Pictures from the Moon

Pictures from the Moon www.gtc.org.uk

This is the story of how one of the greatest moments in television came about – the transmission, 40 years ago, of live pictures from the Moon. It was truly... With thanks to NASA for all images unless specified

The Greatest Outside Broadcast Ever by Clive North

22 Autumn 2008 ZERB Pete Conrad with the Apollo 12 Unified S-Band Antenna www.gtc.org.uk Pictures from the Moon

Most people, when they think of the Sam recalls, “When I finally saw the The worldwide TV audience saw these Early Apollo cameras were designed Apollo 11 Moon landings and man’s to produce a good B&W picture for television come on and there was real-time, scan-converted images first steps onto the lunar surface, will the harsh lunar conditions Neil Armstrong coming down the but it wasn’t until years later that it recall the names of Neil Armstrong ladder – I looked at the image and was realised how much better the and Buzz Aldrin, and Neil’s famous thought ‘oh gosh, that’s really not a TV pictures would be if the original statement, “One small step for a man, good image’. It was black and white, telemetry tapes could be found and one giant leap for mankind.” it was streaky, noisy and hard to see, the slow-scan digitally converted but thinking about it now I see that to NTSC or PAL. The demodulated Those steps took place nearly 40 years Designing cameras for the Moon perhaps the mistiness or ghostliness slow-scan TV, along with the other ago now, on 20 July 1969, and ever Sam started designing cameras for of that image added a certain magical data, (voice, space suit parameters, since then we have had ingrained taking images from space with RCA quality to it.” etc) had all been recorded on 14- on our memories those amazing first (Radio Corporation of America) in track analogue data recorders at the moving pictures from another planet 1966. Television was not yet an Scan-converted image tracking stations on 14” diameter – Neil and Buzz’s first steps down from Apollo 11 reels of 1” wide telemetry tape. Those important part of the Apollo project, www.honeysucklecreek.net the ladder onto the dusty surface of hence the use of the so-called Unified tapes were an amazing 9200 feet the Moon. But there are two other S-Bend System, a communications long, ran at 120ips requiring changing names which GTC members may not system for transmitting messages every 15 minutes. know whose work is almost as closely to the Moon and for receiving data connected to those events as that of (biomedical and telemetry) and voice This realisation came about late the first astronauts to walk on the communications. It only allowed in 2003 when Australian Apollo Moon – those of Sam Russell and a very narrow bandwidth for a Convoluted route enthusiast Colin Mackellar saw Ed Fendell. television signal. Everyone saw those historic, indistinct Polaroid pictures taken of the and noisy pictures of Neil Armstrong’s Honeysuckle Creek tracking station monitors during the transmission Sam with Lunar Rover camera replica first steps on the Moon but not many realised that the signal quality had and, in 2004, started asking questions been badly degraded en route from about the telemetry tapes containing Australia to the Unites States rather the slow-scan TV signals. than on its way from the Moon to Earth. Apollo 11’s historic landing on In mid-2005, some Super 8 footage the Moon came when much of the emerged which underlined the United States was in darkness and difference in quality of the pictures the signal from the lunar module seen on the Australian monitors could only be received at two remote compared with the broadcast pictures. tracking stations – at Honeysuckle The informal search for the tapes Creek and a radio observatory at was stepped up and by August 2006 Sam was responsible for overseeing NASA budgeted only 500kHz for Parkes, both in Australia. NASA had given their support for the design and construction of the television from the lunar surface, searching their vast archives. As yet, video cameras that went to the Moon, much less than the 4.5MHz standard The routing of the signals from the the tapes have still to emerge - but along with the means of getting used for commercial broadcast Honeysuckle Creek 85-foot dish when they do those images could be their pictures back to the waiting television at the time. The NASA station was via the ground lines of sensational… billions of viewers on Earth. Ed was mission planners called for a lunar the Australian Postal Department to a the man whose hands were on the camera which could cope with this COMSAT ground station, then to the At the beginning of the American controls in Houston guiding the limitation by using a non-standard Intelsat IV satellite over the Pacific space programme the importance of cameras remotely to send back those slow-scan format of 320 lines back to COMSAT in California, and television had been underestimated unforgettable images. resolution at 10 frames per second then via AT&T to Houston where it but it was not long before there was (instead of the US TV standard of 525 was converted to NTSC and released sustained pressure on NASA to enable Sam, now 75, but still working in his lines at 30 fps). to the TV network pool. the public to watch the flights in own video production company, lives real time. There were also continual in West Trenton, New Jersey and A team at the Westinghouse This real-time scan-converted TV efforts to upgrade the quality of the Ed, now retired, also 75, lives close Defense and Space Center spent was recorded on commercial video television coverage. As a result, Apollo to his former employer, NASA, at five years developing a camera recorders at the Honeysuckle Creek 12 had on board an extraordinary Houston, Texas. that was capable of producing a and Goldstone tracking stations, at colour video camera. very good black and white picture the Sydney Video switching centre, Colour wheel Not long after the launch on 4 in the lunar environment with its as backup, and also at Houston on October 1957 of the world’s first extreme temperatures and harsh quad videotape and 16mm film. spaceflight, the Russian Sputnik lighting conditions. (Later it was found that a receiver satellite, Sam found himself on a at one particular station could cause project with Airborne Instruments On Apollo 11, the first of the picture tearing: a particular model Laboratory, Long Island, working in missions to actually land on the of processing amplifier could convert aviation electronics and radar. This Moon, this black and white camera a slightly noisy received signal into soon led to a job with the Flight was positioned on one of the lunar a very objectionable streaky and Control Division of NASA working as

