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Public Affairs Office
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, D.C.

2/25/2003

NRL Press Release 19-03r

NRL Space Scientist is National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee
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Dr. George Carruthers, a senior astrophysicist at the Naval Research 
Laboratory, will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame 
in recognition of his invention of the far ultraviolet electrographic 
camera.  To commemorate the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first 
powered flight, the 31st annual induction of the National Inventors 
Hall of Fame is recognizing pioneers in the aviation and aerospace 
industries. The induction ceremony will take place in May.

The Far Ultraviolet Camera and Spectrograph, sent to the Moon on the 
Apollo 16 mission, was based on the far-ultraviolet electrographic 
camera that George Carruthers invented to give scientists fresh, 
revealing images of Earth and space. A pioneer in ultraviolet
astronomy, Carruthers' invention was first used in sounding rocket 
flights in 1966, and made the first detection of molecular hydrogen in 
deep space in a 1970 flight.

The camera used in the Apollo 16 mission produced about 200 photos 
revealing new features of Earth's far-outer atmosphere, as well as 
deep-space objects from the perspective of the lunar surface. It also 
produced new far-ultraviolet images of stars, nebulas, and galaxies,
as well as new views of the Earth. 

Although the camera itself was left on the Moon, a second version was 
used aboard the final Skylab flight in 1973 to obtain images of Comet 
Kohoutek. Carruthers has also been involved numerous other sounding 
rocket and space shuttle flights using his cameras, including far-UV
studies of stars and nebulas, Comets Halley and West and Earth's upper 
atmosphere. His most recent experiment was carried on the unmanned DoD 
ARGOS satellite mission, launched in 1999.

Carruthers has received numerous awards, including Black Engineer of 
the Year in 1987, the Arthur S. Fleming Award in 1971, the Exceptional 
Achievement Scientific Award from NASA in 1972 and the Warner Prize 
from the American Astronomical Society in 1973. Carruthers has also
participated as a member of two independent review committees for the 
Hubble Space Telescope Project.

The not-for-profit National Inventors Hall of Fame is dedicated to 
honoring and fostering creativity and invention. Each year a new class 
of inventors is inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of
patented inventions that make human, social and economic progress 
possible. Founded in 1973 by the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office and 
the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations, the 
Hall's permanent home is Akron, Ohio.

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