Helical Beam Antennas, 1951 [photograph].

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Helical Beam Antennas, 1951 [photograph].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/733106178

Ground telemetering helical antenna, 2/15/51. [Description from photo index.]. Is this a scene from a corny science fiction movie of the 1950s? It's actually one of the early steps in the evolution of the Deep Space Network. In 1951, JPL was working on missile development for the U.S. Army. In order to receive data signals from missiles in flight, JPL also developed telemetering ground equipment. The system included these helical antennas as well as receivers, recording equipment, gas-powered generators and batteries for power, and telephones for communication between primary and secondary telemetering sites. All the equipment, including a control room, was installed in trucks so it could be easily transported and set up in the field. The directional antennas were mounted on top of 35-foot telephone poles. During testing, each antenna was steered using a small wheel, like a ship's wheel, near the bottom of the pole, attached to the antenna by rope.

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

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SNAC Resource ID: 8108298

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.). Photolab.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g26rt0 (corporateBody)

One of the first people hired at GALCIT Project #1 in November 1941 was photographer George Emmerson (1913-1994), an emigrant from Newcastle, Great Britain. Audrey Voice and Mary J. Taylor as photographer's assistants joined Emmerson in 1943. Emmerson took almost all the early photos that became a part of this collection, a collection described in brief as the work product of the JPL Photolab. As JPL grew, so did the assignments to the Photolab to photograph all Laborato...