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Remote Sensing - Down The Memory Lane…
 Hrishikesh Samant Hon. Associate Editor GIS Development Senior Lecturer Department of Geology St.Xavier's College, Mumbai, India. Email: hrishikesh@gisdevelopment.net Dhawal Kumar Sub Editor GIS Development Email: Dhawal.kumar@gisdevelopment.net
Mankind's desire to fly has been documented since mythological times. The 'Pushpak' flying machine mentioned in the Indian epic 'Ramayana', made by Maya, acquired by Ravana and then used by Rama is part of Indian folklore. Since those ancient times, It has been only the select few who flew, got to experience a birds eye view or aerial perspective of the Earth.
It was only with the advent of 'Photography' that the pleasure and awe experienced by a select few 'Aeronauts' (Hot air balloonists) was shared by the general public. Foremost among those who realized the potential of this technology of 'aerial photography' was aeronaut Gaspard Felix Tournachon, who on October 23, 1858 applied for a patent for what we today call aerial survey and thus was taken the first small step towards the development of the technology which has given the common man access to spectacular views of his planet in details even a decade ago unimaginable. Today we can view any part of the world with a 'birds eye view' without ever flying or being the fortunate few to view earth from space. Today utilizing satellite imagery for purposes ranging from crop monitoring, cadastral mapping to advertising tourism destinations and scores of others is common. The term "remote sensing," was first used in the United States in the 1950s by Ms. Evelyn Pruitt of the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is now as we all know, commonly used to describe the science-and art-of identifying, observing, and measuring an object without coming into direct contact with it i.e. even a simple portrait captured by a camera is a product of the process of remote sensing. The history of remote sensing: It began with the invention of photography in 1839. As early as 1840, the director of the Paris Observatory advocated the use of photography for topographic surveying, and from that time balloon photography flourished. The Frenchman Arthur Batut pioneered the development of kite aerial photography. Kites were used to obtain aerial photographs from about 1882. The most famous kite photographer was American G.R. Lawrence, who used batteries of kites to suspend huge cameras for aerial views over cities.  The Kite and Camera used by Arthur Batut (1890). Source: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/1997_images/Background/History/batutkite.jpg  Aerial photograph of San Francisco bay taken by a camera attached to a battery of 17 kites obtained by George R Lawrence in 1906. (Source: http://latteier.com/pigeoncam/) Kites are being used even today by hobbyists for obtaining aerial photographs. The next technological leap was to use rockets to carry the camera high up which was later returned to the ground by a parachute. This was pioneered by non other than Alfred Nobel (of prize fame) in 1897 when the first rocket photo was obtained over a Swedish landscape.  A Swedish landscape photographed by a camera on a rocket by Alfred Nobel in 1897. Source: http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov
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