Charles J. Byrne
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I am an electrical engineer with a bachelor's degree from RPI and a master's degree from CalTech. I have had a fulfilling career in communications with Bell Labs and other subsidiaries of AT&T, engaging in research, systems engineering and development. I have retired from Telcordia, a system engineering and software firm that was a split-off from Bell Labs. In addition to writing significant research publications, I have led groups that designed computer systems that have been used by Verizon, Southern Bell, SWB, and Quest to operate their communications networks. I have also edited national and international standards network operations.
Early in the Apollo program for a manned lunar landing mission, NASA requested AT&T to establish Bellcomm, to provide systems engineering support to NASA headquarters. I became a member of Bellcomm from 1963 to 1968. My responsibility was gathering information and planning for the selection of lunar landing sites that were both safe and scientifically rewarding. Part of the job was identifying the need and specifications for the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft project. In addition to helping prepare the specifications, I participated in contract selection and my group supported the operations of the five Lunar Orbiters.
In 2001, 32 years after the last Lunar Orbiter performed its mission, a comprehensive collection of digitized Lunar Orbiter images was placed on the web by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, an educational unit funded by NASA. Happily, the personal computer technology had advanced to the point where I could process the photographs to remove distracting artifacts of the process used in the spacecraft to scan the photos for transmission to Earth and the reconstruction process on the ground. This is something I have wanted to work on since I left Bellcomm to return to communications.
Knowing, from my past experience, the nature of the scanning and reconstruction artifacts, I wrote software programs to carefully remove the artifacts with minimal impact to the images of the Moon itself. In order to make these images widely available, a set of them have been incorporated in the "Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon", published by Springer Verlag. This book includes notes on the geology of the features in each image, based on extensive research in the literature on lunar geology. The images selected for this book were taken by Lunar Orbiter mission 4, which took photos covering the near side of the Moon.
In the course of my work on Lunar Orbiter, I have provided contributions to several professional meetings such as the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Convention sponsored by LPI. Currently, I am engaged in research on the strangely uneven distribution of large impact basins on the Moon and the dynamics of formation of the multi-ringed basins. At some future time, I hope to clean up and publish the Lunar Orbiter photographs that cover the far side of the Moon.
Early in the Apollo program for a manned lunar landing mission, NASA requested AT&T to establish Bellcomm, to provide systems engineering support to NASA headquarters. I became a member of Bellcomm from 1963 to 1968. My responsibility was gathering information and planning for the selection of lunar landing sites that were both safe and scientifically rewarding. Part of the job was identifying the need and specifications for the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft project. In addition to helping prepare the specifications, I participated in contract selection and my group supported the operations of the five Lunar Orbiters.
In 2001, 32 years after the last Lunar Orbiter performed its mission, a comprehensive collection of digitized Lunar Orbiter images was placed on the web by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, an educational unit funded by NASA. Happily, the personal computer technology had advanced to the point where I could process the photographs to remove distracting artifacts of the process used in the spacecraft to scan the photos for transmission to Earth and the reconstruction process on the ground. This is something I have wanted to work on since I left Bellcomm to return to communications.
Knowing, from my past experience, the nature of the scanning and reconstruction artifacts, I wrote software programs to carefully remove the artifacts with minimal impact to the images of the Moon itself. In order to make these images widely available, a set of them have been incorporated in the "Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon", published by Springer Verlag. This book includes notes on the geology of the features in each image, based on extensive research in the literature on lunar geology. The images selected for this book were taken by Lunar Orbiter mission 4, which took photos covering the near side of the Moon.
In the course of my work on Lunar Orbiter, I have provided contributions to several professional meetings such as the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Convention sponsored by LPI. Currently, I am engaged in research on the strangely uneven distribution of large impact basins on the Moon and the dynamics of formation of the multi-ringed basins. At some future time, I hope to clean up and publish the Lunar Orbiter photographs that cover the far side of the Moon.
Books By Charles J. Byrne
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