The recent improvements in astronomical telescopes and spectrographs have c
reated huge and urgent demands for matching improvements in the laboratory
atomic database needed for the analyses of the astrophysical spectra obtain
ed using them. The suitability of Fourier Transform Spectrometry (FTS) for
improving the atomic database is discussed. Progress and achievements in th
e technique of FTS are outlined together with a brief summary of the advanc
es made, using FTS, in our knowledge of the spectra of the neutral, singly
and doubly ionised 3d transition elements.