Prelude

From science fiction, through college, and designing nuclear reactors in the Aerospace industry

Chapter 2—Mariner Mars 1971—The Golden Age begins

Arriving at JPL and getting involved in removing distortion from images taken by vidicon cameras flying the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, the Mariner 10 mission to Mars

Chapter 3—Mapping Mars

Creating the first accurate maps ever made of another planet from thousands of images, highlighting the extinct giant volcanoes on Mars and the extraordinary canyon stretching over 2000 miles across the Martian surface

Chapter 4—Venus and Mercury—Two for the Price of One

Mariner 10 provides ultraviolet images of the clouds of Venus as it flies past Venus and then orbits and maps the surface of Mercury

Chapter 5—The Vikings are Coming

JPL prepares to support two orbiters and two landers flying to Mars, planning to arrive at the red planet during the Bicentennial celebration of the United States. My team gets the job of producing the historic photographic record of the first and second spacecraft to land on the surface of Mars

Chapter 6—Touchdown!

We produce the first 3D images from the surface of another planet, and the first color images from the Martian surface, while processing thousands of images taken by the two Viking Orbiter spacecraft circling the planet.

Chapter 7—I miss the Tour

After working on preparations for processing the data for images to be returned by the 2 Voyager spacecraft that fly past the outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune—I leave JPL for private industry after the first Jupiter images are processed

Chapter 8—You Can Go Home Again

After a decade spent in private industry, , I am blessed to get an opportunity to return and eventually manage the image processing team at JPL again, in time for processing the scence data returned by the extraordinary Galileo mission that monitored Jupiter and its moons while in orbit around the giant planet

Chapter 9—Battlestar Gallactica

NASA begins a campaign to lower the cost of planetary exploration, forcing redesign of the Cassini mission and elimination of one of the two spacecraft envisioned for that mission, and pressuring JPL to fly new and innovative smaller spacecraft that can be flown for lower costs. We adapt to changing times.

Chapter 10—The Fountain of Youth—Mars Pathfinder

Responding to pressure for lower cost missions, JPL develops an innovative design for a small lander to return to Mars, carrying an experimental Rover to test concepts for future rovers that can roam the Martian surface. 20 years after the successful Viking Lander mission I get to lead the team that produces the imaging data from the Pathfinder Lander and the Sojourner Rover, and to experience again the thrill of operating vehicles on the surface of Mars and sending the images out to the scientists and the public.

Chapter 11—More than the Eyes can See

I am asked to transfer to Caltech to manage the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and to lead development of the data system that will manage mission planning and science data processing for the new Spitzer infrared telescope that will eventually spend sixteen years in space observing objects that cannot be seen in visible light from earth. Spitzer was named for Lyman Spitzer, who advocated flying astronomical telescopes in space that vastly exceed the observing capability of ground based telescopes by avoiding the effects of the atmosphere on astronomical imagery and expand the observations into regions of the spectrum producing images “more than the eye can see” from earth..

Epilogue

Some thoughts about Carl Sagan’s inspirational vision in the 1960’s of the potential for space exploration, as I transitioned into retirement, and into the world of continued participation as a consultant to JPL and NASA