The Design of Postlanding Television System Photometric Charts for the Surveyor Spacecraft

L. E. Blanchard

The television system for Surveyor spacecraft is required to operate over a wide temperature range in the lunar environment for the duration of a lunar day, i.e., 14 Earth days. Periodic assessment of performance is demanded in order to ensure the quality of the received data. In the early stages of system design, it became apparent that a postlanding calibration scheme was needed which would incorporate a reasonable number of parameters to characterize the system, including, at the very least, those influenced by temperature variations. A TV reflectance test chart was designed for Surveyor after studying all the necessary parameters. The finally selected chart design permitted an evaluation of resolution and photometric and colorimetric response, as well as angular position of the Sun with respect to the chart face.

Print ISSN
Published
1970-03
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J13614