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UMSF space history photo of the month
Guest_PhilCo126_*
post Jan 3 2008, 06:23 PM
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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.
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Guest_PhilCo126_*
post Mar 29 2008, 08:29 AM
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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
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DDAVIS
post Mar 29 2008, 10:15 PM
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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
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NGC3314
post Mar 30 2008, 08:58 PM
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QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 29 2008, 04:15 PM) *
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?
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DDAVIS
post Mar 31 2008, 07:59 PM
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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
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Tom Tamlyn
post Apr 1 2008, 04:31 PM
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QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 31 2008, 02:59 PM) *
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
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DDAVIS
post Apr 1 2008, 04:59 PM
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[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
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Del Palmer
post Apr 1 2008, 08:38 PM
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QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Apr 1 2008, 04:59 PM) *
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.




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"I got a call from NASA Headquarters wanting a color picture of Venus. I said, “What color would you like it?” - Laurance R. Doyle, former JPL image processing guy
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Posts in this topic
- PhilCo126   UMSF space history photo of the month   Jan 3 2008, 06:23 PM
- - PhilCo126   Trying to show another early unmanned spacecraft, ...   Jan 19 2008, 08:00 PM
- - nprev   Nice! And, I appreciate this, Phil; entirely a...   Jan 19 2008, 08:13 PM
- - PhilCo126   In late 1959, the 44 kilograms Pioneer 5 is being ...   Feb 1 2008, 06:05 PM
|- - Gladstoner   .   Mar 29 2008, 09:58 AM
- - PhilCo126   Just wanted to conclude the early Pioneer series w...   Feb 3 2008, 06:08 PM
- - PhilCo126   Time for a Soviet-Russian success in the early day...   Feb 22 2008, 07:09 PM
- - Phil Stooke   "After Luna 2 (January 1959), which was renam...   Feb 22 2008, 08:23 PM
- - PhilCo126   celebrating the leap year this 29th Feb 2008 with ...   Feb 29 2008, 11:40 AM
- - PhilCo126   As Mariner 2 was the first successful interplaneta...   Feb 29 2008, 11:48 AM
|- - rlorenz   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Feb 29 2008, 06:48 AM)...   Feb 29 2008, 02:40 PM
- - PhilCo126   The 365 kg Ranger spacecraft, which had 6 cameras ...   Mar 15 2008, 07:50 PM
- - PhilCo126   The unmanned Surveyor spacecraft explored the Moon...   Mar 29 2008, 08:29 AM
|- - DDAVIS   Surveyor 7 (January 1968) was a scientific mission...   Mar 29 2008, 10:15 PM
|- - NGC3314   QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 29 2008, 04:15 PM) Su...   Mar 30 2008, 08:58 PM
||- - DDAVIS   The only printed version I can remember seeing was...   Mar 31 2008, 07:59 PM
||- - tedstryk   The version I have is in the Surveyor VII televisi...   Mar 31 2008, 10:55 PM
||- - Tom Tamlyn   QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 31 2008, 02:59 PM) I ...   Apr 1 2008, 04:31 PM
||- - DDAVIS   [quote name='Tom Tamlyn' date='Apr 1 2...   Apr 1 2008, 04:59 PM
||- - Del Palmer   QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Apr 1 2008, 04:59 PM) I w...   Apr 1 2008, 08:38 PM
|- - peter59   QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 29 2008, 11:15 PM) Su...   Mar 31 2008, 06:30 AM
|- - peter59   QUOTE (DDAVIS @ Mar 29 2008, 11:15 PM) Su...   Mar 31 2008, 06:46 PM
