How NASA chose the camera that went to the moon: NPR

In the summer of 1962, Walter Schirra – who was soon to become America's third man to orbit Earth – went to a photographic supply store in Houston looking for the # 39 a camera that he could take away in space.

He came out with a Hasselblad 500C, a high-end Swedish import that had been recommended by photographers from Life and National Geographic.

"He was sort of an amateur photographer," said Schirra Jennifer Levasseur, curator in charge of astronaut cameras at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. "Somewhere along the line, it was decided that he could choose the camera used for his flight."

Schirra's was a much more sophisticated – and expensive – choice than the simple Ansco Autoset that John Glenn had bought for $ 40 at a pharmacy in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Glenn used it to take orbit photos on Friendship 7 in February 1962. The Hasselblad costs around $ 500 and uses a much larger negative than the 35mm Glenn's camera. It also included interchangeable lenses, Carl Zeiss and removable film magazines.

A Hasselblad "at the test of astronauts"

When NASA took a look at Hasselblad from Schirra, they liked what they saw. The space agency has bought at least one more. Engineers were interested in the standard consumer model to make it space efficient. They lightened it to gain weight and painted dull black to reduce glare. Cole Rise is a photographer and filmmaker whose mission is to create custom reproductions of Hasselblad space cameras.

For example, says Rise, a version of the magazine has been removed to prevent it from being inadvertently struck in flight. It was designed so that only a ground-based engineer with a key could release him. A waist-level viewfinder has been abandoned in favor of a simple, custom-made side viewfinder that could be aimed at with a helmet and visor, he says.

"Imagine you were trying to slip into an industrial washing machine and take a picture from the window backwards," says Rise. "It's hard to look in the viewfinder when you're in such a tight space."

In an interview with NASA in 1998, Schirra acknowledged that his six orbits in October 1962 did not leave much time for photography, but that during the next flight, the following spring, with its 22 orbits, astronaut Gordon Cooper "got absolutely gorgeous pictures" said Schirra.

Chris Cooze of Hasselblad said that until then, the space agency was so focused on the technical side of spaceflight that photography was a bit of an afterthought.

He says it was in 1965, when NASA released some great photos of Ed White 's space release on Gemini 4, that Hasselblad "reunited two people" and returned account that the photos had been taken with one of their cameras.

"Then they contacted NASA to see if we could cooperate for anything," said Cooze.

It was a relationship that would give one of the most iconic photos of the twentieth century – "Earthrise" taken by astronaut Bill Anders of the Apollo 8 control module on Christmas Eve 1968 – and would eventually place a dozen Hasselblad on the surface of the moon. .

The lunar camera of surface data

At the time of Apollo, Hasselblad and NASA were working hand-in-hand to produce the 500EL, suitable for the long flight and the vagaries of the lunar environment. The manufacturer built a high-capacity film backing, while Eastman Kodak invented a thinner film emulsion, a combination that allowed for hundreds of shots in a single magazine.

For the "Lunar Surface Data Camera" 500EL, a motorized film feed was added, along with a plate called Network Plate – a glass plate placed near the film plane and bearing cross marks on the negative. The crosses can be seen on many pictures of the moon. They helped correct the distortion of the film and helped to judge the size and distance of the objects, "because on the moon, there are no recognizable landmarks – there are no There are no telephone poles or houses in the distance, "says Rise.

The shutter button and the other controls have been enlarged for ease of use, wearing the thick protective gloves of the lunar suit, and the astronauts have received the suggested exposure settings for a variety of scenarios. Among the modifications made, a special lubricant capable of withstanding the enormous temperature variations of the lunar surface has been manufactured.

As the first Hasselblad shipped on the latest Mercury flights, the data camera lacked a conventional viewfinder. Instead, the astronauts trained on Earth to learn to aim at the camera from the chest level, where it was attached to the space suit.

"They needed to know that the position of the camera (…) along their body was going to produce some image king," Levasseur said.

While the landings produced breathtaking images, it's not surprising that, without a viewfinder, some of them are poorly framed, she says. "There are about 18,000 images taken during the Apollo program and there are many that are not good."

Looking for "any shot" of Armstrong

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module landed with two cameras, but only one came out – worn by Neil Armstrong. This explains why almost every photo of an astronaut on the surface during this first landing is that of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, a member of the Armstrong crew. Armstrong had the only camera for almost two and a half hours, both strolling around the sea of ​​tranquility.

An official NASA document describes how the Space Agency's public affairs department, which strove to satisfy media around the world in search of photographs of the historic Moonwalk, suddenly discovered an embarrassing oblivion.

"They started looking for the best shot of Armstrong," according to a transcript included in Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. "Soon, they were looking for a shot of Armstrong."

Aldrin, who was busy preparing experiments on the Moon, briefly took over the camera and remarkably took a single picture of Armstrong. The camera "was just not part of his job at the time," says Levasseur.

"There was no direction to take pictures of each other, which I still find really interesting," she says. "You are going to travel to the moon and no one has ever said," Well, we should take pictures of people. ""

On subsequent missions involving long surface scrambles, there was more time for photography and each astronaut carried his own camera. Even in this case, NASA had such difficulty distinguishing an astronaut from the fact that a red racquet was added to the commander's arm, leg and helmet combination to help distinguish the pair. .

In total, thousands of photos returned from the surface during six missions – most were taken by the Hasselblads, but some with other specialized cameras.

Some of the cameras themselves have also returned, said Levasseur, but NASA was worried that it would not have enough fuel to leave the moon and return to the command module in orbit.

As a result, they imposed strict weight limits on what astronauts could take home. Moon rocks are more valuable than cameras. Thus, the astronauts were instructed to pack the exposed film but leave behind the Hasselblads.

And that 's where they are today, intact, on the six Apollo landing sites.