Apollo 11 - who filmed the first step being set on the moon , page 1

The first step on the Moon was filmed by the TV camera located in the MESA (Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly) G- series:
once Armstrong was out of the hatch, he just pulled a lever (see images below) and MESA fold out and down, releasing also an arm on which the camera was assembled: from the interior of the LEM, Aldrin switched the camera which was aiming the ladder.

Full list of the MESA contents for LM-5 (Apollo 11)

Schemes of MESA

Apollo 11 Lunar Surface TV Camera (scheme)

Apollo 11 Lunar Surface TV Camera

The television camera taken to the lunar surface was a Westinghouse designed and built slow-scan black and white camera with a vertical resolution of 320 lines scanned at 10 frames per second. This camera was chosen because the available bandwidth from the Moon (500kHz) was not sufficient for a standard TV signal.

On Earth, the received slow scan signal was converted to a standard TV picture (in this case, the American standard of 525 lines and 30 frames per second) using specially built scan converters. At Goldstone and Honeysuckle, the conversion was done on site. The Parkes slow scan TV signal was sent to the OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Commission) Paddington gateway exchange in Oxford Street, Paddington, in Sydney and converted there. At Paddington (‘Sydney Video’) the best of the two signals from Honeysuckle or Parkes was chosen and sent to Houston via Intelsat through the OTC Moree ground station. Charlie Goodman, seasoned communications expert from NASA was responsible for selecting which signal was sent.

www.honeysucklecreek.net...

From left: Charlie Goodman, Verne McGlynn, Richard Holl, Elmer Fredd (seated at the scan-converter), Ted Knotts, and Ray Louve.
Photo: With thanks to Dick Holl and to Robert Brand (www.exotc.com) for the photo and to John Sarkissian for the names.

At the Overseas Telecommunications Commissions’s International Exchange in Paddington, Sydney, a special room was equipped to handle the Apollo 11 TV – dubbed “Sydney Video”.
NASA’s Charlie Goodman (far left) was responsible for selecting the better video (out of Honeysuckle or Parkes) for sending to Houston via the OTC’s earth station at Moree in northern NSW.

MESA deploy

Location of MESA on LM-5 (Eagle, Apollo 11)

Armstrong practicing with MESA

Mesa side views

The MESA was deployed via the astronaut pulling the MESA deployment actuating handle "D handle" located on the egress platform "porch" of the lunar module. As the cable pulled the cam, it disengaged a lock pin from a pivot arm. A "key" prevented the lock pin from interfering with its on disengagement from a locking post on the MESA as it slid into a slot. Once this was done, lunar gravity took over and deployed the MESA downward into position. Once deployed, the MESA served as a work station for the astronauts.

www.apolloartifacts.com...

This fascinating artifact is a locking and deployment mechanism for the Modular Equipment Storage Assembly (MESA) located in quad 4 of the Lunar Module decent stage. The MESA lowered like a drawbridge once the astronauts activated this mechanism upon exiting the LM.

www.apolloartifacts.com...

www.myspacemuseum.com...

Apollo 11 Timeline

[edit on 21/9/2008 by internos]