missions, like remote scanning with lasers, or lidar, to help search for clues to long-ago history. One company making the scanners is Teledyne Optech, a Canadian company with offices in Henrietta, New York, which most recently designed a lidar instrument for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid return mission managed at Goddard Space Flight Center, and which has incorporated space mission innovations into their commercial offerings.