36 Commission V Invited paper 
The Potential of Ballistic Photogrammetry 
by Dr. Ing. HELLMUT SCHMID 
Ballistic Research Laboratories, 
Aberdeen, Maryland, U.S.A. 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is presently engaged in pre- 
paration of the launching of a geodetic satellite. This experiment is backed, among other 
agencies, by the Committee on Geodesy of the Space Science Board of the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences of the U.S.A. The scope of this project is to support the solution of geo- 
detic problems. It is characterized by the fact that a reliable observational method of 
maximum precision is desired for determining the space-time coordinates of points on the 
contemplated orbit. It is emphatically stated that such an experiment will be worthwile 
only if the results obtained are compatible, in regard to precision and statistical reliabil- 
ity, with the bulk of data already obtained in this field by classical geodetic means. The 
photogrammetric method has been chosen for measuring the geodetic satellite. This choice 
appears to be of utmost importance for the general field of photogrammetry. It marks 
the culmination of an effort which has been carried out for several decades, commonly 
labeled with the dubious name “Ballistic Photogrammetry”, under the general heading of 
non-topographic applications. In other words, we are talking about one of the neglected 
children of photogrammetry. 
Let us review for a moment, the task which this branch of photogrammetry is called 
upon to solve. It would be certainly confusing to attempt to subdivide this mission ac- 
cording to specific problems encountered in connection with the measurements of the test 
vehicles. It must be understood that these include performance checks of earthbound 
high speed sleds, determination of position and attitude for more or less conventional 
aircraft, of shells fired by small arms or by big guns, measurements of fragmentation of 
terminal ballistic experiments, trajectory determination of bomb shells and small solid 
fuel rockets, and tests on the behavior of all imaginable sizes and types of missiles lead- 
ing eventually to the problems associated with the trajectory and orbit determination of 
space vehicles. 
Quite apart from the purpose of these projects, but connected unseparably to them, 
is the complex of problems concerned with the calibration of various measuring methods, 
whereby the photogrammetric method has lately been succesful in establishing itself as a 
prime standard. 
Taking into account the necessary weakness of any generalization, it is permissable 
to characterize the demand on photogrammetry as created by the group of problems just 
mentioned, as the basic problem of measuring the space-time coordinates of selected in- 
dividual points. 
The determination of the time coordinate is not possible by photogrammetric meas- 
urements as such, but must be accomplished by auxiliary techniques which either freeze 
the image motion by a sufficiently short exposure, the moment of which is being inde- 
pendently recorded, or which superimpose some kind of time code on the trail produced 
on the photograph by the moving object. 
Later, some technical effort will be mentioned which has been carried out in regard 
to this phase of the problem. Concerning ourselves with the actual photogrammetric side 
of the measuring procedure, we may temporarily ignore the time-correlation and con- 
centrate on the geometrical properties of the problem. 
The determination of spatial positions of individual points, represents the classic ap- 
plication of photogrammetry. It became known as Intersection Photogrammetry, indi- 
cating, that the results are obtained by intersecting corresponding rays. In analogue to 
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