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MISR Instrument
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The MISR instrument is shown seated on the end bell of the thermal vacuum chamber in JPL's 3-meter Space Simulator Facility. Testing was completed in mid-May 1997, and verified the instrument performance over a range of temperatures.
Credit: Photograph by Barbara Gaitley, JPL image P-28825A |
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The MISR instrument, covered with its protective gold blanket, is seen here as it was being tested in a simulated space environment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in December 1996. The instrument will look much like this when it is flying in space. Earth would be toward the top of the picture. The black cover for the camera view ports is open, and for this test, an incandescent light source placed over the instrument (curved metal object with cables at top-center of the box) provides a target for the cameras to image. Control equipment for the test electronics appears in the foreground.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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This is an artist's rendition of the MISR instrument in cutaway view. The back ends of the 9 MISR cameras appear as yellow cylinders. In this orientation, MISR would look down toward Earth.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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This is the "science part" of the MISR instrument, which includes the cameras and calibration equipment. The photograph was taken in October 1996, as MISR was being assembled. Subsequently, the parts that supply power, communications, and temperature control were added. The entire package was then encased in a protective housing, which was covered with highly reflecting thermal blankets.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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Here are the 9 MISR cameras, plus one of three "spare" cameras, in 1996 before they were attached to the MISR Instrument. The two cameras designed to look at the steepest angles, which are known as the the "D forward" and "D aftward" cameras, have the longest telescopes. One of the spare cameras was used to build AirMISR, an instrument designed to fly in an airplane, to help check the data from the spacecraft instrument.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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This is one of the 9 MISR cameras completely assembled, together with its support electronics. Each camera is a self-contained unit designed to be tested and calibrated independently before it was added to the MISR support assembly, or Optical Bench. To get a sense of scale, consider the small rectangular box attached to the side of the camera barrel. It is a part of the Focal Plane Assembly, and is about 4 inches long. The camera in this image is one of the MISR "A" cameras, which have the shortest telecopes, and are designed to look nearly dorectly down toward Earth.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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This is an actual detector from one of the MISR cameras (disk-shaped object with slit.) It is attached to a rectangular "camera head" electronics package that is about 4 inches long. The cover for the electronics package is in the background. Beneath the detector slit are strips of light-sensitive solid-state material. Each strip is divided into 1,504 spots called "pixels," which produce line after line of a MISR image as the sweep of the spacecraft orbit carries MISR around Earth. (For this reason, MISR is called a "push- broom" camera.) There are 4 closely spaced strips of pixels in each detector, one strip for each of the MISR color bands. Since there are 9 cameras altogether, MISR can produce 36 images simultaneously when all the detectors are collecting data.
Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL |
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