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The end of the cold war and the drastic downsizing of missile research along with the steady retirement of personnel versed in the technical aspects of missile performance evaluation through photographic processes have created a situation where the number of qualified individuals to provide such services is precariously low and where the technology itself is being forgotten. At the Imaging and Photographic Technology Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology we are making a small effort to teach introductory concepts often taken directly from imaging technologies associated with missile range photography. These technologies involve near-miss analysis and basic photogrammetry, streak photography for measurements of velocity, acceleration and event duration, shadowgraph and schlieren imaging, high speed flash photography of explosive events, etc. One of the methods by which a healthy dose of respect for traditional technology is taught is by setting up a mock missile range in the Department's High Speed laboratory. This project includes a missile firing control station, a photography section, a missile assembly area and other interdependent activities. Students build their own rockets, are taught the fundamental principles related to synchroballistic photography, they become range 'officers' and are never in charge of launching their own rocket and acquiring their own data but have to depend on their classmates to perform their assigned roles without error. Eventually the students then analyze the film data and report on the performance characteristics of their missiles. It is the purpose of this paper to share with professional technologists one project that is part of the Imaging and Photographic Technology curriculum at RIT designed to help preserve the technologies which provide the foundation upon which SPIE itself was founded.
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