MARS Mariner IV NASA's Vidicon Tube Camera (First MARS close-up photos 1965)

MARS Photos taken by Mariner IV in 1965 were the first close-up Martian photos ever taken. The Mars photos were taken with a specially designed on-board camera system and digital tape recorder that sent Mars photos back to earth. This video presentation includes rare film and photos of the 1964-1965 Mariner IV mission adventure, including behind the scenes design work and thoughts of the original scientists on the project. Shows how they made the specially designed vidicon based camera and the challenges they faced protecting it on its journey to Mars. Run time: 18 mins. Color and sound.

Portions adapted from the film: “EXPERIMENT: Close up of Mars: The Story of a Scientific Search”
1966: stock footage available from Periscope Film
http://www.periscopefilm.com

With Special Thanks to
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

MISSION FACTS Launched by NASA on November 28, 1964 and performed first MARS flyby on July 14, 1965. Mariner 4 contained a specially designed camera with a digital tape recorder which successfully captured 21 digital pictures of the surface of mars. Mariner IV used a vidicon-based television camera tube developed and manufactured by General Electrodynamics Corporation (“GEC”). GEC had developed a special selenium based compound as the target material in the vidicon. This was a very unique design.

A specially built camera system converted photographs into digital information, which was then transmitted to earth to provide the closest views of the planet Mars ever taken. The signals for these images were recorded and stored in digital form on a 300 foot, continuous-loop magnetic tape recorder until the earth station requested transmission after the spacecraft has appeared from behind Mars and was detectable to earth based antennas.

On July 15 Mariner 4 passed within 6117 miles of Mars, spending 25 minutes observing the Mars surface. The Vidicon-based television camera captured 21 full pictures. Each photo covered an area of about 77 square miles. It took about 8 hours to transmit each image back to Earth. Mariner IV operated for a total of 7,375 hours since it was launched. Mariner 4 continues to be regarded as one of NASA’s most successful missions

References:
NASA Technical Report: “Mariner 4 pictures of Mars” By Allen, J. D.; Leighton, R. B.; Murray, B. C.; Sharp, R. P.; Sloan, R. K, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 1967 (Archive.org)
https://archive.org/details/nasa_tech...

Article: “Television in Space,” by Leslie Solomon. Associate Editor, “Electronics World,” 1965. https://www.rfcafe.com/references/ele...

NASA MARS Helicopter photos
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8906/nasas...

NASA Mariner Mars Missions Fact Sheet
https://mars.nasa.gov/internal_resour...