In presenting his report on the 9/11 Commission Report, Thomas Kean stated "We have failures in: Policy, Management, Capability and above in IMAGINATION". This article follows on from my previous post "Deciphering a Historic Image; To reveal enduring requirements and capabilities". So, now, let me introduce you to Fitzy, desmond, Wally and Ben.

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But what about IMAGINATION?
Dr Robert Williams, May 2021
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are
likely to see.” Winston Churchill
“We have failures in: Policy, Management, Capability and above all in
IMAGINATION.” Thomas Kean, Chairman 9/11 Commission
In my previous post “Deciphering a Historic Image; To reveal enduring
requirements and capabilities” I concluded with “when I look back over
my long career (over half a century) I have been fortunate to hear from
VISIONARIES! But that part of my story is for another day”.
So, now, let me introduce you to Fitzy, Desmond, Wally and Ben:
v Colonel Lawrence FitzGerald OBE – Application of Radar to
Surveying and many ‘innovative’ surveying techniques;
Videre Parare Est
v Professor Desmond O’Connor, Terrain analysis champion;
Meeting the Environmental Crisis
v Waldemar Wassermann – former chief scientist on the Snowy
Mountain Scheme;
Unique cartography and computer science course
v Dr Benjamin Bova – Futurist.
I don’t think of what I do as science fiction, I think of it as
historical reports of events that haven’t happened yet!

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Colonel Lawrence FitzGerald (Fitzy) was the longest
serving Director of the Army Survey Corps [Jun 1942-
Jan 1960]. I remember that on 1 July 1975 he
addressed members of the Army Survey Regiment at
Bendigo. He spoke about our history.
The Royal Australian Survey Corps was established in
1915 (ten weeks after Gallipoli). RASVY was dis-
established in 1996.
Innovation. In 1946 FitzGerald explained to the Congress of the Australian
and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science held in
Adelaide in 1946, considerable interest was being taken in recent
developments in the application of RADAR to surveying.
The surveying and mapping of Australia and the South West Pacific islands
demanded innovation including electronic distance measurement (EDM),
airborne EDM, ship-shore triangulation and astronomical surveying.
The third of my topographic trade training courses (1970) included a project to
undertake a 2nd
order 200KM trigonometrical survey from Mount Benambra,
Victoria to Oaklands (north of Corowa), NSW along the Murray River. The
survey required observing two La Place Stations. A La Place station is a
geodetic station at which coincident triangulation and astronomic longitude
and azimuth determinations are made. Our chronometer timing was set by
WWVH. (WWVH is the call-sign of the U.S. National Institute of Standards
and Technology’s shortwave radio time signal station in Kekaha, on the island
of Kauai in the state of Hawaii.) I have included this activity as it shows how
advanced our trade training was in the 1960s. Thanks to Fitzy.
Professor Desmond O’Connor
Desmond O’Connor resigned from his position of Senior
Lecturer in Civil Engineering UNSW in 1963 to serve as
Associate Director, then Director, at the US Army
Engineer Topographic Laboratories Research Institute.
Before taking up his position at Murdoch University in
1973 Desmond O’Connor was Chief, Environmental
Sciences Division, US Army Research Office.
Professor O’Connor gave the Keynote Address to the Second Australian
Cartographic Conference held in Adelaide in 1976. It was titled “Meeting the

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Environmental Crisis”.
“It is particularly important that Australia develop a capability in this field
because large gaps exist in our knowledge of our own environmental and
natural resources. ...
... For the future, I believe that cartographers should be thinking of a broadly
defined concept for the operational use of modern sensors, the full range of
data processing equipment and methodology, and large scale communication
devices receiving input from space, airborne and terrestrial platforms for the
purpose of carrying out surveys of the earth’s surface, monitoring the
environment, and classifying and compacting the information in environmental
data banks so that real-time or near real-time information may be provided
when and where it is required”.
Waldemar (Wally) Wassermann
Wally retired in 1988 from the School of Applied Science,
Canberra College of Advanced Education. Wally was
appointed as Senior Lecturer in Cartography in 1972
following work at the Geodetic Research Institute,
Frankfurt, where he had been engaged in the application
of satellite imagery to computer mapping. He had
worked previously in Australia as the Chief Surveyor of
the Snowy Mountains Authority.
Wally set up a cartographer major that stressed techniques of computer
mapping and photogrammetry. He also established a program leading to a
three-year bachelor’s degree in surveying.
Three others and I were ‘mature age’ students with surveying and mapping
experience. Wally awarded us exemption from introductory surveying and
cartography subjects. As such we were able to partake in a unique course
combining cartography and computer science. We did a unit in remote
sensory mapping (now known as remote sensing), a unit in machine
intelligence (now known as artificial intelligence), a unit in operations
research, as well analytical cartography units having advanced calculus and
spherical trigonometry.
Benjamin (Ben) Bova
Former President Emeritus of the National Space
Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers
of America, Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement
Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, "for
fueling mankind's imagination regarding the wonders of
outer space.”
Ben gave the Keynote Address at the ASPRS/ACSM/ Auto-Carto 9

