What Kind Of Cameras Did Old Space Probes Have
Congratulations to NASA, the John Hopkins Practical Physics Laboratory, and the Southwest Research Plant for their successful launch of the Dart and Lucy missions! DART is scheduled to nail into an asteroid moonlet to see if it can alter its orbit and Lucy will investigate the Trojan asteroids that orbit the dominicus in Jupiter's orbit! Lucy is primed to fix records for the largest number of asteroids visited in a single mission, as well as being the first spacecraft to visit the Trojan asteroids. DART is the first try at this kinetic technique for global defence from a meteorite impact.
With the start of these daring missions, let's add together Lucy and DART's cameras to the list of interplanetary spacecraft photo gear of the The states' space program.
The kickoff photograph of Earth from infinite was taken past the TIROS-1 weather condition satellite on Apr 1, 1960. Ever since, satellites, probes, and spacecraft take been taking astonishing photos of the solar organisation and beyond! Space probes are packed with sensors, but in our list beneath, we wanted to talk about those imaging systems that are relatively close cousins to what you tin can observe on the shelves of the B&H SuperStore.
1. Cassini
Launched in 1997, Cassini orbited the crown jewel of the solar system, Saturn and its and moons until fall of 2017 when it was intentionally flown into Saturn's atmosphere to prevent an unavoidable possible hereafter collision with the Saturnian moon, Enceladus, which may harbor extraterrestrial life. The Cassini probe was equipped with various optical sensors and ane optical photographic camera that has captured amazing images of the ringed planet. The spacecraft'due south Huygens Probe landed on the moon, Titan. Cassini'due south Imaging Scientific discipline Subsystem (ISS) consists of a wide- and narrow-angle camera. Both cameras characteristic a CCD sensor of 12 micron pixels numbering 1024 x 1024, with a resolving power that can come across a quarter-dollar at a range of 2.5 miles.
Each camera has ii filter wheels—9 filters for the wide-bending and 18 for the narrow-angle photographic camera—to limit specific wavelengths of light, and the cameras sent back an average of ii,700 photos to Earth each month, including frames to verify Cassini's position in space, using celestial navigation, as in that location is definitely no GPS on Saturn!
2. Sprint
Asteroids hitting Earth aren't only science fiction, they are scientific discipline fact. Bodies in the solar system are constantly beingness bombarded by objects and, when big objects touch Earth, they can unleash unimaginable damage. Launched in Nov 2021 onboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket, DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Examination, is a spacecraft designed to test multiple planetary defense force technologies.
DART will test a kinetic impactor (basically, a bullet) on well-nigh-World binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, which consists of a chief asteroid that is 780m across, and its "moonlet" that measures 160m. Asteroids about the size of the moonlet (140m) hitting Earth are a primary concern considering merely about 40% of those bodies have been located and tracked.
DART's onboard camera is named DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Photographic camera for Optical navigation), whose pattern is based on the LORRI imager on the New Horizons spacecraft. The catadioptric Ritchey-Chrétien telescope has a 208mm discontinuity and f/12.6 discontinuity and a 2560 10 2160 pixel, panchromatic, forepart-side illuminated CMOS image sensor. DRACO will notice and help guide Sprint to Didymos' moonlet starting at a distance of 50,000 miles.
In September 2022, Dart, with DRACO on board, volition crash into the moonlet with the goal of irresolute its velocity every bit it orbits the master body. If successful, a tiny change in speed volition annals equally a change in orbital period—giving promise to this technique to protect our planet from a significant impact.
3. Dawn
Launched in 2007, Dawn orbited the protoplanet Vesta (2011) and dwarf planet Ceres (2015) before its ion propulsion system ran out of fuel, in Nov 2018. Vesta and Ceres are the largest objects in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Due to operation from its efficient engine system, Dawn spacecraft became the first spacecraft to orbit two bodies beyond the Globe-moon system.
Dawn carries 2 identical cameras: a primary and backup known as the Framing Camera. Each has a 150mm f/7.ix lens with 7 color filters and viii gigabits of internal data storage.
4. Deep Impact
Deep Bear upon launched in 2005 toward the comet Tempel one and, less than seven months after launch, the probe released an impactor that struck the comet's surface. Deep Impact carried two cameras, a High Resolution Instrument (HRI), an 11.8" telescope, and a Medium Resolution Musical instrument (HRI), a 4.vii" telescope. The MRI served as a functional backup to the HRI, likewise equally a celestial navigation tool. The impactor carried a targeting camera.
The HRI was one of the largest cameras flown into space on a planetary mission and had a resolution of 6' per pixel at 435 miles. The MRI's broad-bending system had a resolution of 33' per pixel at the aforementioned range. Unfortunately, the HRI'south images were blurry for the comet encounter, only in that location were plans to repurpose the photographic camera and probe to look for planets orbiting distant stars.
v. Deep Space ane
Pioneering ion propulsion technology, Deep Infinite 1 was launched in 1998 and flew by the asteroid 9969 Braille and the comet Borelly. The craft's Miniature Integrated Photographic camera and Imaging Spectrometer (MICAS) was a 26.5-lb packet containing two black-and-white cameras and other imaging equipment.
