There are some people saying that the onboard cameras are very bad and badly positioned. While the imagery is breathtaking to me, it's just a tiny taste of what's yet to come — most of the images/videos haven't been downlinked yet.<p>Orion is the most media consumption focused craft that NASA has ever sent out. There are 16 cameras on the mission, ranging from,<p><pre><code> — 7 COTS GoPro Hero 4 Black derived cameras that shoot video in, 4k/30fps, 1080p/120fps, 720p/240fps. 4 of these are mounted on tips of the solar panel. Most of the pictures that you are seeing are from these cameras.
- Cameras around the service module and the Orion capsule that are (mostly, AFAICT) wired cameras derived from PixeLINK PL-D725, these shoot in color and B&W, and record at 75fps on a single channel.
- 3 internal Cameras that are a part of Callisto a Lockheed Martin thing.
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On the ground, we've gotten used to fairly high bandwidth communications system, but Orion is using NASA's Deep Space Network. There just isn't enough bandwidth to downlink the kind of pristine imagery that people want.<p>We'll have to wait until the capsule comes back home to watch all of the 4k video that this machine is capturing.<p>We have come a long way though, when the Apollo missions were going on, all they had were grainy TV broadcasts. They had to wait for weeks to get those gorgeous images out.
One issue that I really don't understand is why the onboard cameras are so bad and are badly positioned.<p>A huge part of this program is to generate buzz and interest in the public about the human space program. A large part of that is pretty pictures, to be honest.<p>The onboard video quality looks like 720p at best and the exposure is for the Orion vehicle, not Earth or the moon. And the video seems horizontally distorted.<p>I'd have to look, but I'm guessing this is an engineering camera meant to primarily view the physical state of the craft.<p>That being said, after billions of dollars to get this thing into space, they should have accounted for the need and benefits of better footage.
Is it just me who can't muster any enthusiasm over it because the rocket is so wasteful? Not very Tintin to trash the entire booster and everything for every launch.