page_title: Gerhard W. Goetze
section_title: Lunar Camera Tube Program Chronology
hierarchical_section_title: Gerhard W. Goetze / Scientific career, Westinghouse and Department of Defense / Lunar Camera Tube Program Chronology
caption_attribution_description: English: Apollo 11 photo of USA flag and lunar camera with SEC tube on the moon Sea of Tranquility on moon
context_page_description: Gerhard Wilhelm Goetze was a German-born Ph.D. researcher and inventor in Atomic physics. He was primarily known for his work on the Moon-to-Earth Apollo TV camera making live broadcast in both brilliant sunlight and pitch darkness possible. Goetze discovered the Secondary Electron Conduction effect which amplified light through high-speed electrons deposited in thin film storage targets. The SEC tube was additionally used in ground-based astronomy, inspection of integrated circuits, electron-microscope-based biological tissue study, security, and night vision. Goetze received ten patents for his inventions.
  The images of the first man on the Moon are recorded through the work of Goetze.
  In 1973 Goetze received a Franklin Institute Award, the Longstreth Medal established in 1890, for the conception and development of the SEC Tube, which played an important role in television, night surveillance and ultraviolet astronomical observations.
  In 1984 Goetze was awarded the Rudolf-Diesel-Medaille, an award by the German Institute for Inventions, for the applications of the Secondary Electron Conduction tube in industry.
context_section_description: September 1963 – First contact with NASA/Houston and Grumman Aircraft to propose use of SEC tube for television transmission from LEM
  May 1964- Formal proposal for a lunar Television Camera made to the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, by the Westinghouse Aerospace and Electronic Tube Division
  September 1964 - Camera tube contract let by NASA
  September 1964 - First tube start with high-power heater (WX-30293)
  September 1964 - First tube start with low-power heater (WX-31034)
  May 1965 – First flight candidate delivered to Westinghouse Aerospace Division
  July 1966 – First tube start on lunar Camera Tube Program
  May 1969 - Apollo 10 crew send first color television pictures from outer space to Earth
  July 1969 – Television pictures of man's first steps on the Moon. Through joint efforts, one quarter of the population of the Earth was able to see the first steps of the first men on the Moon. Life magazine estimated that 600 million people watched the first step on the Moon by Armstrong.  "People from 47 countries watched the astronauts...Images of the flag-planting ceremony passed through the fixed-focus lens of the camera, were transformed into electrical impulses, amplified a hundred times and beamed directly to earth." 
  The WX-31034 Lunar Camera Tube remains at Tranquility Base on Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) on the Moon's surface.
caption: Lunar camera used to transmit live pictures to Earth and US flag as seen from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle
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