All of the sensors shared the same four" diameter telescope and electronic shutters. 1 B&W camera was a CCD and the other was an active pixel sensor, similar to a CMOS sensor. The structure and mirrors were made out of silicon carbide. Photographic camera resolution was approximately 100 to 150 feet at its closest approach of 3 miles.
six. Deep Space Program Science Experiment / Clementine
This spacecraft was launched on a Titan II from California, in January 1994, with the goal of testing sensors and spacecraft components for long-elapsing spaceflight as office of joint project between NASA and the Reagan-era Defense Department Strategic Defence Initiative (popularly known every bit "Star Wars"). Clementine was the first U.s.a. spacecraft to visit the moon since Apollo 17, xx years prior.
Clementine carried a UV/Visible Camera, Near Infrared Camera, Long Wavelength Infrared Camera, a High-Resolution Camera, and 2 Star Tracker Cameras. The UV/Visible camera was a catadioptric telescope with a six-filter filter cycle and 288 x 384 pixel CCD imager. The About IR camera was also a 96mm f/iii.33 catadioptric telescope with a six-filter wheel, and the Long Wavelength IR camera had a 96mm f/2.67 catadioptric lens. The HiRes camera consisted of a Beryllium telescope and CCD imager. The Star Trackers featured a concentric-optics design with a fiber optic field flattener and 576 x 384 pixel CCD array. These cameras were used for imaging and to verify the spacecraft's position using celestial navigation. A Charged Particle Telescope and Laser Image Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) organization rounded out the equipment suite.
After leaving lunar orbit, in May 1994, a computer mistake caused a thruster to fire and placed the spacecraft in an lxxx rpm spin. This canceled a follow-on mission to the asteroid Geographos. Still, the probe has cemented its identify in history by beingness the offset spacecraft to map the entire lunar surface topographically and, iv years afterwards studying the information, it was revealed that Clementine had discovered water water ice in the moon's deep polar craters—enough to back up a lunar colony or create rocket fuel for further space exploration.
7. Galileo
Leaving Earth in 1989 onboard the Infinite Shuttle Atlantis, Galileo headed for the Jovian System, visiting two asteroids on its way to the gas giant. While in orbit around Jupiter, it was eyewitness to the collision betwixt the Schumacher-Levy comet and the huge planet. The spacecraft was a spinning platform, simply the part with the camera remained stationary. The Solid State Imager (SSI) was an 800 x 800 pixel CCD photographic camera. Galileo was the first CCD-equipped spacecraft. To protect the CCD from Jupiter's radiation, the camera was shielded with tantalum. An viii-filter wheel immune filtering of dissimilar colors.
In 2003, Galileo was intentionally crashed into Jupiter's temper to prevent mayhap contaminating the moon Europa with Earth-based material.
8. Insight
Launched from Vandenberg Air Strength Base, in May 2018, Insight touched down on the Cherry Planet on November 26, 2018. Notably, this is NASA's first Westward Coast interplanetary launch and, another first, Insight will be accompanied to Mars by two small CubeSats—Mars Cube One or MarCO—nicknamed "Eva" and "Wall-E." Its science objectives are more inner-looking at the planet, and less visual. The lander will study the formation of terrestrial planets by investigating the internal structure of Mars while determining the electric current levels of seismic activity on Mars to gauge tectonic movements and meteor impacts on the surface.
But, fifty-fifty though the craft is studying the within of Mars, nosotros may besides snap some photos while there. Insight is equipped with ii cameras—Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) and Instrument Context Camera (ICC). The IDC is mounted at the end of a robotic arm—the outset interplanetary arm to grasp devices on another planet—and the ICC is mounted beneath the deck and faces the working instruments.
Both cameras are full-color modified versions of the cameras on the Opportunity and Spirit rovers and are CCDs with 1024 x 1024 resolution. The IDC is aimed by the arm, has a 45-degree field of view, and the capability of making 360-degree panoramic images of the landing site. The ICC has a 120-degree field of view for wide-angle monitoring of the piece of work site.
The ii CubeSats are both equipped with dual cameras, also. Both MarCo'south have a color wide-field engineering photographic camera with a 138-degree field of view. This photographic camera is used to confirm the antenna deployment. And, each CubeSat has a color narrow-field 6.8-degree field of view camera pointed at the UHF antenna. Both cameras have a resolution of 752 x 480 pixels.
9. Juno
Launched in 2011 and in orbit around Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft features some get-go-of-its-kind photography social-media interaction. Started in the fall of 2015, JunoCam allowed fans of the mission to help decide the photos the craft will capture while it orbits Jupiter. In fact, the camera was installed on the spacecraft strictly for public engagement purposes. The other instruments will be doing the scientific part.