module’s legs to give a view of the noisy image. In addition, some of the BERT SOLTOFF a flight controller on John Shepherd’s astronauts taking their first steps electronic filters used could cause Gemini III mission - the Americans’ down the ladder. ringing or ghosting in the image first spacewalk. – all potential glitches which were subsequently fixed.)

Autumn 2008 ZERB 23 Pictures from the Moon www.gtc.org.uk

Creating a colour image no television coverage other than the astronauts of course have to wear spacesuits of the astronauts appeared Within that camera, from RCA, was very beginnings of that mission. bright, white spacesuits to reflect ‘bloomy and blurred’. Changes were a monochrome sensor coupled to a solar energy. “So you have a scene made to the pickup tube technology precision machined gear wheel with Failed Apollo 12 camera which is truly black and white, and but the main approach was to prevent six cutouts in which three pairs of red, the need is for the camera to render damage to the tube by keeping the green, and blue colour filters were an image that does justice to both the camera from being pointed directly at mounted. The filters were shaped so astronauts and the environment they the Sun. that they would evenly expose the are working in. We need to see clearly sensor during each of the wheel’s what the astronaut is doing and also Features from the more advanced 10 revolutions per second, locked to what he is working with – that was studio cameras that RCA were the field scanning rate. Successive TV one of the big challenges,” says Sam. developing were also being fields recorded images of red, then incorporated into the new design green, then blue components. Back There were other challenges to and NASA changed the cameras’ on Earth, a scan converter stored the overcome too – the camera had specification accordingly. “It was like fields on analogue disk drives and mechanical moving parts that had being in a fishbowl,” recalls Sam. from them, generated NTSC video. to work, both in a vacuum and in “Everyone, NASA management and the Moon’s one-sixth gravity. Lunar RCA top management, were All this allowed a simple and reliable dust could also get into the camera’s watching us!” camera design. At the time of the gearing. In addition, there was the Apollo 15 Lunar Rover camera Apollo missions, CCDs were hardly Following this, RCA developed the problem of temperature control – more than laboratory curios and the Silicon Intensifier Target tube which where the Sun was beating down on prospect of shrinking a three-tube, had just the characteristics NASA the camera the temperature would broadcast quality camera to shoebox needed for the mission. It was be around 101°C (214°F) but as soon size and keeping it in registration highly sensitive, so could see into as the camera went into shade the throughout the trans-lunar voyage deeply shadowed areas, yet it could temperature would plummet to was unthinkable. The field sequential withstand direct exposure to the -184°C (-300°F). There was no air system offered excellent colour quality Sun without being damaged. It had circulating around the camera of and the only risky part was keeping low lag, or image carryover, from course to cool it, so a lot of work the filter wheel rotating in the vacuum field to field, and its sensitivity was went into its thermal design. of space. controllable over a 1000:1 range. RCA were following the specifications Lunar Rover with camera and S-Band antenna provided by NASA for the camera but Testing, testing Sam felt that workshop testing was Sam and his team also had a lot of insufficient and that they needed to explaining to do to show that they create a ‘lunar scene’ with a very dark could get the new camera ready in surface with white-suited astronauts time for the Apollo 15 flight and their to test the camera more realistically ‘model’ simulations were a successful – so they set up a model lunar surface part of this – so much so that NASA complete with toy astronauts. converted a large laboratory into a simulated 20ft x 40ft lunar surface At this time there was only six for further tests. Sam remembers months to go before Apollo 15, and mixing sand and soot to approximate RCA was under pressure to get the the lunar surface – a messy but camera working correctly. The Apollo essential job – and also helping with 14 flight took place halfway through simulations for the ground controllers Ironically, on the GCTA (ground- Extreme environment for a the development of the new camera who would actually be remotely commanded television assembly) camera with its Silicon Intensifier Target operating the system. One big key camera’s first trip, Apollo 12, astronaut There were enormous challenges in tube. There had been difficulties with light approximated the light from Alan Bean inadvertedly pointed the producing a good TV picture on the the ‘14’ camera – a SEC (secondary the Sun. camera directly towards the intense Moon. Although we see the lunar emission conduction) vidicon Sam light of the Sun and burned out the surface as grey, it is in fact very dark recalls - which could expose for the Environmental testing of the camera image sensor. As a result, there was grey to almost black in colour. The lunar surface correctly but the white was exhaustive and included both

