This is a camera of the type flown on the Mariner 6/7 spacecraft. Mariner 6 and 7 were a pair of identical spacecraft that flew by the planet Mars in 1969. They flew over the equator and south polar regions of Mars, using remote sensors and television cameras to study the surface and atmosphere. The cameras relayed hundreds of images back to Earth, and confirmed that the dark features on the Martian surface were not canals or naturally occurring channels.
This artifact was transferred from NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the Museum in 1975.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.