JunoCam features a Kodak KAI-2020 color imaging sensor with a resolution of 1600 ten 1200 pixels. Its field of view is 18 10 3.4 degrees and it has three color filters. The elliptical orbit of the spacecraft will vary camera resolution from 1.eight miles per pixel to 1,118 miles per pixel. At the low resolution, the giant planet will be simply well-nigh 75 pixels wide, but when information technology is upwardly close, JunoCam will accept better resolution than the Cassini probe did on its Jupiter flyby en road to Saturn. The Juno spacecraft will likely take fewer than 100 images on its 33-orbit flight around Jupiter.
10. Lucy
Launched on Oct 16, 2021 from Greatcoat Canaveral on an Atlas V, Lucy is the commencement spacecraft sent to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroids (and one asteroid chugalug asteroid—52246 Donaldjohanson) over an ambitious 12-year mission that will prepare a tape for the largest number of destinations in a unmarried mission. The Trojans are a grouping of asteroids in Jupiter's full general orbit that atomic number 82 and follow the massive planet around the sun.
Lucy's primary imager, and its nigh sensitive camera, is the Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (Fifty'LORRI)—an viii.2-inch Ritchey–Chrétien telescope with a panchromatic 1024x1024 CCD sensor based on the LORRI imager on the New Horizons spacecraft (see the New Horizons mission, below).
Fifty'Ralph, similar to New Horizon's Ralph photographic camera, is a 75mm discontinuity multi-spectral imaging camera that volition have color photos of the Trojans and other targets.
eleven. Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
Launched with an Atlas V, in June 2009, along with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (see the LRO mission, below), the LCROSS spacecraft was on a kind of suicide mission to witness the affect of the Atlas V'southward Centaur upper stage into a deep crater about the lunar S Pole. Later steering the Centaur to its destination, LCROSS separated and followed the Centaur into the crater on October 9, 4 minutes afterward the Centaur'south impact, flying through and photographing the debris plume while searching for water ice.
LCROSS carried a Visible Camera, two Well-nigh IR cameras, two Mid-IR cameras, a Visible Spectrometer, two IR Spectrometers, and a Total Luminescence Photometer. The Visible Photographic camera was equipped with a 12mm f/one.2 lens and a 752 x 582 24-bit RGB pixel CCD sensor. Later sampling, the final image resolution was 720 10 486.
12. Lunar Orbiter Series
From 1966 through 1967, in the run-up to the manned Apollo moon missions, NASA sent v unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon, named Lunar Orbiter I through V, with a mission to capture images of the surface. The goal of the start three missions was to survey possible landing sites that would exist suitable for the Apollo lunar modules. Meeting the survey goals, the last two probes had more than scientific purposes. In all, the entire side of the moon facing World was photographed besides as 95% of the far side (not the "Dark Side") of the moon.
The probes carried film cameras adult by Eastman Kodak like models congenital for the National Reconnaissance Office. They were armed with a Pacific Optical Company 610mm f/5.6 lens and a Schneider Kreuznach 80mm f/2.viii Xenotar lens and took 70mm motion picture. The 35-lb cameras were like those that were carried on reconnaissance aircraft. The picture was developed in the spacecraft using a unmarried-solution Bimat process, and dried. Once developed, the film was scanned and transmitted to Globe.
Lunar Orbiter I sent the very first photo of the Earth taken from lunar orbit on August 23, 1966. Currently, the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project is preserving and digitizing these remarkable images.
13. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Launched in 2009 to the moon piggy-backed with LCROSS (see the LCROSS mission, above), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been photographing and mapping new craters on Earth'south natural satellite, making 3D lunar maps, and even photographing the Apollo manned mission landing sites! The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) is a system of three cameras. The 2 Narrow-Angle Cameras are designed to provide 20" panchromatic images over a 3.1-mile swath.
The Wide-Angle Camera provides a resolution of 330' in 7 colour bands over a 37-mile swath. The LROC is a version of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'southward ConTeXt Camera and Mars Color Imager (see the MRO mission, below).
22 NAC oblique view of Tycho crater highlights the summit area of this spectacular image. The primal top circuitous is most 15 km wide, southeast to northwest (left to right in this view).
The 10 Mariner probes were built to explore Venus, Mars, and Mercury between 1962 and 1973. Several were lost on launch mishaps, but other Mariners went on to make history. When Mariner 9 orbited Mars, information technology became the first infinite probe to enter orbit around another planet.
14. Mars 2020
The Mars 2020 Mission and Perseverance rover launched to Mars from Cape Canaveral Air Forcefulness Station on lath an Atlas V-541 rocket on July xxx, 2020 and landed successfully, on February 18, 2021. The Perseverance rover is like to the Marvel rover that landed on Mars in 2012 (see the MSL mission, beneath) but with more than advanced equipment (plainly). Information technology is 10' long and, if you are keeping score at domicile, the largest and heaviest Mars rover ever built past NASA. The intricate landing procedure was similar to the complex parachute/rocket/sky-crane maneuver that set Curiosity down on the Red Planet and was known in social media circles every bit the "Seven Minutes of Terror."
