# Tag Info

16

The live broadcasts from the Moon were not recorded on the LEM/CM. Video tape recorders were too large at the time to make this practical. They usually came in the shape of an open-reel tape recorder with 2" wide tape. This is the Ampex VR-660, a "portable" VTR that weighed 50 kg: NASA used the VR-660 at ground stations to store slow-scan video. The ...

11

All communications between spacecraft and Earth will be in digital form. Voyager Press Kit p.24

9

"We should wait for all the problems on earth to be solved before going into space". I've seen this sentiment multiple times, and I disagree vehemently. 1. There are other much more worthy targets of this kind of argument Whenever a space mission has cost overruns in the billions, I convert the dollar amount into B-2 bomber equivalents. That is, 2 billion ...

8

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 rover computer and then scheduled for downlink. NASA Mars 2020 MASTCAM-Z Description. This is not a standard mode for the camera, but it would be possible for ...

7

Hobbes' answer is correct, but here is some supplemental information. The Erectable S-Band Antenna was a parabolic dish that was folded and stowed in the descent stage. Page 4-86 of the Apollo Program Summary Report describes the diameter as 10 feet and this NASA webpage says 3 meters. It was carried on Apollo 11-14. Although the LM could broadcast with ...

4

The very first analog to digital conversion was used in the first satellite ever: Sputnik 1. A barometric switch was used to signal if the gas pressure inside dropped below 130 kPa. A mechanical analog to digital converter with only one bit. I never saw a definition that an ADC should have at least 2, 3 or 4 bits. There were two thermal switches for ...

4

This article claims that it's the charged particles emitted by the sun that actually block communication with Juno. https://www.space.com/38668-juno-8th-jupiter-science-flyby-success.html This article about Mars conjunction cites the same physics and points out more succinctly that it's the command uplink that operators are worried about corrupting. https://...

3

It's generally true that the error rate in communication is proportional to the energy per bit. Rigorously you can see this through things like $E_b/N_0$ and the Shannon Hartley theorem. To compensate for the greater distance to Mars, one could either increase the transmitter power or antenna gain to maintain the same power, or transmit each bit for a longer ...

3

"We shouldn't spend any money on [insert item of your choice here] until we have solved [insert interest that is dear to your heart here]." In practice, that means we would never spend money on the venture because we can safely assume that the problem that must be solved first will never actually be solved. Anything that is not the problem that needs to be ...

3

The first analog to digital converter was flown on board Injun 1 on June 29, 1961. It was also the first spacecraft completely designed and built by a university--in this case, the University of Iowa. From "The Origins of Space Radio and Plasma Wave Research at the University of Iowa" by Donald A. Gurnett: At the suggestion of a newly hired Assistant ...

3

It's not impossible: The Pioneers have not been switched off (as evidenced by the later successful attempts to contact them). They're in constant sunlight so no thermal cycling which increases their life expectancy, and no batteries are necessary. There has been at least 1 other case where an old spacecraft was found to be alive after years of no contact (...

2

NASA manages several repositories of data, one of interest is software which includes things like code for image processing working with google earth, A c++ 'mass atrocity predictor' or kernal for code verification. In terms of technology used I'd assume space agencies will use pretty much anything (lots of Fortran code there) that has ever existed, and some ...

2

The video and audio were not packaged in the same file: InSight did not produce a video file with audio tracks. As you can see in the screenshot, the 'audio' was recorded by the seismometer instrument (SEIS) as vibration data. This can be converted to audio (after all, audio is also vibration data), but this was done after reception. NASA did some ...

2

What could be the complete internal architecture of my payload's OBDH system? I would use a Raspberry Pi model 3b+, connected to a camera module. You may run the latest version of Raspbian (a Linux flavor based on Debian) and configure the startup scripts to start streaming footage. Which processor should I use for fast processing, less power budget? ...

2

A lot more of this has to do with the physical nature of the cable than the signal protocol, in that you get the best cable you can and then adjust your signalling method to move as much data as physics will allow. The classic solution for 1km distances is RS422 though various alternatives exist, including all those intended for two wire telephone use that ...

2

Governments do lots of things despite the existence of poverty. Investment in all kinds of science, in the military, in infrastructure, etc. all proceed despite poverty. And this is a good thing. If governments limited themselves to fighting poverty, they might eradicate poverty but we'd be stuck in the 1940s technology-wise. Computers, the internet, modern ...

2

Your question has 2 main points: Can satellites record video? Both Pleaides and Skysat have the capability to record videos. Can satellites downlink real-time payload data at the required throughput for video? AFAIK, Skybox requires pointing to its ground station, while I suspect Pleiades does not need to do so. Theoretically then (and up to SW ...

1

For short videos of Earth this can be done with surprisingly nice results from low Earth orbit (LEO) with a little image processing to flatten and align the image and generate the appearance that the spacecraft is hovering. These videos are only about 15 or 20 seconds and you can't choose a place and time arbitrarily, so I don't think this technique offers ...

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