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Mars and the History of Antacids
An anonymous reader writes "NASA's retrospective today on the 1976 Mars Viking mission describes the first probe to orbit another planet, and the first biology experiments based on soil sampling. Program managers maintained a dynamic 'worry list', which included a 1970's computer that opened like a wireframe book. The all-important biology experiments could not be tested prior to launch, then lightning struck the probe components (at Kennedy's Explosive Safe Area Building)."
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The 1976 Mars Viking mission involved the first probe to orbit another planet, and the first biology experiments based on soil sampling. Program managers maintained a dynamic 'worry list', which included a 1970's computer that opened like a wireframe book.
Mars: History of Antacids
The milestone launch of NASA's latest Mars mission--called Spirit-- provides the impetus to revisit the remarkable journey of the earliest martian missions. Excerpts from the lively debates that took place prior to the 1976 Viking missions give immediacy and perspective on both the rewards and challenges that the Red Planet offers. In this and forthcoming issues, Astrobiology Magazine is pleased to commemorate the descriptions offered in the words of then mission contemporaries. NASA historians have compiled these notes in their five-hundred page edition of: On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet. 1958-1978 (NASA HQ SP-4212).
The Problems List
Project Manager Jim Martin began the Viking Top Ten Problems list in the spring of 1970 to give visibility to problems that could possibly affect the launch dates.
The robotic arm of the Viking 2 Lander extends to collect a sample of soil for analysis. Click to enlarge.
Credit:NASA.
Viking project directive no. 7, issued 4 October 1971, codified the concept: "It is the policy of the Viking Project Office that major problems will be clearly identified and immediately receive special management attention by the establishment of Top Ten problems list."
To qualify for this dubious distinction, the problem had to be one that seriously affected "the successful attainment of established scientific and/or technical requirements, and/or the meeting of critical project milestones, and/or the compliance with project fiscal constraints."
Anyone associated with the Viking project could identify a potential priority problem by defining the exact nature of the difficulty and forming a plan and schedule for solving it. When Martin made an addition to his list, a person in the appropriate organization was charged with solving the problem, and someone in the Viking Project Office monitored his progress. Weekly status reports were datafaxed from the field to Langley.
At Martin Marietta, William G. Purdy, vice president and general manager of the Denver Division-through Albert J. Kullas and later Walter Lowrie, his project directors-sent weekly status bulletins on the lander's top problems, since that system seemed to have the greatest number of difficult components and subsystems.
In the spring of 1972, Martin told Cortright he hoped the supervisors of employees who had one of their tasks assigned to the top 10 list would not be penalized. Martin, not wanting a stigma attached to identification of a problem, was concerned that at Martin Marietta assignment of a problem might "automatically be considered as a mark of poor performance" when promotions or raises were given. Generally, the nature of the crucial problems was so complex that punishing one individual would not solve the problem.
As with the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer and the biology instrument, the novelty of the technological task was often the source of the trouble. Some problems seemed to stay on the manager's worry list forever. Others made repeat performances.
White patches of frost on the ground are visible behind the Viking 2 Lander. Click to enlarge.Credit: NASA.
The first flight-model computer was delivered to Martin Marietta in April 1974, nine months late according to the original schedule.
Faith, Testing Fate
Continuous monitoring of the subcontractor's troubles was rewarded, however, in late 1974 when the computers were finally ready for delivery. On 15 January, Jim Martin received the following message from Walt Lowrie at Martin Marietta:
"Oh
The article claims that Viking "involved the first probe to orbit another planet", but this is incorrect. Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars in November 1971, just days ahead of the USSR's Mars 2 and Mars 3 spacecraft. There was also Mars 5 in early 1974 and Venera 9 and Venera 10, two Soviet Venus orbiters, in late 1975.
It breifly mentioned that the stress of the deadline resulted in some taking antacids.
Table-ized A.I.
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