Does Perseverance take cameras? Um, yes. Information technology has 19 cameras with 23 "eyes!" This sets a tape for the number of cameras on an interplanetary exploration!
Perseverance will search for signs of ancient microbial life, characterize the planet's geology and climate, and collect carefully selected and documented stone and sediment samples for possible return to Globe. This piece of work will pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon.
Before we dive into the camera details, as a onetime armed forces helicopter pilot, I am excited to report that a little helicopter named Ingenuity is riding on board Perseverance and, if all goes according to plan, will exist the first controlled shipping to wing on another planet (that we know of)!
OK, let's talk most these record-setting cameras… which we can break down into three categories: Descent Imaging Cameras, Engineering Cameras, and Science Cameras.
When Curiosity executed its complex and nerve-wracking touchdown on the Red Planet, there was one camera recording the upshot—the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). Perseverance adds commercially available cameras and a microphone to record the journey—one looking up to tape the parachute deployment from the descent stage, a camera looking down from the descent stage at the lander, a rover camera looking upward to see the descent stage operation, and a rover camera looking downward at the rapidly approaching Martian surface.
The master Engineering Camera is the dual color stereo Navigation Cameras on the rover's mast—Navcams. The lenses are 16.five" apart. They can see a golf ball-sized target from 82' away. The Navcam'due south sensor provides a 20MP 5120 10 3840 pixel epitome. Navigation cameras on previous rovers were 1MP black-and-white imagers. This is quite an upgrade!
The CacheCam is a single camera that creates microscopic images to itemize sample materials every bit they are stored in tubes and sealed.
The get-go Science Camera is the Mastcam-Z colour photographic camera that rides atop the rover'southward mast at the height of a vi.v' alpine person. It tin swivel 360º and straight upwards and down. Ii lenses are separated past 9.5" to provide stereo vision for the 1600 x 1200 pixel sensor. The "Z" on the camera name designates its 3:1 zoom capability.
Perseverance's SuperCam examines rocks and soils with a combination of camera, laser, and spectrometers. From a altitude of 20' away, it tin can fire the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation at targets equally small equally a pencil betoken. It is known as a micro-imager and not closely related to the digital cameras with which we are familiar.
The other Science Cameras are PIXL, SHERLOC, and WATSON, which are all used in sample analysis.
Terminal, the Ingenuity helicopter carries two pocket-sized B&W digital cameras on lath for navigation.
fifteen. Mariner Series
The Mariner plan, conducted from 1962 to 1973, consisted of seven interplanetary probes designed to explore the inner solar system—visiting Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Ten missions were planned—seven were successful. The Mariner probes accomplished many firsts on their flights, including the outset interplanetary fly-by, first orbit of another planet, and the outset gravity assist maneuver. The intrepid Mariner probes laid important groundwork for the Pioneer, Voyager, and Viking missions that followed.
Some of the Mariner probes carried cameras, some did not. Mariner 6 and Mariner 7, launched in 1969, carried wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras and a digital tape recorder for the data. Mariner ix, launched in 1971, had the same photographic payload. Mariner 10, launched in 1973, carried 2 narrow-angle cameras with the digital record recorder.
16. Mars Climate Orbiter
The Mars Climate Orbiter launched to the Red Planet in 1998 and suffered a fiery death in the Martian Atmosphere when information technology experienced a navigational fault due to a botch between Purple and metric units condign, perhaps, the world's all-time argument for going metric universally. The mission was function of the Mars Surveyor '98 plan that included the Mars Polar Lander.
Onboard the spacecraft was the Mars Color Imager; a camera organisation combining wide and medium-angle cameras with 7.2 km/pixel, er, 4.5 miles/pixel resolution from Mars orbit with thousand x yard pixel sensors. The wide-bending dual lens had a field of view of 140 degrees and was equipped with a 5-element fused silica f/half dozen lens for brusk UV and visible light. A 7-element f/v lens worked with long UV and visible low-cal. A prism and dichroic axle splitter gave the lens an effective focal length of 4.3mm. The medium-bending camera had a field of view of half-dozen degrees and a 6-chemical element catadioptric lens at an f/ii aperture and 87.9mm focal length. This camera was scheduled to provide forty meter/pixel, er, 131'/pixel resolution.
17. Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit
Both rovers were launched to Mars in the summer of 2003 with planned ninety-solar day missions. Both rovers, sized about 5 x 5', landed in January of 2004; Spirit lasted nearly seven.v years. Opportunity sent back data for an amazing 14 years after it embarked on a 3-month mission until a planet-wide dust storm in 2018 coated its solar panels and concluded the rover's mission.