- - nprev   ...could well be, Gladstoner! The early days o...   Mar 29 2008, 11:36 AM
- - Phil Stooke   The Surveyor bacterium story is not generaly accep...   Mar 29 2008, 12:20 PM
|- - dvandorn   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Mar 29 2008, 07:20 A...   Mar 29 2008, 06:23 PM
|- - NGC3314   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Mar 29 2008, 06:20 A...   Mar 30 2008, 08:51 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Re: the Pioneer 5 image. That's quite a Clean...   Mar 29 2008, 12:24 PM
|- - imipak   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Mar 29 2008, 12:24 P...   Mar 29 2008, 02:09 PM
- - PhilCo126   Thanks for pointing out the typo, Apollo 12 indeed...   Mar 29 2008, 06:00 PM
- - PhilCo126   Doug, the 58 cm diameter spheroidal probe Luna 9 ...   Mar 29 2008, 07:01 PM
|- - dvandorn   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Mar 29 2008, 02:01 PM)...   Mar 29 2008, 07:25 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (dvandorn @ Mar 29 2008, 07:25 PM) ...   Mar 29 2008, 08:06 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Quite right, Doug. I had only just got out of bed...   Mar 29 2008, 07:06 PM
- - dvandorn   Really? I clearly recall a much higher bounce est...   Mar 29 2008, 09:12 PM
- - edstrick   There used to be a distinction between hard and so...   Mar 30 2008, 10:48 AM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (edstrick @ Mar 30 2008, 10:48 AM) ...   Mar 30 2008, 02:18 PM
- - Phil Stooke   I don't think there should be any distinction,...   Mar 30 2008, 03:28 PM
- - PhilCo126   Well, great discussions just because of one photo ...   Mar 31 2008, 08:46 AM
- - edstrick   The Surveyor images of the crescent (i think) eart...   Apr 1 2008, 06:23 AM
|- - DDAVIS   I wonder if a carefully pointed 5 watt green laser...   Apr 1 2008, 04:25 PM
- - PhilCo126   While we're talking about Surveyor:   Apr 1 2008, 12:15 PM
- - PhilCo126   Photo for April 2008: Mariner IV flyby of Mars: In...   Apr 1 2008, 04:48 PM
- - PhilCo126   Some of the Surveyor NASA-JPL technical reports ar...   Apr 2 2008, 09:17 AM
|- - NGC3314   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Apr 2 2008, 04:17 AM) ...   Apr 2 2008, 01:29 PM
- - PhilCo126   A few good books on Mariner IV: Mariner Mars 1964...   Apr 2 2008, 06:59 PM
- - PhilCo126   The 245 kg Mariner 5 was actually built as a backu...   Apr 26 2008, 05:27 PM
- - edstrick   At or near the end of the planned period of reacqu...   Apr 27 2008, 08:12 AM
- - nprev   Phil, was Mariner 5 pretty much a backup bus for M...   Apr 27 2008, 10:00 AM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (nprev @ Apr 27 2008, 11:00 AM) Phi...   Apr 27 2008, 07:31 PM
- - nprev   Well, they were probably right in that regard. I...   Apr 29 2008, 11:42 AM
- - edstrick   Mariner 5 was an engineering test vehicle for Mari...   Apr 30 2008, 07:35 AM
- - PhilCo126   The next pair of Mariner spacecraft were the Marin...   May 1 2008, 08:55 AM
- - Phil Stooke   I like the 1960s laptop. Phil   May 1 2008, 01:48 PM
|- - ElkGroveDan   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ May 1 2008, 05:48 AM...   May 1 2008, 02:17 PM
- - ilbasso   I miss having knobs to turn and switches to throw....   May 1 2008, 04:30 PM
- - Phil Stooke   I know, I know... I mean, picture it... the bolt o...   May 1 2008, 04:51 PM
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- - PhilCo126   Mariner Mars 1969 in launch configuration ( with t...   May 2 2008, 10:02 AM
|- - Paolo   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ May 2 2008, 12:02 PM) ...   May 2 2008, 10:11 AM
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- - Paolo   Mariner 5 during ground tests (radiooccultation an...   May 4 2008, 10:25 AM
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- - PhilCo126   As I already posted the Pioneer 10 photo for Septe...   Sep 8 2008, 10:24 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Sep 8 2008, 11:24 AM) ...   Sep 8 2008, 11:31 AM
- - jamescanvin   Indeed. And as for "retro space-tech" it...   Sep 8 2008, 12:02 PM
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