George R. Carruthers
Built the ultraviolet camera that went to the Moon
At a glance
- Inventor
- George R. Carruthers
- Life
- 1939–2020
- Birthplace
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1950–2000
- Fields
- Space & Aerospace, Science & Engineering
- Evidence
- Verified
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
A Naval Research Laboratory physicist, Carruthers invented a far-ultraviolet electrographic camera; a version was deployed on the lunar surface by Apollo 16 in 1972.
Historical context
Earth's atmosphere blocks far-UV light, so observing interstellar hydrogen and Earth's own outer atmosphere required an instrument operating beyond it.
The legacy
His instrument produced the first images of Earth's geocorona from the Moon and shaped later UV space telescopes.
The evidence
US Patent 3,478,216 — Image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation
Primary recordApollo 16 Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph records
Primary record
Documentation strength
- 2
- Sources
- 2
- Primary
- 2
- Publishers
Calculated from the sources actually attached to this record — the closer a source sits to the original document, the more it counts. It is never asserted by hand.