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Conference at Baltimore in 1989. His address (and multi-media presentation)
was titled “Welcome to Moonbase [2020]”.
Abstract. “With the premise that man returns to the moon in 1999 and
establishes a permanent base there by 2020, science fiction author and editor
Ben Bova fashions an intriguing ``manual'' for pioneers arriving at the lunar
community. With 50 detailed illustrations by NASA artist Rawlings, the
guidebook covers Moonbase history, architecture, ecology, transportation,
science projects, jobs, training, industries, tourism, sports (``lunar jai alai''),
entertainment, day-to-day life, duties, rights and laws. Combining fact and
fiction in this ``future history,'' Bova presents a compelling and persuasive
argument for mankind's continual exploration of the moon and the
establishment of a base on the lunar surface”.
I presented a paper in the Spatial Relations and Data Base Models in the
Auto-Carto 9 stream. The moderator was Dr Donna Peuquet, Penn State. The
paper was titled “Geographic Information: Aspects of Phenomenology
and Cognition”.
That conference was truly memorable made more so by Dr Bova’s opening
statement:
I don’t think of what I do as science fiction, I think of it as historical
reports of events that haven’t happened yet!
Sadly, Ben Bova died on November 29, 2020.
So, with a career starting in the 1960s [a decade of true technological
change in surveying and mapping] followed by attendance at my first
major Cartography conference where I experienced a memorable address
titled “Meeting the Environmental Crisis” (Professor Desmond
O’Connor), I commenced my tertiary education with an eminent scientist
and educator who arranged a truly unique course which combined
Cartography with Computer Science (Waldemar Wassermann).
I was fortunate to be able to follow up with post-graduate studies at the
University of Wisconsin – Madison and addressing a scientific discipline
as “Cartography: A Communication Infrastructure”.
A third period of tertiary education, at UNSW@ADFA, allowed me to
write my thesis titled “Analysis of Geographic Information: A
Cognitive Approach”. I presented a paper at the Auto-Carto 9
conference at Baltimore. I found Ben Bova’s address visionary.

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For the next three decades I have attempted to provide a visionary aspect
to my activities; initially with a “from maps and charts to a virtual
world” style and then a “back to the future” style.
I first used the back to the future style at the Spatial Sciences and
Surveying Biennial Conference 2011 held in Wellington, New Zealand.
The presentation was titled “Welcome To Te Ika a Maui OIESS 2020”.
I introduced my vision of AEPCOTAT. AEPCOTAT stands for Aotearoa
Experimental Prototype Community of Today and Tomorrow [adapted
from Disney’s EPCOT at Disney World]. Adjoining AEPCOTAT is the
visionary system the Te Ika a Maui Oceania Infrastructure and
Environmental Support System (OIESS). It is the OIESS that will enable
a new era and AEPCOTAT that will prototype some of the new concepts
initiated in the laboratories.
I used two scenarios set in the year 2020;
v an aircraft high-jacking similar to 911 incident. My view was that
by 2020 we should have addressed air traffic management and a
‘new black box’ that enables an aircraft to become an autonomous
vehicle with pre-planned abort options; and
v a fire requiring autonomous vehicle.
Since 2011 there have been several air incidents including
MH370. Hence the scenario remains unachieved.
Since 2011 we have witnessed numerous natural disasters
including Black Summer. It seems that maps (and digital
copies of maps) seem to be the norm rather than decision
support systems within a Geospatial Information
Infrastructure.
[See below for links to presentation and paper].
My only opportunity to give a back to the future style presentation to a
national conference in Australia was as a Keynote speaker to the
International Hydrographic HYDRO18 conference held in Sydney in
2018. The paper and presentation was titled “Back to the Future:
OIESS2025, Burrows and Rosetta”.