Both rovers were equipped with a small armory of cameras, including a panoramic camera (Pancam), adventure avoidance cameras (Hazcams), and navigation cameras (Navcams). The stereo panoramic camera is mounted atop the rover's mast and has two lenses and CCD sensors placed 12" apart at 5' above the ground. The Pancam has 16 different filters at its disposal and its front lens elements are protected by a sapphire window. The 3-element lenses have a 38mm focal length and f/20 aperture. The CCD captures 12-fleck images at 1024 x 1024 resolution and tin can generate mosaic images measuring 4000 ten 24000 pixels.
The Navcam is mounted on the same mast as the Pancam and the iv Hazcams are mounted low on the front and rear of the vehicle in stereo pairs to provide 3D images of the terrain.
18. Mars Global Surveyor
In 1996, the Mars Global Surveyor left Earth for our closest neighbor away from the Sun. The spacecraft orbited Mars for more than nine years and its camera systems helped make up one's mind the surface routes for the aforementioned rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. Onboard the Mars Global Surveyor was the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) experiment.
The MOC is the in-flight spare for the Mars Observer Photographic camera (see Mars Observer mission, below). The narrow-bending camera has a 13.8" discontinuity and three.5m focal length at f/ten. Information technology is a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with an 0.four-caste field of view for its 2048 10 2048 pixel CCD, with a resolution of 4.6'/pixel. The wide-angle camera system comprises 2 cameras mounted on the side of the narrow-bending assembly. One wide-angle photographic camera has an xi.4mm focal length at f/half dozen.iii and the other is 11mm at f/6.4. Field of view is 140 degrees and resolution is 919'/pixel at the nadir of the orbit and one.ii miles/pixel at the limb.
19. Mars Observer
Mars Observer launched in 1992 to the Red Planet and mysteriously lost contact with Earth just prior to inbound Martian orbit. Onboard was the Mars Observer Camera (MOC) organisation. Lost to the void of outer space, an identical camera system was launched on the Mars Global Surveyor four years afterwards (meet Mars Global Surveyor mission, higher up).
xx. Mars Odyssey
Launched to Mars in 2001, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft is still in service and has collected more information on Mars than any spacecraft before or since. In orbit around Mars, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is a combination thermal infrared imaging spectrometer and high-resolution camera.
THEMIS uses an all-reflective, 3-mirror f/1.vii anastigmatic telescope with a 4.7" aperture and a focal length of 200mm. The system is thermally stabilized by an electric libation. The silicon assortment sensor measures 1024 x 1024 pixels and the visible camera has a resolution of 59'/pixel in the creation of 15,000 panchromatic visible images of the Martian surface. THEMIS can also marshal the IR and visible images every bit needed.
21. Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner
Heading for the Martian Organisation in 1996, the Pathfinder Spacecraft carried with it a modest rover, Sojourner, to the Reddish Planet. When Pathfinder landed, Sojourner became the first wheeled vehicle from Earth to explore another planet in our solar system. Designed to operate on the surface for a week, Sojourner explored the planet for 83 days.
Mounted on the rover's 5' mast, the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) camera organisation was a stereo camera used to provide images of the surface and aid in the navigation of the machine. 2 12-position colour filter wheels featured 15 filters optimized for Mars geology, 8 filters for atmospheric and solar studies, and 1 magnifying filter. Each lens had a focal length of 23mm at f/18. Depth of field was from 1.half dozen' to infinity. The CCD sensor for each lens measured 256 x 256 pixels.
Sojourner too carried two modest finger-sized black-and-white cameras, mounted low on the chassis, to show the driving terrain. The 4mm lenses were coupled to a 768 x 484 pixel CCD. Sojourner sent back 16,661 images, including a 360-degree panorama of its landing site.
22. Mars Polar Lander
Launched in 1999, the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 probes headed to the Red Planet, but contact was lost earlier the mission could begin. The spacecraft probable crashed into the Martian surface.
Onboard the doomed craft was the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) that was designed to accept ten pictures of the landing event. The 9-chemical element refractive optic camera had a focal length of seven.125mm with a field of view of 73.iv degrees. The camera featured a Kodak CCD sensor with 1024x1024 pixel resolution.
23. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Lofted toward Mars in 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to study the Scarlet Planet while serving as a relay station for other Mars missions, including the Opportunity rover (see Mars Exploration Rover mission, above).
Equipped with the most powerful scope photographic camera ever built to transport to a strange planet, the Loftier Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) is a 3-mirror astigmatic Cassegrain at f/24 with a 12m focal length. There are 14 detector-chip assemblies, staggered with a 48-pixel overlap, which can exist combined to create images upwards to 20000 10 65000 pixels. The camera, in case yous wanted to purchase 1, cost $31 1000000 to develop.
The orbiter also carried the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) for visible and UV photography and the Context Imager (CTX) with a wide-expanse, lower-resolution views, to provide context for the HiRISE photographic camera system.
24. Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover
The Mars Science Laboratory mission'due south Curiosity rover landed in Mars'south Gale Crater the evening of August 5, 2012. Curiosity's mission was to determine whether the Red Planet always was, or is, habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is well-nigh the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments.
The Mast Camera on the rover was designed to take unmarried-exposure, colour snapshots similar to those taken with a consumer digital camera on Earth. In add-on, it has multiple filters for taking sets of monochromatic images. These images are used to analyze patterns of low-cal assimilation in unlike portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. I of the two "Mastcam" camera systems has a moderate-resolution lens; the other camera system has a loftier-resolution lens for studying the landscape far from the rover. The Mastcam tin can take high-definition video at x frames per 2d. Its electronics processes images independently of the rover's central processing unit and has an internal data buffer for storing thousands of images or several hours of high-definition video footage for manual to Earth.
Another camera, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) provides earthbound scientists with shut-upwardly views of the minerals, textures, and structures in Martian rocks, surface droppings, and dust. The self-focusing, 1.5" wide photographic camera takes colour images of features every bit small as 12.five micrometers, smaller than the bore of a man hair. MAHLI carries white light sources, similar to the lite from a flashlight, and ultraviolet light sources, like to the light from a tanning lamp, making the imager functional both mean solar day and night. The ultraviolet calorie-free is used to induce fluorescence to assistance notice carbonate and evaporite minerals, both of which indicate that h2o helped shape the landscape on Mars.
25. MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging)
Our first spacecraft to give us an in-depth study of Mercury, the closest planet to the Lord's day, Messenger launched in August 2004 on lath a Delta Ii and entered Mercury's orbit in 2011. Until and then, Mercury's simply visitor had been Mariner 10, a total 36 years prior. Before entering orbit around the tiny planet, MESSENGER performed an World flyby, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury on its 7-yr fuel-saving journey.
Operating well-nigh room temperature (68°F) backside a sunshade to protect it from temperatures of approximately 840°F, MESSENGER'due south camera organization was known every bit the Mercury Dual Imaging Arrangement (MDIS). The MDIS independent a Narrow-Bending Photographic camera (NAC) and Wide-Angle Camera (WAC). The NAC featured a 550mm lens. The WAC camera had a focal length of 78mm and a 12-position filter bike. Interestingly, the WAC's twelfth filter was a broadband filter that immune the WAC to be used for celestial navigation. Both cameras fed a single 1024 x 1024-pixel CCD sensor.
Following ii mission extensions, MESSENGER burned its remaining propellant to de-orbit the planet and crashed into the surface, in April 2015.
26. NEAR Shoemaker
Launched from Cape Canaveral on lath a Delta II on Feb 17, 1996, the Well-nigh Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Nearly) Shoemaker headed to the nearly-Earth asteroid 433 Eros, flying past asteroid 253 Mathilde on its mode. Nearly Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to successfully enter orbit around an asteroid and the kickoff to land on one when information technology touched down on Eros on Feb 12, 2001.
Most's camera—the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI)—consisted of a 168mm f/3.4 telescope, filter bicycle, and 244 10 550 pixel CCD sensor that captured more than 160,000 images during the mission. Although it was not designed as a lander, it became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, and NEAR operated on the surface of Eros for two weeks after touchdown.
27. New Horizons
Launched in 2006 to the far reaches of the Kuiper Belt; the New Horizons probe became the starting time spacecraft to visit the dwarf planet, Pluto. Onboard is a pair of visible-light cameras: The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) looks far ahead of the spacecraft, and Ralph is a visible and IR camera. Following its Pluto fly-past, New Horizons headed deeper into the Kuiper Belt and imaged the snowman-like 486958 Arrokoth during a close pass. The spacecraft plans to study more than 2-dozen more Kuiper Belt objects as it heads away from Earth.
The LORRI photographic camera is an 8.20 in discontinuity Ritchey–Chrétien telescope with a monochromatic 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD sensor.
Ralph features a 75mm lens with a 684mm constructive focal length at f/viii.vii and, to avoid thermal issues, the photographic camera'due south mirrors were polished from aluminum sharpened with diamonds.
28. OSIRIS-Rex
If there is a known asteroid in the solar system that has a take chances of making Hollywood extinction-level-event-from-a-meteor-strike movies come truthful, it is 101955 Bennu. To learn more about this potential company, the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft visited Bennu in 2018 and is bringing a pocket-sized sample back to Globe. The package should arrive in 2023, if all goes well.
An acronym covering Origins/Spectral Interpretation/Resource Identification/Security/Regolith Explorer—OSIRIS-Male monarch—was launched on September 8, 2016, from Greatcoat Canaveral, with a trio of visible light cameras on board. The OCAMS Instrument Suite consists of the MapCam, PolyCam, and SamCam.
