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    Lens guards. Some lenses were equipped with bumper guards to avoid direct contact with windows. It is recommended that all lenses for all cameras be fitted similarly.

    Window cleaning. When the crew first tried to find the cleaning material, they found no listing for a "window cleaning kit" in the Ref Data Book. The materials were found in the "lens cleaning kit." To prevent any confusion, the Ref Data Book should have a "window cleaning kit" entry and the bag containing the cleaning material should be labeled "lens/window cleaning kit."

    Closed Circuit Television System (CCTV)
     
       PAM sunshield/RMS elbow camera interference. The mission was the first in which a PAM payload was located along the payload bay at a station adjacent to the RMS elbow camera with the arm cradled and stowed. The opening envelope of the PAM sunshield would have overlapped the elbow camera envelope with the "standard" camera mounting wedge; however, a mounting wedge which would have provided complete clearance between the sunshield and the elbow camera in any orientation would have violated the payload bay door closing envelope. Therefore, a "compromise" wedge was flown which honored the payload bay door envelope and provided a small but acceptable clearance between the camera and open sunshield, as long as the camera was "properly positioned parallel to the sunshield edge.

       To facilitate proper positioning of the camera, a black-and-white striped decal was affixed to the side of the elbow camera which faced the crew cabin. Positioning was accomplished easily by the operator looking out the aft window using binoculars; camera A was less useful due to lower magnification and black-and-white CCTV monitors.

       FDF documentation of the necessity to perform this positioning procedure was not done, primarily because there was no concensus on a good place to do so. Instead, the crew resorted to penciled-in reminders in the PDRS, PAM, and Deorbit Prep Checklist and, in addition, put a yellow plastic switch guard on the elbow camera power switch. Since it is likely that future missions will again fly forward-located PAM's, this situation needs to be addressed more fully between the ops community and CB.

      Video Tape Recorder (VTR). This mission flew five VTR's: one "standard" shipset VTR and four specially modified VTR's per OAST-1 payload photogrammetry requirements. The inclusion of the shipset VTR was made only after considerable discussion at the program office level due to the notion that there was no requirement to outfit Discovery for this standard item since it was still considered an "interim" VTR. Since an "operational" VTR is not scheduled until late 1986, however, Discovery's wiring was modified accordingly so that all missions would have equivalent standard capability. Plans for installing a VTR on Atlantis should be reviewed now in order to avoid the same situation upon its entry into the fleet.

       The record capability of these VTR's is only 30 minutes per cassette. Pre-flight estimates suggested that, in the worst case, 120 30-minute cassettes might be required to cover all Orbiter- and payload-related video documentation. Two entire middeck lockers, in addition to the standard A16 volume, were devoted exclusively to video cassettes on a mission which was already critical on stowage space. Over 40 cassettes were recorded during the mission, in many cases in batches

     

Transcription Notes:
Needs some underlining but is otherwise complete