NSSDCA ID: 1966-073A-01
Mission Name: Lunar Orbiter 1This experiment consisted of a dual-lens camera system designed to satisfy the primary mission objective of providing photographic information for the evaluation of Apollo and Surveyor landing sites. An 80-mm lens system was used to obtain Medium-Resolution (MR) photos, and a 610-mm lens system was used for High-Resolution (HR) photos. The two separate lens, shutter, and platen systems utilized the same film supply and recorded imagery simultaneously in adjacent areas of 70-mm film. Automatic sequences of 1, 4, 8, or 16 photos were obtained. At an altitude of 46 km, which was approximately the perilune height, the HR system photographed a 4.15- by 16.6-km area of the lunar surface which was centered on a 31.6- by 37.4-km area photographed by the MR system. At apolune, which occured on the farside at about 1850-km altitude, the areas photographed were correspondingly larger. The film was bimat processed on board and optically scanned, and the resulting video signal was telemetered to ground stations. Film density readout was accomplished by a high-intensity light beam focused to a 6.4-micron-diameter spot on the spacecraft film. The spot scanner swept 2.67 mm in the long dimension of the spacecraft film. This process was repeated 286 times for each millimeter of film scanned. The raster was composed of 2.67- by 65-mm scan lines along the film. The video signal received at the ground station was recorded on magnetic tape and also fed to Ground Reconstruction Equipment (GRE), which reproduced the portion of the image contained in one raster on a 35-mm film positive framelet. Over 26 framelets were required for a complete MR photograph and 86 for a complete HR image. Of the 211 simultaneous exposures obtained, 206 MR photos and 13 HR photos were considered usable. A shutter malfunction prevented normal exposure of most of the HR imagery. Eight each of the usable MR and HR photos are of the lunar farside, and two of these include the earth's image. Except of the shutter malfunction, experiment performance was nominal until the final readout on September 14, 1966. A detailed description of the experiment, a bibliography, and indexes of all the available Lunar Orbiter 1 through 5 photos are contained in the report 'Lunar Orbiter Photographic Data,' NSSDC 69-05, June 1969.
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Coordinated Request and User Support Office
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Mr. Isidore G. Recant | General Contact | NASA Langley Research Center | |
Mr. Leon J. Kosofsky | Principal Investigator | NASA Headquarters |
Detailed Information on Lunar Orbiters and Images
Lunar Orbiter overview
Lunar Mission Chronology
Moon Page
Digitized Lunar Orbiter Image Data (PDS)
Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon (Lunar and Planetary Institute)