As to be expected, Ralph is no ordinary camera. Leonard David stresses the difficulties faced by the company contracted to produce the instrument, Ball Aerospace, in designing and manufacturing a sensor that could meet NASA's specifications. Among the problems were the low power produced by the New Horizon's electrical distribution system (only 28 watts was available for scientific instruments), that camera also faced 9 years of coldness and hard radiation, and that the light reflected from Pluto's surface is a 1,000 times dimmer than Earth’s.
The Ralph camera sensor is far more sophisticated than one would expect. After all, NASA does not simply bolt on a Nikon to a space probe and expect it to work. Jim Baer, Ball Aerospace’s optical engineer for the program, describes Ralph’s camera suite as consisting of three black-and-white along with four full-colored imagers that provide a telescopic resolution 10 times better than the human eye. To achieve the best possible focus, the system was designed so that all the components would contract from the cold of space at the same time. The imager was so well designed that Ralph was able to achieve an optical resolution of 250 meters per pixel.
Leonard David has written a highly informative article that describe not only the remarkable capabilities of the Ralph sensor, but also the engineering ingenuity and obstacles that the designers faced when developing this amazing instrument.
Resource:
David, L.
(2015). Meet Ralph, the New Horizons
Camera Bringing Pluto into Focus. Retrieved from http://spacenews.com/new-horizons-about-to-bring-an-unknown-world-into-sharp-focus/
Mark,
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, I have been following the New Horizon platform for years. You mention the designing of the camera was conducted around thermal equalization of all parts to ensure operability. That is an impressive engineering project, as you can imagine. Of course materials react to thermal variances in different ways, but the mass of the component will also act thermally independent of components made of the same material. I am always amazed by the complexity of systems we send into space, thanks for a great read.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteSpace travel always amazes me. Your article reinforces my level of respect for the engineers who develop spacecraft and all of the components that make up those craft. I really enjoy photography and I'm thinking about how Ralph differs from even the best professional-level cameras that are available. For example, the Nikon D4 can only withstand temperatures from 0-40 degrees Celsius and requires 2 Amp/hours to operate (Nikon, 2014). What's even more incredible is that the New Horizons probe captured all of the pictures from approximately 50 million miles away from Pluto (Anonymous, 2015). The resolution of 250m/pixel is really incredible. Thanks for the article!
References
Anonymous (2015). New Horizon's probe's July 14 Pluto flyby: Complete coverage. Retrieved from http://www.space.com/29850-new-horizons-pluto-flyby-complete-coverage.html
Nikon (2014). Nikon digital SLR camera D4 specifications. Retrieved from http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d4/spec.htm
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI have seen past images of Pluto compared with images received from Ralph. It is truly astonishing. Technology seems to provide endless capabilities. I love the fact that The Honeymooners, Ralph and Alice were used as names for the sensors. The amount of planning and engineering is most evident in how the camera operated in an extremely harsh environment.
Here's a great link for some of the images gathered by New Horizon when it came to closest passing of Pluto.
ReplyDeletehttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA20022_modest.jpg
Very interesting stuff. I imagine that the amount for resolution needed for the camera used to take these images must be optimal top say the least. I find it very interesting that the sensors are named after the Honeymooner episodes. Nice touch!
ReplyDelete