24 Autumn 2008 ZERB www.gtc.org.uk Pictures from the Moon

thermal and dust tests. One big - making sure that the camera met all horizontally rather than risk a tilt up, the ladder to show the astronauts problem was found and cured the requirements, that the astronauts just in case the camera flipped up climbing down onto the lunar surface. – the camera’s spinning filter wheel knew how to operate it, the ground and become uncontrollable. Once the was found to seize up in cold controllers knew how it worked and astronauts had left, the camera was Sam recalls: “We saw Dave Scott temperatures. If this happened on the that it mounted properly on both the needed for further science experiments climbing down … the picture was in Moon the picture could be obscured lunar module and the lunar rover. including the camera panning slowly sharp focus and the rendering was by the portion of the filter wheel round and mapping the area. perfect … we saw the astronaut in between the colour filters being stuck Operating the camera complete detail ... that really was a in front of the sensor and remaining On the lunar rover, the camera was One problem that did turn out worse moment of joy – we knew we had that way for the rest of the mission. designed to be operated by the than expected on Apollo 15 was lunar it made and the worries were pretty astronauts themselves. It boasted a dust. Precautions against ingress much over!” Angenieux lens after handle on its base with switches for of dust into the camera and its dust test on–off and exposure mode, and there Angenieux 15–75mm lens had worked The second camera position was to were levers on the front of the camera fine – the problem was the dust that cover the deployment of the lunar for adjusting iris and zoom. The was kicked up as the lunar rover rover which was to be unloaded from camera was also designed so that it could be put onto a ‘television control Apollo 16 Commander John Young enjoys one-sixth gravity unit’ which would receive remote commands from Mission Control who could pan the camera from side to side, tilt it up and down, and also During final testing there were also control exposure. many queries about the quality of the picture. “It needed to look as good as Having ‘dual control’ in this way also the Saturday afternoon ballgame,” caused some unexpected problems in recalled Sam “… and if it didn’t meet practice. If the camera was mounted that criterion, we were in trouble!” on the control unit and the astronaut just wanted to quickly pan the camera, Two factors helped improve the quality it had to be turnable without wrecking of the television picture still further the gearing used for remote control. on the later Apollo missions: first, So a clutch system was added to both NASA’s Deep Space Network around the pan and the tilt mechanisms that the world began to make use of new allowed the camera to be quickly 210-foot dish stations which increased moved by hand. the received signal strength by almost drove around. This settled on the lens the opposite side of the lunar module. 8dB. Second, Image Transform, then a This seemingly perfect answer causing distracting speckles whenever The camera had to be set up on a startup company in North Hollywood, actually caused a problem on Apollo the camera pointed anywhere near tripod on the lunar surface and linked demonstrated to NASA, using 15 when it was found that the tilt the Sun. The astronauts had to clean by cable back to the spacecraft. An Apollo 15 footage, their innovative clutch got very hot, which reduced its the lens frequently with a brush. There umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna proprietary system for enhancing effectiveness so much that when the was also no sunshade on the camera was fixed to the lunar rover for direct video. NASA had them bring their camera was tilted up a little it would – an omission that would be corrected transmission of pictures back to Earth, system online for Apollo 16, after flop backwards and end up pointing on all subsequent flights. via a communications unit which which converted video from all the straight up. handled both the TV signals and the EVAs (extra vehicular activities) was Multiple camera positions astronauts’ communications. sent to California, enhanced, returned The tilt clutch could have proved a big On the Apollo 15 flight the camera to Houston, and then distributed to problem at the end of that mission was used in three very different ways. The ability to remotely-control the the TV network pool - all in real time. when it was planned that the camera After landing, the astronauts pulled a camera was invaluable – it meant that would televise the lift-off as the lunar lanyard which released a trapdoor on the astronauts could move away, carry Sam’s particular responsibility as the module lifted the astronauts back up the side of the lunar module exposing out their experiments and explore project engineer was that of pulling to lunar orbit. Mission Control decreed the camera. This was pointed towards while the camera followed their all the pieces of the project together that the camera should be locked off

