Mars 5 - An Orbiting Photo Booth ?

[TERRIER]

With all the activity around Mars these days, it's inspired me to recently get a book on Mars by Dr Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest.

Anyway, I read that the only Russian success - Mars 5 - sent it's image data back to earth by radio....after it had taken a picture using more or less a conventional camera and film, processing it using chemicals, scanning it into code, then sending it back by radio.....AMAZING.

Is this true ?

Surely this was not the way NASA used to send back it's photographic data....not even in 1974!?

regards
TERRIER

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Surely this was not the way NASA used to send back it's photographic data....not even in 1974!?

It's a bit earlier, but I'm pretty sure the NASA Lunar Orbiter missions that mapped out large tracts of the Moon (and sent back some pretty darn amazing pictures too) developed camera film on the probe and then scanned that and sent it back to Earth.