Apollo 17 Orbital Photography

Both the service module and the command module performed orbital photographic tasks. The main photographic tasks during orbit were performed with cameras in the scientific instrument module (SIM), located in the service module. In the SIM bay were two photographic packages: the mapping camera system and the panoramic camera. The service module tasks were to obtain high-quality metric/mapping photographs and high-resolution panoramic photographs in both stereoscopic and monoscopic modes.

Orbital Photography. Photographs taken from lunar orbit provide synoptic views for the study of regional lunar geology. The photographs were used for lunar mapping and geodetic studies and were valuable in training the astronauts for future lunar missions.

For the first time on an Apollo mission, the Antarctic icecap was visible during the Apollo 17 translunar coast. This full-disk view encompasses much of the South Atlantic Ocean, virtually all the Indian Ocean, Antarctica, Africa, a part of Asia, and, on the horizon, Indonesia and the western edge of Australia.

The lunar farside crater Van de Graaff is the large, flat-floored double crater in this south-looking, high-oblique view. Its long dimension is approximately 270 kilometers. Adjoining Van de Graaff on the southeast is the crater Birkeland, which has terraced walls and a central peak. The circular, mare-filled crater on the right horizon is Thomson.

Mare arches and ridges.

Metric/Mapping Camera Photography. The mapping/metric photography was performed using the Mapping Camera Subsystem, which included the metric camera, the stellar camera, and the laser altimeter. This equipment was mounted in the SIM bay section of the CSM. This photography was collected to be used for establishing a unified selenodetic reference system, for photomapping at scales as large as 1:250,000, and for synoptic interpretation of geologic relationships and surface material distribution.

The Mapping Camera was operated on 16 passes during the period of lunar orbit. The camera was also used twice during trans-Earth coast, the first time for 2 hours and 29 minutes, and a second time for approximately 13 minutes. Camera operation was near normal. The deployment mechanism exhibited an anomaly; however, this problem had no effect on acquisition of the photography.

Inflight contingencies required rescheduling of planned photography, resulting in a loss of approximately 10% of the preplanned photography. A total of 3481 frames were taken, but only 2491 frames are considered usable. Some frames are blank as a result of exposure during operation with the laser altimeter on the darkside.

A view of the Apollo 17 command and service modules photographed from the lunar module during rendezvous and docking maneuvers in lunar orbit. The LM ascent stage, with astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt aboard, had just returned from the Taurus-Littrow landing site on the lunar surface.

The CMP is pictured during his trans-Earth coast EVA to retrieve film canisters from the mapping and panoramic cameras in the SIM bay of the service module. The CMP is holding a handrail on the service module, and his body is extended over the open SIM bay. The mapping camera film canister is near his left elbow. At the rear of the service module, the lunar sounder experiment VHF antenna extends toward the top right corner of the photograph.

Aitken, a farside crater, measures approximately 150 kilometers from rim to rim. North is at the top. Aitken is characterized by a flat, low-albedo, sparsely cratered floor, by a central peak, and by terraced walls. Ponded, marelike material is evident at various levels in the terraced walls as well as in smaller craters nearby.

Panoramic Camera Photography. The 610-meter (24-inch) ITEK panoramic camera obtained high-resolution panoramic photographs, in both stereoscopic and monoscopic modes, of the lunar surface during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions. The camera provided 1- to 2-meter-resolution photography from an orbital altitude of 111 kilometers (60 nautical miles). The panoramic camera was located in the SIM bay of the Service Module. Panoramic photographs supported photographic data for the other command service module cameras and for the SIM experiments, scanning the lunar surface from lunar orbit, providing greater area coverage and higher resolution for given regions.

This spectacular panoramic view of the eastern limb of the Moon was exposed when the command service module was in a pitched-up attitude during revolution 62. The entire area of Mare Smythii, more than 400 kilometers from left to right, is visible. In the near field, the 150-kilometer-diameter crater Hirayama extends across the middle one-third of the bottom of the photograph. The crater Dreyer is just outside the extreme right corner.

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