MapCam is the medium-range photographic camera used to search for satellites of Bennu, outgassing plumes, provide colour mapping, and provide images to create topographic maps. It has a filter wheel and five-element 125mm f/3.3 lens system for panchromatic (clear) and wide-band spectral imaging in the bluish, green, red, and near-IR.
PolyCam is a long-range 20cm Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with a 629mm focal length and f/3.15 aperture. Designed to locate Bennu from 2 million kilometers away, it served to map out hazards on unlike landing areas and performed high-resolution imaging of the surface at short range.
SamCam's vi-element 24mm f/5.5 lens (with filter wheel) is the optic that watched and verified the touch-and-go on Bennu, besides as imaged the sampling mechanism after the sample was nerveless.
All three cameras utilize identical 1024 x 1024 active pixel CCD detectors.
On its way home now, the sample is scheduled to go far at Earth on September 24, 2023 (Fin's 4th birthday!).
29. Parker Solar Probe
Launched in August 2018 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Delta IV rocket, the Parker Solar Probe will speed past Venus vii times to slow it down for orbit around the Lord's day. Designed to written report the Lord's day with unprecedented particular, the probe volition get closer to the gigantic fusion reaction at the middle of our Solar System than whatever spacecraft before it. One major goal of the mission is to determine why the Sun's corona is hotter further from the surface of the Lord's day. Mercury orbits the sunday at a mean altitude of 36 million miles. The Parker Solar Probe will be communicable rays at only iii.viii one thousand thousand miles from the Sun making 24 passes over the next seven years.
One of the chief scientific discipline instruments on board is a camera—the Broad-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR). At that place isn't a ton of data on the optics of the camera, but they capture images through ane of 2 nested wide-field telescopes (each with a different focal length) with 2,000 x ii,000 pixel APS CMOS "detectors." The cameras will, among other things, derive the 3D structure of the solar corona and measure the physical backdrop of elements of the corona and inner heliosphere.
Although very close to the dominicus, a sunshield will proceed the instruments at a safe 85ºF operating temperature.
30. Phoenix Mission
Phoenix launched in 2007 and was a lander sent to the surface of Mars to search for evidence of past or nowadays microbial life. Using a robotic arm, it dug upwardly to half a meter into the Red Planet to collect samples and return them to onboard instruments for analysis, verifying the existence of h2o-ice in the Martian subsurface. The Phoenix lander ended communications in November 2008, about vi months afterwards landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the nighttime Martian winter.
The arts and crafts utilized a robotic-arm camera (RAC) for close-up colour images of the Martian soil and ice. The RAC is a box-shaped imager with a double-Gauss lens system, commonly found in many 35mm cameras, coupled to a CCD. At a 1:ane magnification and closest focus, RAC provided an image resolution of 23 microns per pixel.
Also, the Surface Stereo Imager (SSI), mounted on a mast, provided high-resolution, color, stereo images of the terrain at the landing site and positioning data for use of the arm. The musical instrument besides simulated the resolution of human eyesight using a CCD with 1024 x 1024-pixel images. SSI besides had optical and infrared filters.
31. Pioneer Program
The Pioneer program sent numerous unmanned craft to explore various parts of our solar system and beyond. The early missions were conducted in the late 1950s and were attempts to escape World's gravitational pull and show that it was possible to reach the moon. Later missions of the 1960s and 1970s explored our solar system, including flyby missions to Jupiter and Saturn.
Information transmission varied greatly from mission to mission. Pioneer 1 carried an image-scanning infrared television arrangement to study the Moon's surface to a resolution of 0.5 degrees.
32. Ranger Missions
The Ranger program was a series of unmanned missions with the objective of obtaining the starting time close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The crafts were to orbit the moon, taking images and transmitting those images to Globe before crash-landing on the surface. Of the ix Ranger missions, the commencement six ended in failure, but missions vii, 8, and nine returned thousands of images.
Ranger seven sent more than 4,300 pictures from six cameras that revealed that craters caused by impact were the dominant features of the Moon's surface—slap-up craters were marked by small-scale ones, and the small with tiny touch pockmarks, as far downward in size as could be discerned—virtually xx". Of the vi cameras, two were wide bending and four were "narrow angle." The "A" camera had an f/1 lens and 25mm focal length and a vidicon target expanse of 11 x 11mm. The "B" camera had an f/2 lens of 38mm aperture and 76mm focal length. Two of the "P" cameras utilized lenses identical to that of the "A" camera, and 2 were identical to the lenses used in the "B" camera.
33. Solar Orbiter
Launched in February 2020 on lath an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Solar Orbiter is a cooperative effort between NASA and the European Infinite Agency (ESA) launched to investigate how the Dominicus creates and controls the ever-changing space surroundings surrounding our solar arrangement—the heliosphere. The probe will orbit the Sun every 168 days, once it reaches the fundamental star of our system, and join the Parker Solar Probe (come across Parker Solar Probe mission, above) in investigating and unlocking some of the Sun'southward most perplexing secrets.
