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Posted by: Steffen Jan 14 2006, 09:33 PM

I guess this is the right part of the forum to ask questions, so here's another one; Which were the main contractor firms for the Mariner 9 spacecraft (which firm built the thruster, radios and electronics)?

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 14 2006, 11:27 PM

I guess this is the right part of the forum to ask questions, so here's another one; Which were the main contractor firms for the Mariner 9 spacecraft (which firm built the thruster, radios and electronics)? 

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 15 2006, 09:19 AM

Quiet a difficult question!
Searched in my books and couldn't come up with an answer and although the Mariners were built in-house at NASA-JPL, following contractors helped on Mariner 6 & 7:

TRW (Thompson - Ramo - Wooldridge ) for the propulsion
Honeywell for the attitude subsystem
Philco-Ford for the radio
Motorola for the central computer and sequencer subsystem
Litton Systems for the Data storage
Texas Instruments for the Telemetry ...

Well, now I'm curious to see such a list for the Mariner H ( 8 ) and Mariner I ( 9 ) spacecraft

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 15 2006, 05:02 PM

Still trying to find the answer, challenging question as I said
Only found so far that NASA asked Boeing Aerospace, General Electric and TRW to work on a spacecraft in 1966 ...
Didn't even find an answer here:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4212/ch6.html

nor here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/70s/release_1971_0595.html


While here it just says Prime Contractor: In-house
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/vol3/table3.118.htm

Posted by: Steffen Jan 17 2006, 07:09 AM

O.K. Danke... Where do You get Your information other than www ?

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 17 2006, 05:12 PM

Don't count on the Internet too much ( except UnmannedSpaceflight.com of course ... )
A good source is ntrs.nasa.gov
But I really prefer to search in my collection of books, here's part of that collection:
http://www.boggsspace.com/jpl_tech_reports.htm

Posted by: ljk4-1 Mar 14 2006, 05:09 PM

Now this is a real fusion of art and science:

http://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/Histphotos/hpom/312-159bc.html

Trajectory Design Model

Photograph Number 312-159Bc

"Ever try to shoot a slow flying duck while standing rigidly on a fast rotating platform, and with a gun that uses bullets which curve 90° while in flight?" This question appeared in the July 1963 issue of Lab-Oratory, in an article about spacecraft trajectory design.

During mission development in 1967, the trajectory design model shown above allowed Mariner Mars mission planners to illustrate the orientation of the planet, the expected path of the Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft, and the window of opportunity for the instruments and TV cameras to operate during the flyby. Today, computer generated plots and computer animations are used to present the same information.

Posted by: PhilCo126 Mar 17 2006, 09:32 AM

That's a great find ljk4-1