A not very common picture of UARS within Discovery's payload bay with the RMS ready to grapple. (Credits: NASA)
For those interested in photography: (different web sources):This NASA photograph of UARS inside the shuttle payload bay was taken with the ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA (ESC) system under the DEVELOPMENT TEST OBJECTIVE (DTC) 648, an at that time new technology which allowed images to be captured electronically and digitized with a resolution approaching the quality of traditional photographic film. This new system first flew on STS-48 with UARS, see link below. According to NASA, it would also fly on STS-42 and considered for STS-45 and STS-50. The NASA Electronic Still Camera (ESC) system was a high-resolution digital imaging system developed for the Space Shuttle, starting in the early 1990s. It was designed to capture still images from space and transmit them back to Earth for near real-time processing. The system consisted of a hand-held, battery-operated digital camera based on a Nikon F4 body with a digital back, a laptop-based unit for onboard image processing, and a ground station for final processing and distribution of the images. The ESC project was a foundational step toward a family of high-resolution digital imaging devices for space use. Details:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050229962/downloads/20050229962.pdfQuote from: ralfvandebergh on 09/15/2025 03:41 pmA not very common picture of UARS within Discovery's payload bay with the RMS ready to grapple. (Credits: NASA)
The standard Nikon F4 film body was converted to digital by placing a one megapixel monochrome CCD at the film plane. The sensor was a Loral CCD 1024x1024 pixel array with an active area of 15mm x 15mm....The battery-operated Electronic Still Camera (ESC) retained all the features of the F4 camera body and accepted any lens or optics with a Nikon mount. Nikkor lenses used on STS-48 included a 20mm f/2.8 AF, 35-70mm f/2.8 AF, 50mm f/1.2 and 180mm f/2.8 AF.Images obtained during the mission was monochrome with 8 bits of digital information per pixel (256 gray levels) and stored on a removable computer hard disk
Quote from: ralfvandebergh on 09/18/2025 11:21 amFor those interested in photography: (different web sources):This NASA photograph of UARS inside the shuttle payload bay was taken with the ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA (ESC) system under the DEVELOPMENT TEST OBJECTIVE (DTC) 648, an at that time new technology which allowed images to be captured electronically and digitized with a resolution approaching the quality of traditional photographic film. This new system first flew on STS-48 with UARS, see link below. According to NASA, it would also fly on STS-42 and considered for STS-45 and STS-50. The NASA Electronic Still Camera (ESC) system was a high-resolution digital imaging system developed for the Space Shuttle, starting in the early 1990s. It was designed to capture still images from space and transmit them back to Earth for near real-time processing. The system consisted of a hand-held, battery-operated digital camera based on a Nikon F4 body with a digital back, a laptop-based unit for onboard image processing, and a ground station for final processing and distribution of the images. The ESC project was a foundational step toward a family of high-resolution digital imaging devices for space use. Details:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050229962/downloads/20050229962.pdfQuote from: ralfvandebergh on 09/15/2025 03:41 pmA not very common picture of UARS within Discovery's payload bay with the RMS ready to grapple. (Credits: NASA)That was an interesting NTRS document Ralf. Thanks for sharing the link.However, the one thing that I would like to know, wasn't mentioned in that document: the pixel count of that ESC camera. It mentions that a CCD was put in place of where the film normally would have been on that Nikon F4. But there's no details about that CCD in that NTRS document whatsoever.So, I did a small Google search and that answered my question, and it also added an unexpected twist to your prior post:https://www.nikonweb.com/nasaf4/It says:Quote from: NikonwebThe standard Nikon F4 film body was converted to digital by placing a one megapixel monochrome CCD at the film plane. The sensor was a Loral CCD 1024x1024 pixel array with an active area of 15mm x 15mm....The battery-operated Electronic Still Camera (ESC) retained all the features of the F4 camera body and accepted any lens or optics with a Nikon mount. Nikkor lenses used on STS-48 included a 20mm f/2.8 AF, 35-70mm f/2.8 AF, 50mm f/1.2 and 180mm f/2.8 AF.Images obtained during the mission was monochrome with 8 bits of digital information per pixel (256 gray levels) and stored on a removable computer hard diskWhat that tells me is that the colour image you posted in reply #1 was EITHER-not taken by the monochrome ESC camera (Monochrome digital cameras only produce gray-scale images, not colour images)OR - someone later colourized the original monochrome image.
