How Does a Spacecraft Take a Picture?

April 18, 2013
Language
  • english

Filters, pixels and math star in this narrated cartoon. It shows how a spacecraft records a color image as data and transmits it to Earth, and how the image is reconstructed from the data. Guest starring is the Cassini mission at Saturn as a real-life example of the process.

How does a spacecraft take a picture?

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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