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Abstract. “The beginning of this century has witnessed an array of natural
and man-made incidents and events that seriously challenged many
nations’ abilities to predict, respond, recover and progress from the
effects of tragic events. There have been three serious shipping incidents
in our region; the MV Pasha Bulker running aground at Newcastle, the
MV Shen Neng 1 grounding on the Great Barrier Reef, and the MV Rena
running aground on the Astrolabe Reef, New Zealand. In addition there
have been incidents having political consequences such as the incident on
the Shaţţ Al ’Arab waterway. All have all stressed nations’ response
capabilities.
The year is now 2025 and most nations are still struggling to respond any
better to incidents than they were at the beginning of the century. The
exception is the Geranium Oceania Infrastructure and Environmental
Support System (OIESS).
The Geranium OIESS evolved throughout this decade to lead the world
in sophisticated monitoring, strategic and operational planning,
commanding and controlling a range of manned and autonomous vehicles
and assets, and providing maritime intelligence and informed advice to
key authorities.

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This presentation focuses on maritime incidents and takes us on an
odyssey; reviewing past initiatives, discussing a capability development
strategy and predicting future capabilities. The odyssey reveals the
enduring nature of the engineering characteristics of surveying and
charting and the sciences of geodesy and cartography”.
Scenario [incident] #1 reports on a cruise in the year 2025. It includes the
topic of intelligent navigation and Geranium assets.
“On Tuesday 8 April 2025, Cunard’s QE2 approached Simpson Bay,
Rabaul. A still active volcano greeted it with a continuous spew of ash,
smoke, and small rocks. The Rabaul caldera, is a large volcano on the tip
of the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Having spent an afternoon in Simpson Bay, the QE2 then continued on its
leg to Manila, Philippines seemingly incident free to the passengers on
board.
The issue of Safety Of Life At Sea has now reached new levels of
complexity during the decade with attacks from terrorists, high-jackings,
and drug trafficking activities compounding the challenges of natural
events”.
[Slides 5 and 6 in link below]
OIESS assets including Endeavour, Cutlass and Flipper are all
autonomous assets.
The Back to the Future aspect compares capabilities with the European
Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta mission was approved in
November 1993 as the Planetary Cornerstone Mission in ESA's long-
term space science programme.

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I use 6 slides to show comparisons using Philae’s world, Ptolemy’s
world, OSIRIS and Rosetta and Philae.
[Slides 17 and 18 in link below]
The White Island (Whakaari) volcano in the Bay of Plenty,
New Zealand had been showing signs of unrest for several
weeks before the 2019 eruption. In October 2019, volcanic
tremors and sulphur dioxide gas were at their highest levels
since 2016, indicating that an eruption was more likely to
occur and on 18 November, the volcano was rated at Volcanic
Alert Level 2, indicating "moderate to heightened volcanic
unrest", due to increased activity.
The volcano erupted on 9 December 2019. There were 47
people on the island at the time. Of these people, 38 were
passengers on a shore excursion from the cruise ship Ovation
of the Seas. 22 died.
So, what has this discussion about visionaries and back to the future style
of presentation to do with addressing capability development demanded
by contemporary challenges in Safeguarding Australia?
In addition to the topics related to Contemporary Threats to Security there
are requirements requiring space-based technology initiatives
[https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/australian-space-
agency]?

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There are so many groups, such as CRCs and research groups and private
companies, lobbying for resources and access to contemporary initiatives
related to “space”. As an example, we see terms such as “Space and
Spatial”. Many of these groups have staff with weaknesses in specialist
disciplines. In addition we see considerable ‘hype’ with ‘great
expectations’.
So, I believe that we need to promote established disciplines and
professions and develop Centre of Excellence (say, within existing
universities) and Experimental Prototype facilities within existing
organisations.
We need ‘visionaries’.
We need to acknowledge that Science is important.
We need to acknowledge that Technology is important.
We need to acknowledge that Engineering is important.
We need to acknowledge that Mathematics is important.
Links:
Welcome To Te Ika a Maui OIESS 2020
https://www.slideshare.net/RobertBobWilliams/welcome-to-te-ika-
a-maui-oiess-2020
HYDRO18 Conference - BACK TO THE FUTURE: OIESS2025,
Burrows and Rosetta
https://www.slideshare.net/RobertBobWilliams/back-to-the-future-
oiess-2025-burrows-and-rosetta-246306181