How did they broadcast TV live on the moon?

1On July 20th, 969, Apollo 1 1 landed on the moon, and 600 million people around the world witnessed neil armstrong's first step on the surface of the moon. This moment excited a whole generation and achieved President Kennedy's goal of sending man to the moon by the end of this century. But how does NASA relay the scene on the moon to record-breaking people on earth? In the video, we will see the challenge of live broadcast on the moon, as well as the technology to realize it and how it will complete the future Apollo mission.

In the early 1960s, NASA began to develop rockets and spaceships, which eventually sent humans to the moon. At that time, the United States only sent a few astronauts into space, and no one ever left the earth orbit. This ambitious plan to send a man to the moon has been questioned by many people, but NASA knows that the live broadcast of astronauts walking on the moon is crucial to the credibility of this plan. NASA signed a contract with Westinghouse Electronics Company to design and manufacture a small black-and-white camera to photograph the first step of human landing on the moon. This kind of camera with only seven watts of power can work under the bad radiation and extreme temperature on the surface of the moon. But most importantly, the lunar module must be able to send real-time video back to Earth along with other radio and telemetry data that have been sent back to Earth. Therefore, NASA realized that in order to send back real-time data from the moon, the Apollo program needed a brand-new communication system.

They developed a measurement and control system called "unified S-band", which can combine telemetry signals, instructions, sound and TV data in a single antenna and send them at different frequencies. But even with this new system, there is still not enough bandwidth to meet the needs of the standard 525-line camera. In order to transmit the video feed to the ground, Westinghouse Electric Company developed a slow scanning camera, which can send the image signal of 325 scanning lines at the speed of only ten frames per second. This camera is connected to the lunar module by cable to ensure that it can move around the landing position. This video signal will be transmitted back to the tracking station in Australia through the antenna of the lunar module, where NASA will convert the received image into a standard broadcast signal.

Then, this signal will be sent to the communication satellite and returned to the Houston command center, where they will broadcast to the world. However, the challenge of photographing the surface of the moon is not limited to this. The sharp contrast between the surface of the moon and the dark universe makes it extremely difficult to get a clear image. To solve this problem, Westinghouse Electric Company used a secret technology designed for the Department of Defense.

They developed a special low-light-level imaging tube, which was used for jungle surveillance during the Vietnam War. This device can capture moving objects in low light without completely sacrificing the clarity of the picture. With the approach of the first Apollo manned program, the camera is ready. It was installed on Apollo 9 and tested for the first and only time. This task successfully tested the role of the camera and its communication system installed on the lunar module. Its next task will be to capture and record the first moonwalk in human history. 1On July 20th, 969, Apollo 1 1 successfully landed on the moon.

When the camera was placed on the side of the lunar module facing the ladder, Buzz Aldrin pressed the disconnect switch inside the module and turned on the camera. Their footprints appeared on the front of the moon as soon as the TV program started. Australian video technicians are working hard to solve the problem of fast conversion of image signals, which is also the time when Neil set foot on the moon. In the process of transformation, there are many contrasts and a lot of details lost in the image, but this footprint, one of the most historic moments in the long history, has been clearly captured. The camera completed the task perfectly from beginning to end, recording the moon until today. Future Apollo missions will use more advanced camera versions, which can record color images and have better low-light performance.

Apollo 1567 camera was also placed on the lunar rover. Once the astronauts leave the moon, they park the lunar rover in the distance, and the video technicians in the mission control center will control the camera to tilt upward to track and photograph the astronauts leaving the moon surface. Therefore, although we have never returned to the moon, we are grateful for our efforts along the way to capture this historic moment, which will be cherished forever. When we finally return to the moon, the advanced camera technology we have today will allow us to capture this moment in a more beautiful way.

Apollo 15 is the ninth manned project of American Apollo program and the fourth moon landing. This is the first J mission. With the extension of its stay on the moon, it pays more attention to science than the previous login. Apollo 15 first used the lunar rover. The task of 197 1 started on July 26th and ended on August 7th. The exploration of the lunar surface was carried out from July 30th to August 2nd. Commander David Scott and lunar module pilot james owen landed near Hallerelle and explored with a lunar rover, which may make them farther away from the lunar module than previous missions. They spent 65,438+0,865,438+0/2 hours on the surface of the moon and collected 65,438+070 pounds (77 kilograms) of surface materials.