Star Points for August, 2005; by Curtis Roelle Television's Giant Leap to the Moon It's probably a safe bet that anyone that was near a television set as Neil Armstrong made his first small step on the moon can recall the ghostly black & white TV images beamed back from the moon on that historic night. The television camera that was used to capture that event watched live by millions of people around the globe was built by a Maryland team of engineers at what was then Westinghouse Electric Co. Last month on the 36th anniversary of that night on which history was being made on the surface of the moon members of the lunar surface TV camera team met for a reunion at the Historical Electronics Museum, located at 1745 West Nursery Road in Linthicum near the Baltimore-Washington airport. The museum features a collection of radars, radios and other electronic devices primarily built by Westinghouse's Electronic Systems Division which is now a division of defense and aerospace giant Northrop-Grumman. The last time I visited the museum, in the late 1980s, it was located on Elkridge Landing Road. The current facility is significantly larger and very well maintained. The reunion's master of ceremonies was Stan Lebar, lunar surface TV program manager. He introduced several other team members who took turns speaking. Among them were engineering managers Lenny Svenson and Larkin Niemeyer, Joe Dollar (manufacturing manager), Harry Smith, and Aris Melissaratos. The lunar surface TV camera used on Apollo 11 weighed only 7.5 lbs and ran on just 7 Watts of power -- approximately the same power as the bulb in one of those electric candles you see in windows around Christmas time. Unlike the standard 30 frame-per-second (fps) TV rate the lunar camera operated at just 10 fps. Converting the signal from 10 fps to 30 fps was blamed for the fuzzy images seen by the millions of television viewers. As evidence Stan projected a slide of a scan from a Polaroid image taken of the screen on the camera's ground equipment monitor during the Apollo 11 moonwalk. It was crisp and sharp. That monitor in turn has only a 10" B&W screen. During the talk several team members performed a demonstration. They actually activated an unflown vintage Apollo lunar surface camera flight unit and its monitor. The camera was pointed at a movie screen on which a slide image of Buzz Aldrin climbing down the LM ladder was projected. It was an image taken by Neil Armstrong using the lunar surface Hasselblad film camera. The amazing TV camera was designed to work in both lunar day and night. To demonstrate the low light capability the lamp of the slide projector lamp was dimmed until its projected image was no longer visible at all to the human eye on the projection screen. Yet on the tiny 10" B&W monitor the descending astronaut could still be clearly seen! To prove that it was not merely an after image or some other special effects trick two members of the team took turns standing in between the slide projector and the movie screen. Their projected shadows were easily visible on the tiny monitor screen. The demonstration camera was 38 years old according to Lebar. Although it was manufactured for flight that particular unit was never flown. Built to be highly reliable with a Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of 30 years the camera was still performing above specifications 36 years beyond its expected useful life! A number of program secrets were aired for the public. Some were being heard for the first time by team members. The team developed a color version of the camera using some kind of war chest or secret IR&D slush fund. One of the most vigorous supporters of the Westinghouse color TV camera was astronaut Tom Stafford (Gemini 6, Gemini 9, Apollo 10, & ASTP). According to Mr. Lebar following a late night demonstration of the color camera Stafford personally transported it to the Apollo 10 launch pad in the middle of the night. There he instructed a technician to test the camera and its monitor and then to stow it. That's how color TV made its debut in space. However, on Apollo 11 NASA didn't want to take chances on missing the big moment. So they decided to use the tried and known to be reliable B&W camera on the lunar surface because of its longer track record. The camera was attached to the door of the Modular Equipment Storage Assembly (MESA) attached to the Lunar Module (LM). Since the top was the camera's only flat surface it was mounted to the door of the MESA. Thus, when the door swung downward into its open position the camera was upside down. This is why the image of Armstrong coming down the ladder was initially inverted. This was corrected with the throwing of a switch on the ground. When the camera was subsequently removed and placed on its tripod the switch had to be thrown back to keep the image right side up. Although Westinghouse had an apparent lock on the space TV camera market, NASA bowed to pressure from Westinghouse's main rival RCA and requested that both companies come to Houston for a demonstration of their respective TV cameras. RCA was pioneering color television in the 1960's and so their engineers called themselves the "rainbow team." Lebar revealed the story behind the name "Furcat" adopted by the Westinghouse team (which I won't go into due to space). Westinghouse won the competition that day. However, RCA did manage to get the contract for the later so-called 'J' missions -- Apollos 15 through 17. These were missions of extended exploration featuring multiple moonwalks and traveling for miles aboard the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) onto which the RCA camera was mounted. One low point was mentioned several times. That was on Apollo 12 when Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Alan Bean (Apollo 12 & Skylab 2) accidentally pointed the lunar color TV camera at the sun and burned it and thus prevented earthlings from following the mission live on their televisions. That's the bad news. The good news was that when the camera was brought back to earth to be studied it was discovered that it wasn't ruined after all. Apparently switching operating modes would have corrected the problem. However, the camera had no external controls for doing so. Parts from the Apollo 12 camera that made the trip all the way down to the lunar surface and then home again are on display at the museum. Among them is a "hog nose" connector snipped from a cable, according to museum director Michael Simons. There is also a full wooden mock up of an Apollo lunar surface color TV camera on display. According to Simons it was prepared for and used by CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite during his televised coverage of the mission. The lunar surface TV camera team also received an Academy Award for their work. The statuette is also on display at the museum. It was the first time I have ever seen one of those up close. I bumped into my friend Malcolm, a member of the Westminster Astronomical Society (WAS) and Northrop-Grumman employee. He took me around and introduced me to several retired engineers that were present at the ceremony including a few of the TV camera team members. The Historical Electronics Museum is open to the public and admission is free. Museum hours are from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The museum is designed for visitors of all ages and features interactive displays as well as a lending library. More information can be obtained by calling them at 410-765-0230 or by visiting their web site (www.hem-usa.org).