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THE EQUIPMENT SYSTEM OF VEB CARL ZEISS JENA 
FOR REMOTE SENSING 
Prof. Dr. (Ezng.) Klaus Szangolies 
VEB Carl Zeiss JENA 
GDR 
Commission 11/3 
Numerous experiments in past years have proved that recording 
of the earth's surface in heights between 200 and 800 km 
supplies photographs and other information, which are of 
greatest scientific, teohnologieal and economic importance 
for both interpretation and cartography. 
Photography of the earth’s surface from satellites opens up 
new possibilities for interpretation in the fields of geology, 
geophysics, agriculture, hydrology, environmental protection 
and others. But it also inaugurates a new era of map production 
and map revision. 
Aerial cameras for the production of photographs of the earth’s 
surface from aircraft on rollfilm hzve been known and in use 
since about 1915. Aerial photographs gained in this way are the 
basic material for the interpretation and the production of 
topographic and thematic maps. 
So far this recording technology has in general not been directly 
suited for the application in space. The major obstacle to its - 
adoption was the large weight of about 150 kg of the standard 
version of an aerial camera. Besides, the most versatile in- 
formation is expected from photographs taken from satellites,. 
i. e. images in several highly limited spectral ranges with 
a maximum resolution. : 
Along with the evolving satellite teohnology the scanner recor- 
ding and transmission systems developed very rapidly because 
they allow the production of images in several spectral regions 
with fast transmission of the data to earth. There have been, 
and still are, two major limitations for the application o? 
this technique to map production: the resolving power and the 
geometric accuracy of the images. 
In these two points the optical-photographic method has decisive 
advantages over the opto-electronic methods of the scanner 
technology. 
In 1976 the first model of the MKF-6 Multispectral Camera was 
completed in Jena and practically tested in the Soviet Soyuz 22 
space mission from 15 to 23 September 1976. The results proved 
to be so promising that the development of the camera and 
evaluation techniques was intensively carried on. Since 1976 
the MKF-6 Multispectral Camera has been almost permanently in 
use in Soviet space experiments with international participation, 
but also in aircraft for producing aerial photographs.