The moon Photo Safari, Apollo 12
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Requirements
Around the same time, Kodak, in Rochester, USA, was asked by NASA to develop thinner new films with special emulsions. Similarly, at Carl Zeiss in Germany they were busy investigating whether the optical characteristics of lenses changed in vacuum.
At Hasselblad the shutter was modified. Lubricants had to be chosen with utmost care because of the risk that conventional lubricants could boil off in vacuum and condense all over the optical surfaces of the lens.
In early 1967 a tragic accident occurred at Cape Kennedy. During a simulated launch of Apollo I a fire broke out on board. The three man crew was suffocated by poisonous fumes generated by burning wire insulation and other synthetic materials in the capsule.This in turn led to a further stiffening of technical specifications for the moon camera. Synthetic materials were to be avoided. It was absolutely essential that any such materials should first be tested and approved by NASA. The already tight schedule came under even greater pressure.
There was also a call for some means of taking sequences of pictures in space. These were to be taken at uniform short intervals. In 1965 Hasselblad had launched its EL camera and the following year discussions began on the possibility of modifying this model to take sequences of photographs in space. These plans now came to fruition. Development pushed ahead and in June 1967 a contract was signed between NASA and Hasselblad.
In 1963 John F. Kennedy had already made a resounding promise that an American astronaut would travel to the moon and back before the end of the decade. At this point there were many who doubted that Kennedy's promise would come to pass.
The specifications for the moon camera were finally settled in September 1968. A completely new lens was being designed by Carl Zeiss. This lens would have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 and a focal length of 60 mm. Naturally it had to exhibit minimal radial and tangential distortion. The design was not complete until February 1969. The finished cameras for Apollo 11 were delivered by Hasselblad on 1 March 1969.
On board the Apollo 11 was the so-called moon camera plus two "standard" space cameras. Before the trip the magazines were loaded with 70 mm film on open spools. This permitted some 200 exposures per roll. The magazines had to be loaded in a darkroom A short series of test shots were then taken of a test screen. These exposures appeared at the start of each roll. After processing, these frames were cut out and developed as test strips to identify any defects at an early stage so that processing time could be corrected.
".... A Giant Leap for Mankind"
When Armstrong and Aldrin finally landed The Eagle on the surface of the moon they had just enough fuel for a further 15 seconds manoeuvring.
Neil Armstrong was able to inform the Earth "Sea of Tranquillity here. The Eagle has landed."
In the orbiter Columbia, pilot Michael Collins continued to circle round and round the moon. He completed 30 orbits at a height of 96,500 metres above the moon surface and managed to take a series of spectacular photographs using the two Hasselblad cameras.
Six and a half hours after landing, on 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong was first to step onto the surface of the moon. Twenty minutes later Edwin Aldrin followed him out. In one hand each astronaut carried a book that told them what they had to do, minute by minute.
The two astronauts set out a seismometer, a solar wind screen and an American flag, which was made to "flutter" by means of a steel wire. The moon has no atmosphere and therefore no wind.
Neil Armstrong took the photographs. As commander he was also assigned as photographer and instructed to take photographs of anything that appeared interesting. He shot a total of 3 magazines containing just over 150 frames each. Many of the pictures are uninteresting to most of us but a surprising number can be counted to have historical value.
For example, when Armstrong made the first footprint he bent forward to take a picture. The camera was actually mounted on the chest of his space suit. Naturally he was unable to bring the camera to his eye to compose a shot in the normal way. The camera simp]y pointed where he turned his body.Each time he made an exposure he was forced to say "I am taking a photograph now". Down on earth, ground control made a note of the time so that they could keep track of how many pictures were taken. Armstrong himself could not see the counter on the camera.
Because the landing procedure had taken so long, Armstrong and Aldrin were already short of time when they landed. Despite these circumstances Armstrong succeeded in obtaining photographs that were not only technically good but even managed to communicate some of the grandeur of the occasion, of the exposed feeling of being in space. This alone is an achievement that we can still marvel over and admire.
The astronauts also had the task of collecting samples of moon rock to bring back to Earth. They brought back 25 kg of dust and rock, well packed in specially made boxes. When Eagle left the moon after its 22 hour visit the moon camera was not on board. It was abandoned, along with a whole pile of other equipment on the moon.
In total, 12 cameras were left on the moon between 1969 and 1972. In fact they are still there now. If anyone would like to bring them back the address is "Somewhere in the Sea of Tranquillity, The Moon".
The Tension
When the orbiter and its crew had eventually returned to Mother Earth successfully both the astronauts and the film magazines were put into quarantine. However the exposed films were among the first items to leave quarantine. They were treated with ethene gas, a powerful bactericide.
One can imagine the air of excitement when the films were removed from the magazines and the test strips were processed. The test strips were then compared against Kodak's accurate colour charts. Then the astronauts were asked what colour the moon had been. Each had a different opinion. No matter how well the astronauts had been programmed they were not robots. They were men of flesh and bone and naturally had different impressions of the colours they saw.
The tension that we all felt when Armstrong and Aldrin took their walk on the moon, set up their measuring instruments and took those photographs, all to a strict schedule, naturally cannot compare with the excitement experienced by the technicians involved. This is especially true of all those working in Houston. But it is also true of a small group at the Hasselblad camera factory in Gothenburg, which had the unusual task of building a camera to be used on the moon. The stresses that a camera must withstand during such an adventure are exceptional and naturally do not compare with any photographic situation on Earth. For example, the temperature on the moon reaches 248°F (120°C) when the sun is at its zenith. And of course the demand for reliability was enormous. The NASA group at Hasselblad had invested everything during several years of their lives and now the whole world would find out if they had done a good job.
When History was written
When the photographs turned out to be so good that they would not only go down in photographic history but also appear in every historical publication that portrayed the modern age, it did not exactly blunt the team's satisfaction!
So what were the spin-off effects of this project on the development of the camera?
The tough requirements of NASA led to a general refinement of camera mechanics and a surge in development. For example, Hasselblad became one of the first to use Teflon coating on metal to reduce friction. The magazine design was changed to accommodate the new thin films. Work on incorporating the "Reseau plate" later resulted in the development of a special Hasselblad camera for photogrammetry.
And no-one would deny that the Hasselblad goodwill.
Nowadays, astronauts no longer travel into space in Apollo capsules, but in space shuttles.
For its part, Hasselblad has launched a completely new camera, the Hasselblad 205TCC. The space version is called the Hasselblad 205AB.
But one thing remains the same. Hasselblad is still on board the space craft of today.
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The Lunar Camera
Its official name is the Hasselblad Data Camera (HDC). The national Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) described the camera as follows in its equipment list:
"The Hasselblad Data Camera (HDC) is a rugged version of the commercial electric Hasselblad camera, 500EL, and is used for medium resolution, photogrammetric photography during the Apollo and Skylab missions. This camera incorporates a glass reseau plate positioned immediately in front of the flm plane. The reseau plate places a pattern of precision crosses on each photograph to facilitate photogrammetric utilization of the photography". The HDC weighed 3.10 Ibs. The lens was a 60 mm f/5.6 Zeiss Biogon. Loaded with 70 mm thin base flm the capacity of the magazine was ] 70 frames.
The Hasselblad Data Camera was on Apollo 11 and became the first still camera on the moon on July 20, 1969.
All images presented here should be NASA property.
Note: There are some additional pix on Hassleblad's Space models which can be accessed at the Pictorial History Page of Hassleblad.The recent Pathfinder mission to Mars, started with the good usage of digital medium, click here.
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