Leaping Catch LLC is developing Film and High Speed Digital Imaging, Visible/Infrared Imaging and Stereoscopic 3D Imaging for use in analysis of Space Shuttle Launches. Since the earliest days of the space program, engineering imagery has been acquired using high speed motion picture film cameras. Film is still the primary sensor used to acquire engineering imagery of Shuttle launches. However, film's status as the sensor of choice for engineering analysis is facing a challenge from high speed digital sensors. As the digital technologies continue their relentless advance, it seems inevitable that high speed digital imagery will eventually take over film's role as the imagery of choice for engineering analysis. The firm also develops visible and infrared cameras, which both provide valuable data to the analyst. The two types of cameras complement each other with visible cameras providing information not available from infrared cameras and vice versa. Acquiring launch imagery with both types of cameras ensures the analyst will have the appropriate tools to meet a variety of diverse needs. The choice of visible or infrared camera depends on the purpose to be served by the imagery acquired. Visible cameras provide imagery having superior spatial and temporal resolution in comparison to infrared cameras. The color information available in visible imagery is an important identification tool that is not available from infrared imagery. Analysis of visible imagery is relatively straightforward given the lifetime of practice analyzing visible imagery as part of everyday human experience. An infrared camera can "see in the dark" and can thus be a valuable tool for imaging features in shadow as well as during nighttime launches and landings. Infrared imagery provides temperature information unavailable from visible imagery. This temperature information can also be an important identification tool. And because an infrared camera detects thermal emission, it offers the potential to detect the site of a debris strike in which the kinetic energy of the debris is converted into relatively long-lived thermal energy at the impact site. The company is woman-owned.