Quote from: woods170 on 09/24/2025 10:10 amQuote from: ralfvandebergh on 09/18/2025 11:21 amFor those interested in photography: (different web sources):This NASA photograph of UARS inside the shuttle payload bay was taken with the ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA (ESC) system under the DEVELOPMENT TEST OBJECTIVE (DTC) 648, an at that time new technology which allowed images to be captured electronically and digitized with a resolution approaching the quality of traditional photographic film. This new system first flew on STS-48 with UARS, see link below. According to NASA, it would also fly on STS-42 and considered for STS-45 and STS-50. The NASA Electronic Still Camera (ESC) system was a high-resolution digital imaging system developed for the Space Shuttle, starting in the early 1990s. It was designed to capture still images from space and transmit them back to Earth for near real-time processing. The system consisted of a hand-held, battery-operated digital camera based on a Nikon F4 body with a digital back, a laptop-based unit for onboard image processing, and a ground station for final processing and distribution of the images. The ESC project was a foundational step toward a family of high-resolution digital imaging devices for space use. Details:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050229962/downloads/20050229962.pdfThat was an interesting NTRS document Ralf. Thanks for sharing the link.However, the one thing that I would like to know, wasn't mentioned in that document: the pixel count of that ESC camera. It mentions that a CCD was put in place of where the film normally would have been on that Nikon F4. But there's no details about that CCD in that NTRS document whatsoever.So, I did a small Google search and that answered my question, and it also added an unexpected twist to your prior post:https://www.nikonweb.com/nasaf4/It says:Quote from: NikonwebThe standard Nikon F4 film body was converted to digital by placing a one megapixel monochrome CCD at the film plane. The sensor was a Loral CCD 1024x1024 pixel array with an active area of 15mm x 15mm....The battery-operated Electronic Still Camera (ESC) retained all the features of the F4 camera body and accepted any lens or optics with a Nikon mount. Nikkor lenses used on STS-48 included a 20mm f/2.8 AF, 35-70mm f/2.8 AF, 50mm f/1.2 and 180mm f/2.8 AF.Images obtained during the mission was monochrome with 8 bits of digital information per pixel (256 gray levels) and stored on a removable computer hard diskWhat that tells me is that the colour image you posted in reply #1 was EITHER-not taken by the monochrome ESC camera (Monochrome digital cameras only produce gray-scale images, not colour images)OR - someone later colourized the original monochrome image.Thanks for the additional info/clearing that out.There is another document with a grayscale image, that I first thought was the same, but if you look closely at the details (especially the position of the robotic arm), it is a different image. This one is according to the document, taken with the ESC:https://www.encheres-luxembourg.lu/en/results/nasa-univers-mysterieux-online/photographie-historique-de-la-navette-spatiale-discovery-transportant-le-satellite-uarsThe color image could have been taken with another camera, perhaps a traditional film camera, which they likely still used in addition to the new system. Or they used color filters (tri-color method) and combined them later into a color image. Though I haven't found evidence for that.Ralf
Quote from: ralfvandebergh on 09/18/2025 11:21 amFor those interested in photography: (different web sources):This NASA photograph of UARS inside the shuttle payload bay was taken with the ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA (ESC) system under the DEVELOPMENT TEST OBJECTIVE (DTC) 648, an at that time new technology which allowed images to be captured electronically and digitized with a resolution approaching the quality of traditional photographic film. This new system first flew on STS-48 with UARS, see link below. According to NASA, it would also fly on STS-42 and considered for STS-45 and STS-50. The NASA Electronic Still Camera (ESC) system was a high-resolution digital imaging system developed for the Space Shuttle, starting in the early 1990s. It was designed to capture still images from space and transmit them back to Earth for near real-time processing. The system consisted of a hand-held, battery-operated digital camera based on a Nikon F4 body with a digital back, a laptop-based unit for onboard image processing, and a ground station for final processing and distribution of the images. The ESC project was a foundational step toward a family of high-resolution digital imaging devices for space use. Details:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050229962/downloads/20050229962.pdfThat was an interesting NTRS document Ralf. Thanks for sharing the link.However, the one thing that I would like to know, wasn't mentioned in that document: the pixel count of that ESC camera. It mentions that a CCD was put in place of where the film normally would have been on that Nikon F4. But there's no details about that CCD in that NTRS document whatsoever.So, I did a small Google search and that answered my question, and it also added an unexpected twist to your prior post:https://www.nikonweb.com/nasaf4/It says:Quote from: NikonwebThe standard Nikon F4 film body was converted to digital by placing a one megapixel monochrome CCD at the film plane. The sensor was a Loral CCD 1024x1024 pixel array with an active area of 15mm x 15mm....The battery-operated Electronic Still Camera (ESC) retained all the features of the F4 camera body and accepted any lens or optics with a Nikon mount. Nikkor lenses used on STS-48 included a 20mm f/2.8 AF, 35-70mm f/2.8 AF, 50mm f/1.2 and 180mm f/2.8 AF.Images obtained during the mission was monochrome with 8 bits of digital information per pixel (256 gray levels) and stored on a removable computer hard diskWhat that tells me is that the colour image you posted in reply #1 was EITHER-not taken by the monochrome ESC camera (Monochrome digital cameras only produce gray-scale images, not colour images)OR - someone later colourized the original monochrome image.
For those interested in photography: (different web sources):This NASA photograph of UARS inside the shuttle payload bay was taken with the ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA (ESC) system under the DEVELOPMENT TEST OBJECTIVE (DTC) 648, an at that time new technology which allowed images to be captured electronically and digitized with a resolution approaching the quality of traditional photographic film. This new system first flew on STS-48 with UARS, see link below. According to NASA, it would also fly on STS-42 and considered for STS-45 and STS-50. The NASA Electronic Still Camera (ESC) system was a high-resolution digital imaging system developed for the Space Shuttle, starting in the early 1990s. It was designed to capture still images from space and transmit them back to Earth for near real-time processing. The system consisted of a hand-held, battery-operated digital camera based on a Nikon F4 body with a digital back, a laptop-based unit for onboard image processing, and a ground station for final processing and distribution of the images. The ESC project was a foundational step toward a family of high-resolution digital imaging devices for space use. Details:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050229962/downloads/20050229962.pdf
