Chapter 1 of 5

The six-eyed camera tower

Ranger 7 is built to photograph the Moon during a deliberate impact

Told in Ranger 7’s imagined voice · the events are real · source

Engineers stand with Ranger 7 on Dec.
Ranger 7I am Ranger 7. I had no landing legs, because I was not built to land.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
01My job was to fall toward the Moon and keep taking pictures. My cameras would send what they saw to Earth while my spacecraft rushed closer to the surface. The journey was one-way by design.
My body was a tall silver cone on a six-sided base, with two solar wings.
02The cone held my cameras. The base carried my power, guidance and communications systems. My solar panels spread wide to catch sunlight and make electricity for the journey.
Ranger 7 took this image, the first picture of the Moon by aU.S.
Ranger 7Six television cameras looked out through a window in my cone.
NASA/JPL
03Two full-scan cameras could record broad views. Four partial-scan cameras could return rapid close-ups. Together they were meant to show the Moon at growing detail as I approached.
I could not bring my pictures home in my hands. I had to send them by radio.
04My television system turned light into electrical signals. Transmitters and a high-gain antenna sent those signals across space to receiving stations on Earth.

The big idea

Ranger 7 was designed around a one-way journey. Its cameras and radio had to do the work while the spacecraft could not return.

Think about it

Why would a camera on a spacecraft need a radio system as much as it needed a lens?

Fact file

Spacecraft size
3.6 m tall · 1.52 m across the base · 4.57 m solar-panel span
The hexagonal base carried the spacecraft systems; the conical tower carried the cameras.
Source ↗
Mass and power
365.7 kg · 9,792 silicon solar cells · 200 W nominal
NSSDCA lists 365.7 kg. NASA Science's mission overview rounds the same spacecraft to 365.6 kg.
Source ↗
Camera system
6 RCA Vidicon cameras · 2 full-scan + 4 partial-scan
One full-scan camera was wide-angle and one was narrow-angle. The four partial-scan cameras could return rapid sequences of smaller frames.
Source ↗
Television mass
173 kg
The television package was a large share of the 365.7 kg spacecraft because it included cameras, power supplies, timers and transmitters.
Source ↗

In this chapter: RCA Vidicon television system, two solar panels, high-gain antenna and a hydrazine midcourse engine

Sources: Main record · NSSDCA · The Ranger 7 television experiment · NASA Science · Ranger 7 mission overview · NASA History · 60 Years Ago: Ranger 7 Photographs the Moon

Machine illustration: AI-made. Photos: NASA Image and Video Library, credited on each picture.

Chapter 1 of 5

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