Laser-Scanning U.S. Landmarks

MeanMF writes "The New York Daily News reports in this article that the National Park Service is creating detailed 3-D maps of national monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore using high-resolution laser scanners. Their goal is to create highly-accurate blueprints that can be used to reconstruct the monuments if they are damaged by a terrorist attack or other means." The same story is also available at Yahoo!.

Wow

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

So a team from Texas Tech University was dispatched to document the tone of her copper skin, the undulations of her flowing gown, the muscles in her outstretched arm, the curve of her lips and the height, width and depth of her wide-open eyes.

Lady Liberty is sexy sexy sexy! They forgot to mention her heaving bosom though.

This I gotta see..

[Cali Thalen]

It's one thing to rebuild the Statue of Liberty, I can see how that might be accomplished (albeit at quite a cost).

What I dont' get is...why Mt. Rushmore? They're going to have one hell of a time re-carving that thing back into the mountain, expecially after being demolished by something...well, big enough to blow something like that up.

Cool idea, all in all though.

That's what I call a backup!

[FurryFeet]

Sure gives a new meaning to the phrase "disaster recovery", don't it? Altough, if restoring from tape is a bitch, now imagine this one...

I can see it already

[Kylow]

Step One of our diabolical terrorist plan: Destroy the National Parks Service Headquarters!

Important

[Jon Peterson]

This is very important. If our monuments are destroyed, we have to build them again exactly as they were before. That's because the key thing about monuments is not what they represent, but their particular physical specifications. By rebuilding exactly as before, we send a message to the terrorists that we keep very good records, and aren't afraid to use them.

Contrast this to the way our enemies behave. When we bomb their command centers, rather than rebuilding them exactly as they were before, they rebuild them to be more bomb proof. This shows how little respect for their own history they have.

We should scan Dubya

[sakusha]

and replace him with a robot replica.

send her back to France

[ademko]

If anything happens to the Statue of Liberty, why not just send her back to France and get them to do warranty repair. I'm sure the French wouldn't mind, especially if you've purchased the extended warranty :)

Michael Jackson ..

[Macka]

..had the same thing done for his face last month; just in case he accidentally stepped out into a strong wind!

Macka

The real Target

[Malicious]

[devil's advocate]
Shouldn't the US Gov concentrate harder on getting the DNA sequences of every American citizen, so that they can clone anyone killed in the terrorist attacks, wrather than focus on the materialistic parts of the country?
What's more important?
[/devil's advocate]

Re:This I gotta see..

[sulli]

This is so they can add Bush and Rumsfeld to the replacement Mt Rushmore.

Re:Replace them?

[Peterus7]

Well, one things for certain, the French sure aren't gonna build us another Statue of Liberty, with the way we've been acting lately.

Re:This I gotta see..

[outsider007]

It's one thing to rebuild the Statue of Liberty, I can see how that might be accomplished (albeit at quite a cost).

Yeah right. they still haven't gotten around to fixing that crack in the liberty bell.

Lego, are you listening?

[Kaz Riprock]

I'd imagine that if we were to give these plans to Lego, we'd have some really kickass home versions of all of the monuments. Or how about the 3D puzzle people? Or a craft store? There's consumeristic profit to be reaped from these laser scans...I wonder if the park system will see it.

Seriously...

[Sayten241]

Who leaves a job like this up to college kids. I can just see a post-apocolyptic era in which the statue of liberty is a girl in a bikini waving a sign that says "Texas A&M blows" on it.

Re:Great. Now we have disposable landamarks.

[BCoates]

Just like our culture. Is this what the artists intended when they created these works?

It is a statue of Liberty, not a statue of Respect for History.

(imagines a giant copper statue of an elderly librarian with coke-bottle glasses, sitting behind a desk with a 'sssh!' gesture)

--
Benjamin Coates

Reverse-engineering

[Trogre]

So they're reverse-engineering architectural features for the purpose of making replacement copies. I wonder if this falls under the jurisdiction of the DMCA?

Hopefully it would fall under 'fair use' as it is (reportedly) for backup purposes.

Re:This I gotta see..

[Zeinfeld]

This is so they can add Bush and Rumsfeld to the replacement Mt Rushmore.

Nah, that would be Mt Rush Limbaugh.

You know, just saying "Mount Rush Limbaugh" is enough to make any person of taste feel queasy.

There is a bunch of looney Americans currently planning to carve the face of Alexander the Great onto the hills of Macedonia [yahoo.com]. Never mind the fact that nobody kniws what he looked like

Re:Usable by free flight simulators?

[BCoates]

Then terrorists may be able to use it to their advantage to find weakspots in (for eg) Mount Rushmore. I imagine they will be able to find flaws in rushmore that could be exploited by high explosives.

Well, There's this exhaust port, but it's at the end of this narrow canyon and only like two meters wide...

--
Benjamin Coates

Re:curious....

[morgajel]

so far every post I've read is complaining about "taxpayers money at work" or "why bother?"...you're looking at it the wrong way-

think of the uses of these maps!
ut2003, doom3, quake 10, counterstrike:anti-terrorist unit, etc... what ever.

Re:Replace them?

[LittleGuy]

Well, one things for certain, the French sure aren't gonna build us another Statue of Liberty, with the way we've been acting lately.

Give a copy of the plans to Charlton Heston when the apes take over.

Re:Corporate Sponsorship

[BrainInAJar]

Mount McRushmore.

4 Dead presidents and a set of golden arches.

Re:send her back to France

[dr_dank]

If anything happens to the Statue of Liberty, why not just send her back to France and get them to do warranty repair.

No way! We'll get the Statue of Liberty back with both arms up!

*ducks*

Lego have the answer

[shanksd1]

Looks like Lego have already done reconnaissance of their own - here [visitdenmark.dt.dk] and here [molehillgroup.com].

Hang on - maybe we could just rebuild the monuments with Lego. Wouldn't that be a whole lot easier for all concerned..?