The Solar Orbiter has 10 dissever instruments, all working in conjunction to provide the spacecraft's suite of data. Of those instruments, the Metis (coronograph), PHI (Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager), and SoloHi (Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager) are all on board to take photos.
Metis sees both ultraviolet and visible light with intensified active pixel sensors at 1024 x 1024 and 2048 x 2048 resolution, respectively. The PHI consists of two telescopes that ship their images to a 2048 x 2048 CMOS digital sensor. And SoloHi is a visible light telescope that projects images to a mosaic of iv 2048x1920 detectors that are read out independently.
34. Stardust
Stardust was the first spacecraft to return a sample of a celestial body (beyond the Moon) to Earth. Launched on February 7, 1999 atop a Delta II from Cape Canaveral, the probe's main mission was to collect dust samples from the comet Wild 2, too as cosmic dust particles in deep space. En route to Wild 2, Stardust as well flew past asteroid 5535 Annefrank and the spacecraft, on an extended mission profile (Stardust-Next), also flew by comet Tempel 1 (see the Deep Impact mission, above), in February 2011, before the mission concluded in March 2011.
Stardust'due south Navigation Camera (NC) was based on hardware originally congenital and tested for the Voyager probes. The Petzval-type refractor had a 200mm focal length at f/3.5, filter system, and field flattener. The lens fed images to a CCD sensor that was identical to the one carried by Cassini's ISS (see Cassini mission, in a higher place). A smaller Star Camera was used for attitude control.
Stardust'southward mission return capsule landed back on Earth on January 15, 2006—landing in the Utah desert.
35. Surveyor Missions
The Surveyor projects, from 1966-68, were unmanned landers sent to the moon in preparation for the Apollo missions to follow. Surveyor differed from the before Ranger missions in that the probes made soft landings on the moon'south surface. They tested the engineering science that would be used in later missions and accumulated much data on lunar chemical and soil minerals and returned almost ninety,000 images from v divide sites.
Each Surveyor spacecraft carried a television camera and 70mm pictures were obtained at very loftier resolution. This photography provided data on the nature of the surface terrain in the immediate vicinity of the spacecraft, also as the number, distribution, and sizes of the craters and boulders in the area. In addition, a non-landing camera platform was used to map the whole moon from orbit.
Surveyor images included wide-angle and narrow-angle panoramas, focus ranging surveys, photometric surveys, special expanse surveys, and celestial photography.
The Apollo 12 Lunar Module landed virtually Surveyor 3 on Nov nineteen, 1969. Astronauts Conrad and Bean examined the spacecraft, and they brought back nearly 10 kg of parts of the Surveyor to the Globe, including its Television receiver camera, which is now on permanent brandish in the National Air and Infinite Museum, in Washington, D.C.
36. Viking Series
The Viking 1 and two probes, launched in 1975 and both consisted of an orbiter and landers, which safely settled on the surface of Mars. They landed approximately two months apart in late 1976 and operated until 1982 and 1980, respectively.
The Viking Lander photographic camera design was very different from vidicon framing or CCD assortment cameras. The lander camera was a facsimile camera with a unmarried, stationary photo-sensor assortment (PSA), and azimuth and acme scanning mechanisms. A lander image was generated by scanning the scene in ii directions (pinnacle and azimuth) to focus light onto the photo-sensor assortment. Its 2 identical cameras were bolted to the top of the lander body.
The lenses had a 0.95 cm aperture bore and 5.37 cm focal length. 4,500 images from the landers and 52,000 pictures from the orbiters were sent back to Globe.
37. Voyager Series
The legendary explorers of our solar system, Voyager one and Voyager 2 were both launched in 1977 and are notwithstanding actively returning data from interstellar space after their grand tours of our family of planets! Voyager 1 has been in interstellar space since August 2012 and is the farthest man-made object from the Sun (and Earth). Voyager two has visited its destinations—all four gas giant planets—and entered interstellar space in November 2018. The Voyager probes' primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn after which Voyager ane was flung off the ecliptic towards the unknown. Voyager 2 continued on and gave u.s. the first shut-upward tour Uranus and Neptune.
The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on the Voyager probes is a modified version of the slow-scan vidicon camera designs that were used in the earlier Mariner flights. The ISS consists of two television-blazon cameras, each with 8 filters in a commandable filter wheel mounted in front of the vidicons.
One system has a low-resolution, 200mm wide-angle lens with an discontinuity of f/three, while the other has a higher-resolution 1500mm narrow-bending f/8.5 lens. On February 14, 1990, Voyager one took the terminal pictures of the Voyager mission. After that set up of portraits, the cameras on Voyager one and 2 were switched off and the software controlling them removed from the spacecraft.
Images courtesy NASA, JPL, APL
Source: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/cameras-on-37-interplanetary-spacecraft
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