Summary
Voice and video communications between people on earth and people deep in space were the most dramatic communications events of the past two decades. The telephone conversation between astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon and President Nixon in the White House was one of the most historic telephone conversations ever. The complex communications system used in these space conversations has reached its highest level of sophistication in the space shuttle program. NASA's Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network is the worldwide system used to provide continuous and instantaneous communications with the Shuttle orbiter and crew. Signals sent back to earth from unmanned spacecraft such as the Viking I, which landed on the surface of Mars on July 20, 1976, may be of even greater significance to NASA scientists. Viking I relayed picture data from its two facsimile cameras back to earth via an RCA communications system aboard the lander which consisted of relay link between the orbiter and lander and a direct link connecting the lander to earth. A photograph of astronauts on the surface of the moon is included.
See the full content of this document
Extract
Communications Out in Space.
Perhaps the most exciting and the most awesome communications feats of the past two decades were the conversations of men on earth with men deep in space . . . and the communication of men on earth with machines probing even deeper into space.
One of the most dramatic telephone conversations ever to ake place occurred on July 20, 1969 when President Richard Nixon talked to Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong who were 240,000 miles away, on the surface of the Moon! The millions of Americans listening in first heard Capcom radioing the astronauts saying: "Tranquility Base, this is Houston. Could we get...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
