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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2246.PDF
265LIGHT International, 13 August 1964 Left, picture taken from 235 miles above the lunar surface, approximately 2min 46sec before impact, by wide-angle camera with 25mm, fjl lens. Area shown is about 113 miles square; smallest craters are about 1,000ft in diameter. Right, picture taken from 470 miles by wide-angle camera with 75mm, f/2 lens. Area shown is some 78 miles square; smallest craters are about 800ft in diameter. Large crater containing two conical craters at upper right is Guericke; the larger of the two conical craters is about four miles in diameter transmitter in the bus and two 60-watt transmitters in the television section of the payload. The television transmitters transmit, during terminal sequence, the images recorded by the six television cameras. One transmitter handles the two full-scan (wide-angle) cameras; the second transmits for the four partial-scan (narrow-angle) cameras. During the cruise portion of the flight, before the cameras are switched on, the bus transmitter transmits all the telemetry (engin- eering data) for the spacecraft including the television system. At lunar encounter, with the television cameras turned on, the television transmitters send additional engineering data mixed with the signals representing the television images. Telemetry provides 110 engineering measurements (temperatures, voltages, pressures) on the spacecraft during the cruise portion of the flight. This includes 15 data points on the television system. When the cameras are turned on, additional engineering measure- ments on the television system performance are transmitted. The communications system for the bus includes data encoders, which translate the engineering measurements for transmission to Earth; and a detector and a decoder in the command system, which translate incoming commands to the spacecraft from a binary form into electrical impluses. Commands radioed to the spacecraft are routed to the proper destination by the command system. A real- time command from Earth actuates the designated relay within the command decoder thus executing the command. Stored commands are relayed to the CC&S in serial binary form to be held and acted upon at a later time. Stabilization and manoeuvring of the spacecraft is provided by twelve cold gas jets mounted in six locations and fed by two titanium bottles containing a total of 51b of nitrogen gas pressurized at 3,500 lb/sq in. The jets are linked by logic circuitry to three Syros in the attitude control system, to the Earth sensor on the directional antenna and to six Sun sensors mounted on the space- craft frame and on the backs of the two solar panels. There are two complete gas jet systems, each comprising six jets and one bottle, either of which can handle the mission should the other system fail. The four primary Sun sensors are mounted on four of the six legs of the hexagon, and the two secondary sensors on the backs of the solar panels. These are light-sensitive diodes which inform the attitude control system when they see the Sun, whereupon this system responds by turning the spacecraft and pointing the longitudinal axis towards the Sun, using the cold gas jets. Ranger's television system consists of two wide-angle and four narrow-angle television cameras, camera sequencers, video com- biners, telemetry system, transmitters and power supplies. The 3821b package, designed and built by the Astro-Electronics Division Artist's impression of Ranger 7 approaching the Moon. Span across the solar-cell panels is 15ft and weight of complete craft is 806.491b, of which 381.51b represents the television subsystem (located in the segmented tower)
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