UMSF space history photo of the month Options

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Maybe we could make this a monthly item, in which we could look back at the history of Unmanned Space missions.
For January 2008 I've chosen an image showing the coverage of the Sun by early Pioneer 5-8 spacecraft.
Pioneer 5 to 8, or Pioneer V to VIII using the system of Roman numerals in vogue during the early 1960s for spacecraft designations, were directed towards the Sun along the earth's orbit to monitor solar activity. Pioneer V was launched on 11th March 1960 and provided the very first space weather report 4 to 8 hours before a solar storm hit the Earth.
Some of this Pioneer quartet, Pioneer 6-7-8 even provided updates on our Sun's activity during the early Apollo Moon landings in order to check the damaging potential of solar flares to affect the astronauts.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

The unmanned Surveyor spacecraft explored the Moon’s equatorial region in preparation of the manned Apollo program. During 1966-1968, NASA launched 7 of these 995 kg three-legged Surveyor spacecraft and yielded 5 outstanding successes. Surveyor 1 made the first soft landing on the Moon in June 1966. Surveyor 3 landed in April 1967 and was visited by the Apollo 12 astronauts in November 1969.
Surveyor 7 (January 1968) was a scientific mission and its TV registered 2 lasers aimed at the spacecraft from observatories in California & Arizona. This demonstrated the feasibility of using lasers to measure the Earth-Moon distance with great accuracy (this was done with laser reflectors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo missions and Soviet-Russian Lunokhod rovers)

This post has been edited by PhilCo126: Mar 29 2008, 05:54 PM

[DDAVIS]

Surveyor 7 (January 1968) was a scientific mission and its TV registered 2 lasers aimed at the spacecraft from observatories in California & Arizona.
I have seen a reproduction of that photo, but the 'laser' specks on the night side of Earth appeared to be retouched onto the photo in the version I saw. Is there an original image of this experiment in existance showing their actual brightnesses?

Don

[NGC3314]

Surveyor 7 (January 1968) was a scientific mission and its TV registered 2 lasers aimed at the spacecraft from observatories in California & Arizona.
I have seen a reproduction of that photo, but the 'laser' specks on the night side of Earth appeared to be retouched onto the photo in the version I saw. Is there an original image of this experiment in existance showing their actual brightnesses?

Don

The only printed version I can remember seeing was in "Exploring Space with a Camera" (scanned image here. They don't look retouched in my copy, just that the rendering left gaps between scan lines - is this where you saw it?

[DDAVIS]

The only printed version I can remember seeing was in "Exploring Space with a Camera"-snip- is this where you saw it?
[/quote]

Yes, among others. In 'Exploring Space...' page 80, examining the reproduction on the printed page closely reveals apparent touch up marks, undoubtedly assisting in the presentation of real data but perhaps overly so. Four short vertical marks appear to have been applied to a 'master print' replicated for mass reproduction. One of the marks shows variance from the vertical scan line orientation, and one of them is drawn so as to spill over into the dark gap between the scan lines. What did the reproduction in the Surveyor 7 science report look like?
The National Geographic book 'Man's Conquest of Space' by William R. Shelton, page 134 bears a smaller reproduction of the same photo, with the right hand beam spot further accentuated by extending the rightmost short line.
I can't open the .bmp file on my Mac so I would appreciate seeing the raw data at last!

Don

[Tom Tamlyn]

I can't open the .bmp file on my Mac so I would appreciate seeing the raw data at last!

Don,

The utility application Preview opens those files on my Mac.

TTT

[DDAVIS]

[quote name='Tom Tamlyn' date='Apr 1 2008, 05:31 PM' post='111702']
Don,

The utility application Preview opens those files on my Mac.

Got it, thanks. I wonder what color the beam(s) would have been, in case I want to animate a re-enactment of this sometime.

Don

[Del Palmer]

I wonder what color the beam(s) would have been, in case I want to animate a re-enactment of this sometime.

They used an Argon ion laser at 514 nm, so that would give you a green beam.