49
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Accepted
How did NASA get the video camera on the Moon to track the LM ascent stage, considering the substantial delay?
A controller on Earth, Ed Fendell, manually operated the camera by radio control, knowing the time of liftoff and the ascent trajectory expected and referring to a time-and-angle chart without ...
- 165k
47
votes
Why aren't the ISS HDEV cameras left on at night?
I actually worked on the team that built HDEV (came across this question while googling).
TildalWave's answer is mostly correct, though we leave the cameras on during black (ISS night) to help with ...
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38
votes
Accepted
How was it possible for the Apollo 11 to film and take pictures with such radiation?
The radiation dosage for a year on the moon is between 110 mSv and 380 mSv. On Earth, that dosage is 2.4 mSv, or higher, depending on where you are exactly. Bottom line, the few days in Lunar orbit ...
- 121k
38
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How does SPACEX capture such images?
I have no first-hand knowledge of what was used for the SpaceX abort test, but the image in the question looks very similar to the tracking imagery from the AIRS-WAVE system on NASA's WB-57 planes. @...
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36
votes
Accepted
Does SpaceX use any of Falcon-9's camera data for engineering or status information, or are they "just for PR"?
A caveat about this answer: it's not about SpaceX directly, more about the use of self-inspection cameras in general across space and launch vehicles.
It is used for engineering and status ...
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24
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Is the Curiosity rover equipped with motion detectors?
Most conventional motion detectors wouldn't work well on Mars.
PIR: Usually only works well with warm bodies such as humans and animals. Would probably never trigger on Mars
Ultrasonic: Due to the ...
- 16.7k
21
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How was it possible for the Apollo 11 to film and take pictures with such radiation?
Radiation can affect film - but bear in mind the radiation around Chernobyl was, truly, extremely high. The radiation in our region of space is not as extreme.
Also bear in mind that the earlier ...
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20
votes
Accepted
Why do New Horizons and Dawn have such different imagers/cameras aboard?
New Horizons was designed to do a fly-by of Pluto in a relatively large distance. It was only in range of Pluto for a couple of hours. Dawn is designed to orbit Ceres at much closer range. To ...
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20
votes
Accepted
Does the JWST have a camera to monitor its deployment progress?
As of now, it does not and that's not likely to change. I asked this question of leaders of the JWST project at Goddard Space Flight Center. It isn't that it wouldn't be useful, the problem is funds ...
- 2,601
20
votes
Accepted
Was the side booster footage from the same camera during the Falcon Heavy test flight stream?
The feeds were identical throughout the flight. It was definitely recorded from the same booster. At booster separation you can clearly see the shoreline. If it was the camera view from the other ...
- 1,479
19
votes
Cine footage from Saturn V launches
The cameras were ejected from the stages and parachuted into the sea. If you watch this video you can see cameras being ejected from stages at exactly 5:00 and 7:42.
There's also a good discussion ...
18
votes
How was it possible for the Apollo 11 to film and take pictures with such radiation?
NASA studied the effects of radiation on film. Bright spots are just one of the possible results. Other effects include an increase in the amount of noise, and a decrease in contrast and color ...
- 123k
18
votes
Accepted
How is JunoCam different from a normal CCD camera?
JunoCam used different technologies than does the typical framing camera one buys at a store. A typical digital color camera uses a Bayer filter pattern, a row of alternating tiny blue and green ...
- 71.8k
18
votes
Accepted
What was the distant bright light in the SpaceX webcast of Orbcomm OG2 deployment?
It was the Moon. It was illuminated at roughly 85-86% as seen from low Earth's orbit at the time of deployment, so pretty bright, and roughly directly overhead of the Americas. Deployment camera was ...
- 76.2k
16
votes
Accepted
Why is there a purple dot in the middle of this EPIC image?
EPIC (PDF) is a Cassegrain type reflector telescope so there's the fixed hyperbolic secondary mirror in the middle of the telescopes light path / focal plane. While that could be removed during post-...
- 76.2k
16
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Will the HiRes camera of the Chinese orbiter be capable of seeing the shadows of the landers and rovers on Mars?
Will the HiRes camera of the Chinese orbiter be capable of seeing the shadows of the US landers and rovers on Mars?
tl;dr: Yes it can, IF it passes over one of them, and at the right time of day for ...
- 149k
15
votes
Accepted
Why not a digital camera?
"With some modifications" for space environment is a time and money-intensive activity, at least if you want it to work. You'd need some serious justification for such a camera on a mission that is ...
- 58.3k
15
votes
Does SpaceX use any of Falcon-9's camera data for engineering or status information, or are they "just for PR"?
There is value added. I was an operator of a satellite that had a video of the satellite being deployed. We were able to see from the video that the deployment was clean.
I assume if nothing goes ...
- 121k
14
votes
Accepted
Why is there a black donut in Perseverance's SkyCam? Is it always used to block the Sun? (sky cameras on Earth don't) How does it work?
The skycam is located inside the "black hole" in the middle of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer as shown in this picture by NASA/JPL:
The full description of this instrument can be ...
- 14.5k
13
votes
Cine footage from Saturn V launches
There were ejectable camera pods, here's a picture of one.
Used on Saturn I-Bs and Saturn Vs through Apollo 8.
Full writeup here, other good info here.
- 174k
12
votes
Accepted
What did New Horizons photograph that was close enough to be out of focus?
According to this blog post, the artefact was caused by scattered light reflected off some element inside the telescope.
The ghostly circular pupil image and the little dots that are moving around ...
- 261
11
votes
Accepted
Was an onboard camera during a rocket launch ever pointing to the side rather than down?
Most cameras on a rocket launch are there for a sound engineering reason.
They look down at the engines of the rocket, or up to the second stage, or out to the solar panels, or down inside the ...
10
votes
Accepted
Have there been any other "camsats" besides Banxing-2?
In the early days of ISS, when they were building it with the shuttle, there was a soccer ball sized robot camera called AER Cam Sprint.
NASA, public domain. Astronaut for scale
They tested it ...
- 4,824
10
votes
How does Voyager take pictures in space?
Voyager's camera used a vidicon tube, which is sort of a vacuum tube precursor to a CCD.
I don't 100% understand the principle, but the basic idea is that the image is captured on a photoconductive ...
- 165k
9
votes
How was it possible for the Apollo 11 to film and take pictures with such radiation?
NASA used special, temperature-resistant, radiation-proof film for their photos.
That kind of film was not readily available in the Soviet Union - "not readily available" meaning the only rolls of ...
- 54.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Did Huygens take a picture of Cassini?
As far as I can tell, Huygens would not have been able to take a picture of Cassini. Huygen's camera was part of the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer instrument package. As seen in this cutaway ...
- 5,616
9
votes
Accepted
Where are cameras mounted on the 'Starman' payload of today's F-H launch?
There seem to be 3 on-car cameras, 2 of these are very clear from the "Starman in Red Roadster" post on Elon Musk's Instagram
I've tried to highlight 3 of the Cameras, two of which (Hood and side ...
- 2,127
9
votes
Accepted
Will the Mars 2020 rover be able to record high-framerate video of its helicopter?
MASTCAM-Z uses the KAI-2020 sensor Sensor Data Sheet which can be read out at 18-35 Hz frame rate. The camera has 8 GB of flash memory that can be used to store video before it's trickled over to the ...
- 2,264
9
votes
Accepted
Do Mars rovers protect optical windows during dust storms? Do they "avert their eyes" or do they just "grin and bear it"?
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The image above shows the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the turret of Curiosity's robotic arm.
The reddish circle near the center is the window of MAHLI's dust ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible