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National Geographic : 1964 Nov
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EKTACHROMESBY THOMAS Hub of an electronic web that stretches to the moon: HERE THE CAPTAINS of the strange ship made their decisions and gave their orders; Ranger 7 obeyed without fail. Photographed seven hours before the end of a perfect flight, the control room is calm. Some of the experts who will man the empty positions are sleeping nearby. In more than 20 practice runs, JPL scientists set up so many bizarre accidents and emergencies that Ranger's actual flight, acclaimed a "textbook exercise," seemed dull by comparison. Electric wall panels above the control consoles carry information fed from supporting technical areas. There are enough boards here to handle two simultaneous missions. The two men in foreground, blurred by the long exposure, select data for transmission by television 694 cameras, which hang before them like lamps. Dur ing the flight, JPL used 100 TV cameras to relay such information to 200 monitors spaced through out the center. Celestial navigator William Kirhofer (upper right), plotting Ranger's approach to the moon, simulates the cameras' bearing 10 minutes before impact. He projects on the target area a small beam that covers the cameras' field of view. Using this engineering model, developed in cooperation with 26-year-old mathematician Ezio Piaggi, Mr. Kirhofer helped plan the spacecraft's important mid-course maneuver. The action slowed the too-speedy Ranger in order to put it on
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