Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ames.arc.nasa.gov!mike From: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Questions about Apollo 11 Keywords: Apollo Television Pictures Message-ID: <28857@ames.arc.nasa.gov> Date: 19 Jul 89 21:31:03 GMT References: <1188@bcd-dyn.UUCP> <1398@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM> Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center Lines: 46 In article <1398@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM> johnson@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson) writes: >In article <1188@bcd-dyn.UUCP> dbp@bcd-dyn.UUCP (dbp) writes: >> >> >>I watched the CBS special about Apollo 11 last night. >>(Thanks to whoever posted the notice; I wouldn't have known >>about it otherwise.) Can anybody answer two questions? >> >The one thing that stuck me was the pictures of the LEM lifting off. And >in color at that. If I remember right, the first color TV camera was on >Apollo 12, and I thing this was also the first time that they left the >camera on for lift off. >-- The Apollo 12 camera was burned out by Al Bean about 45 minutes into the EVA. Even had the camera lasted, it could not have shown the liftoff since it was powered by the LM, and had no remote control facility. The first liftoff views came from Apollo 15 since the TV was controlled by earth, and being on the rover it was completely independent of the LM. Due to Bean's screwup, Apollo 13 and 14 carried a backup black and white camera (similar to the Apollo 11 model), and were instructed to cover up the lens whenever it was moved. The thing I wonder about is why no-one caught Bean's error before it was too late. It took about 25 or 30 seconds before it was killed, plenty of time for someone on the ground to say "hey you idiot, aim the camera down!!". What was interesting is that at one point after the burnout there was a brief flash of the LM that was visible. On the Emmy awards later on, the crew was given a special award, and on it was inscribed something like "never before have so many watched for so long for so little". The Apollo 12 crew was known to be rather clumsy. In "Chariots for Apollo" they told about a sim in a real LM on the ground with Bean and Conrad. The LM's cabin was banged around pretty bad. Whereas, I think it was the Apollo 9 crew, which were so careful they left the cabin neater then when they arrived. *** mike (still looking for a publisher) smithwick *** "Los Angeles : Where neon goes to die" [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]