Viking '75 Mars Lander Construction, Looking for Viking lander design/construction information |
Viking '75 Mars Lander Construction, Looking for Viking lander design/construction information |
May 17 2012, 12:38 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 101 Joined: 3-May 12 From: Massachusetts, USA Member No.: 6392 |
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:
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 |
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Aug 17 2013, 06:44 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 101 Joined: 3-May 12 From: Massachusetts, USA Member No.: 6392 |
Thanks to the extremely kind assistance and cooperation from the staff at the California Science Center I have been able to take detailed measurements and photographs of the Viking lander on display at the CSC. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to David Gansen, Frank Hernandez, and Ken Phillips of the CSC senior staff for facilitating my recent visit -- thank you gentlemen!
My album of photographs is now available, with captions. Also available is an album of dimensioned diagrams totaling over 300 individual measurements. I used a variety of tools to capture the measurements, principally a high-quality 6-inch dial caliper and 12-inch outside caliper. Longer or hard-to-reach features were measured with a small tape measure (with ability to directly measure diameters). Angular measurements were made with a digital angle gauge. Profiles were captured with a multi-tooth plastic contour gauge. Broad curves were captured with flexible curve templates. A few part outlines were directly traced on paper. There was discussion earlier in this thread regarding the origin of the lander displayed at the CSC. Last year I had reservations regarding its authenticity based on its numerous mock-up components and the listing of this apparent unit on the Penwal Prototypes Signature Projects web site. Over a year ago I had written to Penwal asking about their involvement, but never received a reply. The CSC staff does not have much information regarding the nature of this lander. I have not been able to contact Lockheed Martin, who loaned the unit to the CSC. Then a couple of months ago I found and purchased a vintage 1981 Denver Post press photo which appears to show the same lander: The original press caption with that image identifies some Martin Marietta employees who were installing the unit for display at the Denver Pavilion of Science Technology in May 1981. Unusual features matching the CSC's lander include the roll control thrusters (on fuel tank 2) mounted upside down; odd main fuel line routing; and not-quite Flight design of the High Gain Antenna (HGA) mast, drive head, and dish. In addition upon close inspection of the CSC's lander I observed numerous original Martin Marietta part and serial number stencils on lander components. Camera 1 is an authentic Itek lander camera (serial number 0001 according to its data stencil). All of this evidence convinces me now that the lander displayed at the California Science Center is one of the four test units created by Martin Marietta. It is nevertheless true that various external components are clear mock-ups, including the Meteorology Boom Assembly; camera 2; the Inertial Reference Unit; the Radar Altimeter Electronics and Lander Pyrotechnic Control Assemblies; and the Valve Drive Amplifier (some of which are constructed of wood). Further trivia: leg 3's primary strut differs slightly from the final design; the three Terminal Descent Engines are Rocket Research Company original units, with TDE 1's gold housing featuring a slight variation (square cut-out for the throttle valve). I had an extremely enjoyable day at the California Science Center, and hope to return in the future (there is much more work to do). Thanks again to David, Frank, and Ken for your hospitality and help! |
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