George Robert Carruthers
African American inventor
Died when: 81 years 86 days (974 months)Star Sign: Libra
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George Robert Carruthers (October 1, 1939 – December 26, 2020) was an African American inventor, physicist, engineer and space scientist.Carruthers perfected a compact and very powerful ultraviolet camera/spectrograph for NASA to use when it launched Apollo 16 in 1972.
He designed it so astronauts could use it on the lunar surface, making all adjustments inside their bulky space suits.
Upon instructions from Carruthers, they used the camera to record the Earth's outermost atmosphere, noting its variations, and also mapped portions of the far-ultraviolet sky recording stars and galaxies, and the gaseous media between them.
In 1970, sending his instruments aboard Aerobee sounding rockets, he had demonstrated that molecular hydrogen exists in the interstellar medium.Among numerous citations and awards, in 2003, Carruthers was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and he received an honorary doctorate for Engineering from Michigan Technological University.
He also was awarded the 2011 National Medal for Technology and Invention from President Barack Obama, "For invention of the Far UV Electrographic Camera, which significantly improved our understanding of space and earth science."
