Scanning in Space and Time
George W. Fraser, Professor of Detector Physics, University of Leicester
The creation of virtual objects using laser scanning or other optical methods is now a familiar process in many fields, as is the subsequent solid modelling or three-dimensional printing of the original artefact. High resolution (~0.1mm precision) laser scanning is the key technology in the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage project “Representing Re-formation” (P. Lindley, Principal Investigator), an art-historical investigation of the monumental tombs of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk in the church of St. Michael the Archangel, Framlingham, Suffolk. This paper describes how, within the context of this Science and Heritage project, the expertise of space researchers has provided art historians with new capabilities. For most of its life cycle, a satellite instrument or subsystem also exists as a virtual object – but one whose components are automatically catalogued in a database, whose mass properties, mechanical strength and resistance to vibration or shock can nevertheless be estimated. Estimating the mass of the tomb of the Third Howard Duke from laser scan data links the researchers of the early 21st century with the carters of the mid-16th, faced with the problem of transporting massive limestone blocks across East Anglia, from Thetford to Framlingham. The computer environment in which satellite instruments are built and tested also allows the importation of data from portable X-ray and optical reflectance spectrometers, the latter instrument providing possible clues to both the origin of the stone used in the construction of the tombs and their original colouration. Finally, we anticipate the future transfer of scanning technology into space science – where already the topography of the southern hemisphere of the planet Mercury and rock outcrops on the surface of Mars are being reconstructed from multiple images obtained by optical cameras – and into the Heritage domain. Advances in additive manufacture for space research mean that historians can now recreate metal artefacts in metal, rather than the resins or plastics of conventional 3D printing.
Speaker Biography
G.W. Fraser has been Professor of Detector Physics at the University of Leicester since 1999 and Director of the University’s Space Research Centre (SRC) since 2003, George Fraser has been involved in the development of instrumentation for both X-ray astrophysics and planetary science for thirty-five years. Currently, he is Principal Investigator for the MIXS instrument on the European Space Agency mission BepiColombo, due for launch to the planet Mercury in August, 2015. His research interests, however, increasingly include the terrestrial applications of space instrumentation – in the life sciences and the detection of counterfeit whisky ; in cancer treatment and heritage studies – where he is Co-Investigator on the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage project “Representing Re-formation”.
