Viking '75 Mars Lander Construction, Looking for Viking lander design/construction information Options

[Tom Dahl]

Greetings all! I am searching for detailed construction and design information about the NASA Viking '75 Mars project hardware, particularly for the lander, aeroshell, base cover, and bioshield. Can anyone recommend good sources? I am especially looking for engineering drawings and under-construction photographs.

To set the stage, here is an album of about 100 drawings and photos which I've collected so far.

I have already read the "usual" books, such as NASA RP-1027 "Viking '75 Spacecraft Design and Test", the press kits, the scientific papers produced about the mission, a number of industry papers covering various instruments and subsystems, the major Martin Marietta books, etc. I am hoping to find additional sources. Any ideas?

Also, does anyone know if there are aeroshell, base cover, or bioshield components lurking in a museum or in storage somewhere?

FYI, I have visited three of the best landers still on Earth: The Proof Test Capsule in the Smithsonian NASM, the Flight Capsule 3 (backup) in the Museum of Flight near Seattle, and the Science Test Lander in the Virginia Air and Space Center. I've taken nearly 1,000 photos of the three of them (most of which are publicly available in other Picasa Web albums of mine). I've taken a few measurements, but I would dearly love to find more authoritative drawings of more hardware (interior, exterior, everything). I have begun submitting some Freedom of Information Act requests to NASA/JPL which has started to bear some trivial but kind of fun fruit.
---
Update as of March 2017: During the past few years I have been fortunate enough to collect a significant amount of information on the Viking lander hardware. My thanks to a number of organizations for providing me access to their resources:

• Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project
• The Museum of Flight in Seattle
• NASA Langley Research Center
• California Science Center
• Virginia Air and Space Center
• Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Here is a list of on-line albums with Viking information that I have gathered. Essentially all the photographs - about 3500 currently - were taken by me (with the notable exception of those in the "Misc diagrams" album, which come from historic sources). The photos have descriptions that explain the major subject of each image. To see the descriptions with the current Google Photos web album interface, click on an image and then click the small letter i in circle (i) icon in the upper right corner. This displays an information panel that includes the description. You can also zoom and pan to see the full resolution image detail. Many images in a number of the albums show the 1000 or so measurements I have been able to capture from actual Viking hardware, thanks to the kind cooperation of the above folks.

Flight Capsule 3 in Seattle Museum of Flight (756 photos)
Dimensioned diagrams of the FC3 lander

PTC Lander at Smithsonian NASM 2013 (466 photos)
PTC Lander at Smithsonian NASM 2016 (888 photos)

Lander at Virginia Air and Space Center (622 photos)
Dimensioned diagrams of the VASC’s lander

Lander at California Science Center (456 photos)
Dimensioned diagrams of the CSC's lander

Misc diagrams, unusual photos (over 350 images)
Body assembly blueprints

Collector Head Shroud Unit at NASA LaRC (99 photos)
Biology instrument at Cleveland MoNH (36 photos)
Meteorology Sensor Assembly (60 photos)
Meteorology Electronics Assembly (22 photos)
Tape Recorder (53 photos)
High Gain Antenna photos and measurements (96 images)
XRFS Instrument (42 images)

Viking lander contractor historic scale model (14 images)
My Viking project documents collection

The main focus of my efforts during the past few years has been to create an accurate and high-fidelity digital 3D model of the Viking lander. I've chosen to use the SketchUp software to build the model because a near-full-featured free version is available, allowing other people to use my model. The 3D model itself, as a work-in-progress, is available via DropBox. I update that model file periodically as major elements get added. I've created an album containing numerous renderings of digital model components, and I have a YouTube channel with some videos about the modeling project. I have also uploaded the lander core body and the Surface Sampler Collector Head to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse so that other people can easily access those components (the 3D Warehouse can be accessed from within SketchUp, or via web browser). The file on DropBox lister earlier contains those components and others.
-- Tom

[PaulH51]

...boom extend-retract drive mechanism...

Wonderful stuff.... Thanks for sharing this with us here... Thinking out loud, I wonder if we'll ever see any of the Mars rovers in this or similar format Probably not in my lifetime...

[monty python]

Thanks. Always wondered how that worked.

