Television system for the Venus-Halley mission

The design and mission parameters of the Vega visual imaging system to be used on a Halley's Comet flyby are outlined. The video system is required to automatically recognize the comet nucleus, track preselected regions, obtain high spatial resolution in various spectral ranges and transmit images to earth. Resolution must be 100-200 m (assuming a minimum 1 km nucleus), accompanied by a 15 arcmin FOV. The system will be mounted on a platform that can swivel 110 deg from 0 in the spacecraft orbital plane and 40 deg from center in the plane perpendicular to the orbital plane. A CCD matrix will be used in a thermally stabilized configuration to perform the imaging. An imaging frequency of 0.2 Hz has been selected, with transmission of a complete image expected to take 90 sec. A block diagram is provided of the imaging system circuitry.