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were 9 billion people looking over flight director also had requests for Apollo 15 ascent - slow-scan still frame your shoulder!” particular coverage from the camera and these had been rehearsed as well At the first lunar worksite he was as they could be on Earth. In the end no doubt relieved to see the remote the coverage was so gripping that all control system operate successfully the American channels showed the delivering a wide-angle pan of the live coverage from start to finish. lunar surface. “I remember thinking this really is the Moon! It’s not like Capturing the lift-off looking at some simulation at Cape Extraordinary though it may seem Canaveral - this is for real! … When I now, when Apollo 16 came around the started to look at the astronauts later gloss seemed to have worn off as far on and at the colours of the emblems as the American viewing public was on their suits and the fact that they concerned. The networks only showed were moving I can only guess what portions of the coverage but in Europe, my blood pressure went to! It was at least, the non-commercial channels extremely exciting but there really cleared the schedules for it. wasn’t time to do anything but keep every move. TV pictures couldn’t be constantly thinking and planning on working.” All this came to a head when it was transmitted while the lunar rover was ahead as each camera move had the planned to show the blast-off of the travelling though – the directional time delay to compensate for. He “When the crew came to a stop on the ascent stage of the lunar module antenna was not designed to would have to give his commands well lunar rover, they adjusted the antenna from the Moon’s surface. On Apollo automatically orientate itself towards in advance – luckily the fixed speed to point to Earth and said the camera’s 15 there had been the problem with Earth so this had to be done manually pan was quite slow. ‘all yours’. It was, er… a little tricky the clutch on the pan and tilt head each time the vehicle stopped. and kind of sweaty!” jokes Ed. meaning the camera had remained Chief Camera Controller was Ed static with the spacecraft rapidly Ironically, given the fact that this Fendell who found that, as well as As well as receiving requests for exiting the top of frame. For Apollo was the first time astronauts were to the radio delay, it was very difficult camera moves from the scientists and 16, the tilt clutch problem had been venture far away from their spacecraft to predict what an astronaut might engineers in Mission Control, Ed also solved and Ed Fendell asked RCA to and that there would be live colour do next – whether he would move had communications direct from the establish how the ascent stage should TV coverage for the first time, the left or right for instance. The chances astronauts asking what he was looking be followed and at what point the three American TV networks had only were, however, that he would either at with the camera and how it was all remote command should be given for planned sporadic coverage. When they move out of frame, or if Ed took a going. At each stop on the lunar rover the camera to tilt upwards following saw the feed of the Apollo 15 pictures guess and panned, it would be in the trips there was a requirement for a the ascending spacecraft. though, with their detailed views of wrong direction. The solution was 360° pan of the area for the geology the explorations, they dropped their to zoom out at the first sign of an team. This was taken in 3° increments, Buzz Aldrin - pictured regular programming and devoted astronaut making a definite move and then the camera had to find and by Neil Armstrong their airtime to the live coverage. then tighten in again when the move observe the astronauts again. finished. Fairly standard stuff on Earth Go several seconds before ‘Action’! but not so easy when separated by “You have to understand we were Controlling the camera on the Moon 240,000 miles and a six and a half not television, or camera, people. We from back on Earth proved more than second command delay! were assigned to this job and we went a little tricky - quite simply because off to do it, but as soon as the press it was so far away and the various got word of what we were doing the stages in the radio signal’s path media descended on us for interviews added a delay of around six and a and the next thing I knew was my half seconds. Also, the camera remote name was known around the world controls were quite crude. The flight - and I was just a flight controller at controller had just a set of buttons NASA!” said Ed. with which he could command the camera to pan left or right, tilt up or Apollo 15 had been the first time the Sam had done the calculations down, or zoom in or out. Each move Ed Fendell with gold camera award camera had gone mobile with the but there was another, unforeseen, also had to be followed by a ‘stop’ lunar rover. A lot of pre-planning had problem. The astronauts had placed command. “They were just punch- Ed remembers: “This way of operating been done with both the Earthbound the lunar rover, with the camera, button commands and they were was so intense and tiring. It was geologists and the astronauts on much too close to the lunar module really not very elegant!” recalls Sam. very different doing it for real rather the best way to televise the various so when the ascent took place the than simulating it at Cape Canaveral. planned stops on Dave Scott and spacecraft still shot straight up out of The result was that the flight It wasn’t helped by the adrenaline Jim Irwin’s lunar surface excursions. frame and there was still no chance of controller in Houston had to be pumping and the thought that there NASA’s public relations people and the following it.

