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1~ Background 

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PHOTOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF NASA 

MANNED SPACE FLIGHT NISSIONS 

The Project Mercury and Project Gemini manned flight programs 

were characterized by a large volume of significant space photography 

acquired for engineering, scientific, and public information purposes. 

Photographic subjects ranged from equipment functions to meteorological 

conditions, from astronaut activities to terrain, from astronomy to 

oceanography. 

Terrain photography experiments have been particularly important 

in the Gemini series, identifying the potential values of small-scale 

color coverage of very large areas of the world for earth resources 

survey applications. While the hand-held cameras used by the Gemini 

astronauts were not highly sophisticated, these instruments had the 

advantages of light weight, flexibility, and low cost; their publicized 

use from orbit resulted in no unfavorable international reactions. 

With Project Apollo now beginning its flight phase in earnest, 

it is timely to review the photographic elements of the upcoming missions. 

2. Apollo 

The flight program calls for several un.71anned earth orbital test 

flights to qualify the flight systems~ followed by manned ~arth orbital 

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flights of increasing difficulty t:o qualify and train the flight crews 

and their ground support eleuents. The lunar mission attempts would 

then follow. 

It is expected that, in Apollo as in the earlier missions, photo• 

graphy from space of the earth, moon, and stars will be continued, 

although at a lower level of activity conm1ensurate with the lunar mission 

orientation of the program; the Mercury and Gemini projects were only 

earth orbital in capability. 

_Apollo 5 

The first unmanned Apollo missions were reentry and guidance 

tests using "boiler-p late 11 spacecraft; the first of these to carry 

engineering photography equipment was the first Saturn V mission flown 

last year in a highly elliptical orbit. The unmanned Apollo 5 had on 

board a fixed, automatically operated Maurer multi-exposure camera 

focused through the spacecraft window. The camera was activated near 

apogee, at an altitude of some 10,000 nautical miles, and exposed its 

film during the entire terminal phase of the mission. The film was 

routinely recovered from the spacecraft after its parachute descent, 

sea landing, and subsequent pick-up by the aircraft carrier Bennington. 

The purpose of the Maurer photography was to verify the actual 

response of the spacecraft to the pre-programmed a titude control ? 

commands by comparison of the film record with the theoretical perfonnance. 

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The film records actual spBcecraft attitude changes and rates from 

the fixed camera within the spacecraft in terms of angular motion 

of the imaged earth beins; photoci:.:i?hcd throuch tho window~ 

The unmanned Apollo 6 mission scheduled for March 21, 1968, 

will also carry a Maurer camera to record engineering data on 

spacecraft orientation. Apollo 6 will first fly two circular orbits 

at an altitude of 100 nautical miles and then begin the high altitude 

portion of the mission. The background of the spacecraft window 

through which the fixe<:I camera is focused will be th·e earth suh• 

satellite track for the majority of one cornplete orbit. In order 

to make maximum use of the mission, it is expected that the engineering 

film data will also be used by th,~ e.::rth resources survey program 

participants to provide an insight into the value of this class of 

· ·,· photography for each of their disciplines. It is expected that the 

more interesting photographs will have a significant public information 

value. 

Apollo 6 Photographi 

The on-board Maurer camera timer is automatically activated 

by the acceleration of the spacecraft at launch. The interval between 

timer activation and first exposure is approximately 90 minutes, or 

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at the beginning of the second orbit. The camera then operates 

Butom.atically at the rate of one frame (or exposure) eveq8.5 seconds 

until the full 180-foot film supply ia cxhouutcd, or ~bout 2 hours. 

The orbital inclination of 32.5° means that the spacecraft will 

encounter both day and night locally as it moves eastward around the 

earth. Because the camera operates continuously, some 507. of the 

photography will be of un-illuminated areas. 

With an 8.5-second interval between exposures, there will be an 

overlap of approximately 55% between the individual frames; this will 

.permit stereo analysis of the imagery. Each frame covers an area 

approximately 75 nautical miles on a side. Because of the overlap, 

each fr.am actually includes an advance of34 nautical miles along 

the satellite's ground trace. A continuous strip 75 nautical miles 

wide can be photographed around tr~ globe, but because of spacecraft 

attitude changes, only approximate~y 21,000 nautical miles of the 

earth trace will be covered. 

The trace on the enclosed map indicate3 the nominal path of the 

spacecraft in the low-orbit phase. The trace is marked to indicate 

the initiation and termination of photography and the local day•night 

condition. The attached table provides the list of significant areas 

over which the spacecraft will pass while recording photography; the 

.. approximate times of passage are given in both Eastern Standard (EST) 

and Local Standard Times (1ST), using the 24-hour notation. 

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In aum.11ary, the major photographic covera 0e of interest will be 

from the northwest to southeast swath across Afa·ica, starting with 

Mauritania and ending with Malagasy. 

The fine grain color film proposed for use is either S0121 

(preferred) or S0368. The m,:rnimum angular resolution of the system 

.is expected to be on the order 0.3 milliradi.ans; under the best 

conditions of sun angle and atmospheric calm, an object on the order 

of 125 by 125 feet might be detected but could not be identified. 

Average ground resolution for detection is expected ;o be on the order 

of 150 to. 200 feet; identification is limited to objects several times 

larger than the detection threshold. For e.arth resource survey 

experimentation, this photography should provide a first approximation 

of the data quality that future experimental satellites may provide 

on a systematic, longer duration basis. 

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