[Tom Dahl]

The Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly (SSAA) is complete, for now at least. The SketchUp model file is available at the 3D Warehouse. The final set of components to be finished included the boom supports and guides:

Here is the overall lander (still missing most external components) with the SSAA and its Collector Head in place (the second view shows the collector head fully retracted):

This view shows the surface sampler with its Collector Head Shroud Unit (CHSU) attached and configured for launch, cruise to Mars, and landing wherein the SSAA is pivoted down to engage the triangular restraint post. The CHSU sealed the ultra-clean and sterilized collector head:

[Tom Dahl]

I've completed a detailed (nearly 18 minutes long) video animation that demonstrates operation of the Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly. The video features the 3D digital model of the lander that I've been working on for the past few years (and which has a few more years to go until completion), described in earlier replies.

My thanks to the following organizations who have allowed me to research their Viking artifacts:
The Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project
The Museum of Flight
California Science Center
Virginia Air and Space Center
NASA Langley Research Center
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

[vikingmars]

I've completed a detailed (nearly 18 minutes long) video animation that demonstrates operation of the Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly. The video features the 3D digital model of the lander that I've been working on for the past few years (and which has a few more years to go until completion), described in earlier replies.

My thanks to the following organizations who have allowed me to research their Viking artifacts:
The Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project
The Museum of Flight
California Science Center
Virginia Air and Space Center
NASA Langley Research Center
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

WOW ! Thanks so much Tom for this astounding video: lots of congratulations to you
I feel being back at JPL and I'm remembering a lot of events !

[monty python]

Tom, that is fantastic! I am old enough to remember those missions, and have always wondered how those arms worked.

Thank you for being such a Viking fan and for your hard work.

[Floyd]

Tom, thank you for a fantastic movie. It is visually striking and extremely informative. The details of how the ten foot arm roles up are ingenious. I would think this movie would be particularly valuable for engineering courses to show how design translates into function---with details from two of the most iconic space craft ever. The description, narration and music all incredibly well done.

[john_s]

Beautiful engineering, beautifully rendered and presented. Congratulations!

John

[PFK]

As a humble chemist (albeit one who vividly remembers reports of the mission at the time and the pictures splashed across newspaper front pages) I have to say I'm blown away by this. Brilliantly informative and impressive stuff!

[Tom Dahl]

The next chapter in the effort to create a high-fidelity Viking '75 Mars lander 3D digital model is complete - the S-Band High Gain Antenna (HGA) and its deployment mechanism (the preceding links lead to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse where the model files are freely available). Here are images comparing the model to actual antenna units:

Here are exploded and cut-away views of the antenna:

And an overall view of the work-in-progress lander model with antenna in place (most of the lander's external components are yet to be modeled):

All externally-visible piece-parts of the HGA and deployment mechanism (along with a selection of internal parts for which I've found some documentation) are modeled in detail - nearly 300 in all. A Google Photos album contains renderings of the model as progress has been made over the past few years (newer at the bottom).

Sincere thanks to the Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project, who allowed me many hours of access in 2015 and 2017 to HGA serial number 21 in their collection. I was able to capture hundreds of detail measurements with precision calipers along with hundreds of close-up photographs to guide the model during two trips from my home in Massachusetts USA to the VMMEPP in the Pacific Northwest.

[PaulH51]

The next chapter in the effort to create a high-fidelity Viking '75 Mars lander 3D digital model is complete....

I'm going to need more time to look at these in great detail.... wonderful stuff... Thank you Tom.

[sittingduck]

Tom, what you're doing is not only historical preservation, but a work of art.

I wish you the best of luck in continuing the effort.

[Tom Dahl]

I've completed the remaining two communications antennas of the Viking '75 Mars lander: the S-band Low Gain Antenna (LGA) and the UHF antenna. The LGA was small a receive-only antenna used to pick up commands sent from Earth. Here are rendering of the LGA (SketchUp 3D Warehouse link):

The UHF antenna was used to relay information from the lander through either of the two Viking orbiters and onward to Earth (which could be done either in real-time or deferred via the orbiter's tape recorder). Here are renderings of the UHF antenna (SketchUp 3D Warehouse Link):

[scalbers]

Nice to see these antennas again. I especially recall the LGA from the downlinked images. Thanks Tom!

[mcaplinger]

Over on nasawatch it's being claimed that the NASA worm logo appeared on the Viking lander, but I couldn't find any evidence of this. Bicentennial logo, yes, Viking patch logo, yes, American flag, yes, but no obvious worm. Maybe there's a small one on the patch? I couldn't find any high-res images of the patch as it appeared on the lander. Anyone know?