26 Autumn 2008 ZERB www.gtc.org.uk Pictures from the Moon

By the time of Apollo 17 – the final of light fading from the screen. remaining Saturn V rockets, Moon Machines interview with Sam Russell mission – the flight controllers had After his unique spells of camera lunar modules and lunar got it just right. By looking at the size operating, Ed took a trip to Germany rovers went to museums of the image of the lunar rover on the to receive a golden miniature model and into storage. TV screen they were able to work out camera which was presented to just how far away the lunar module him, by a German TV magazine, Sam summed it all up: was from the now remotely as a memento of his work with the “After Apollo 17 it was positioned camera. Apollo project. never the same again – there was something “What I was watching to get those Sam comments: “I think it’s hard to missing, that sense of pictures was a sheet of paper,” said understand the challenges we had in exploration, of pushing the frontier, But it was still the greatest OB ever! Ed. “The camera commands started doing the camerawork on Apollo. You the feeling of really being in the going out pre lift-off as the crew was have to remember the time was 1970. blue sky arena - it was all gone. We My thanks to Sam and Ed for their counting down. We had to get the At the time integrated circuits hardly stepped back and we did the space cooperation in the preparation of camera moving well before the lunar existed and there were next to none station and all of those things, but I this article, which came about as a module lifted off”. on the cameras. We used a very crude think that the goal of getting to the result of interviews I filmed with them colour system, a colour wheel in front Moon, exploring and bringing the for a Discovery Science HD series After the calculations had been done of basically a black and white camera men back was just an extraordinary Moon Machines, produced by Dox and applied, the camera zoomed but it was a system that worked - and venture. I’ll never forget it.” Productions (Clive North). back and tilted up exactly as the that was the important thing.” lunar module took off. In fact, Ed had commanded the camera to move a full It was a personal disappointment eight seconds before the ‘Fire’ button for both Sam and Ed that the space Fact File was pushed in the lunar module. programme ended early after Apollo Clive North is a UK-based freelance lighting cameraman. His documentary The camera carried on tilting up and 17 – as it no doubt was for many of feature for Dox Productions ‘In the Shadow of the Moon’ was recently shown zooming after the retreating ascent the other 400,000 people who had on Channel 4 following its cinema release in the US, UK, NZ and Australia. stage, following it as it went up and been employed around the US on the pitched over, establishing the velocity Apollo project. Originally planned to Website: www.clivenorth.co.uk that it needed to go into lunar orbit. go on to Apollo 20, it was felt that Mobile: 07831 879594 The spectacular shot carried on and on the public had had enough of space Sam Russell: www.russelland.com until the spacecraft was just a speck flight – to the Moon anyway – and the

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