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I'm wondering whether they were incapable of sending back the pictures via an analog signal or didn't do so because they were afraid of eavesdropping - any idea
by jcfrei 15y ago
I'm wondering whether they were incapable of sending back the pictures via an analog signal or didn't do so because they were afraid of eavesdropping - any ideas?
- russell 15y agoMy guess is that the CCDs of the time weren't up to the resolution that film could provide.
- georgieporgie 15y agoI just posted a comment with a link to a story about how they sent the film itself back to earth. Fascinating stuff, and unbelievably complex.
- 7952 15y agoA canistor full of film has very high bandwidth compared to a lossy analogue signal.
- greenyoda 15y agoIt's like a very expensive version of "sneakernet" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet).
- wickedchicken 15y agoTo this day certain companies do large-scale file transfer by FedExing hard drives around. See http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/ http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/
- mturmon 15y agoCCDs were invented only in the late 1960s. These satellites were flown in the early 1960s. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device#History) the first spy satellite with CCDs was flown in 1976.
- colanderman 15y agoRight, but television existed before 1960.