NEED: Viking lander arm tech details

For 'ROBOT' magazine, I need to find tech specs and
mechanical details -- and hi res photos and drawings --
of the viking lander 'sampler arm' and head. I've spent
an hour going to 'usual suspects' and googling and come
up dry. Can any of the world's best space history experts help?

Thanks, as always!

Jim Oberg wrote:

For 'ROBOT' magazine, I need to find tech specs and
mechanical details -- and hi res photos and drawings --
of the viking lander 'sampler arm' and head. I've spent
an hour going to 'usual suspects' and googling and come
up dry. Can any of the world's best space history experts help?

Thanks, as always!



Start on pdf page 183:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1981001592.pdf
As expected, this was one of Rusty's finds. :-)

Pat

Start on pdf page 183:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1981001592.pdf
As expected, this was one of Rusty's finds. :-)

Cosmo-thanks.....

Perfect. Here's the text I wanted (and the figures had the tech specs of the
boom structure):

Surface sampler assembly.- The primary purpose of the SSA was to acquire,

process, and distribute samples from the Mars surface to the GCMS, biology,
and

XRFS experiments. Secondary functions for the SSA included support of
physical

properties, magnetic properties, and meteorology investigations.



The SSA components (fig. 104) included the SSAA, GCMS PDA, biology PDA,

and the SSCA. Related SSA/physical-magnetic properties support components

(fig. 105) included boom-mounted mirrors, collector head backhoe magnets,
magnet

cleaning brush, ×4 magnifying mirror, and the crosshatched squares printed
on

top of the VL. The SSAA consisted of a controlled 3-axis 3-m (10-ft)
furlable

tube boom and collector head capable of acquiring surface samples at any
location

within an approximate 12.1 m 2 (130 ft 2) area in front of the VL and
delivering

1000-?m sieved or raw samples to the required experiments. The GCMS PDA

received 2000-?m particle size (and smaller) samples from the SSAA, sieved,
and

comminuted (ground) the samples to 300-?m particle size (and smaller), and

delivered 1-cm 3 metered samples to the GCMS. The biology PDA received
2000-?m

particle size (and smaller) samples from the SSAA, sieved the samples to
1500-?m

particle size (and smaller), and delivered 7-cm 3 metered samples to the
biology

instrument. The SSCA consisted of the electronics necessary to provide
control

functions and data acquisition for the SSAA, biology PDA, and GCMS PDA. A

redundant side 2 operational capability provided for the control functions
only

(no data). Physical-magnetic properties support components consisted of
boom-

mounted mirrors for viewing footpads and terminal descent engine cratering

effects, collector head backhoe magnet array for collecting magnetic
material

during normal sampling operations, magnet cleaning brush for removing
magnetic

material from the backhoe magnets, magnifying mirror (×4) for improved
camera

viewing of the collector head and backhoe magnets, crosshatched squares on
VL

top surface for collector head deposition of surface material, temperature
sensor

on the collector head lower jaw for surface temperature data, and boom and

GCMS PDA comminutor motor current sensors for inferring surface properties.



The SSAA consisted of the boom unit (fig. 106), collector head (fig. 107),

and shroud unit (fig. 106). The extendable/retractable boom-element,
combined

with the integrated azimuth/elevation gimbal system, allowed the collector
head

to be commanded to any location within the articulation limits of the boom
unit.

The collector head, with its solenoid operated lid, backhoe, and 108 °
rotation

capability, was designed to acquire samples from a variety of potential
surface

materials and to deliver raw samples or 2000-?m sieved samples to the
various

VL experiments. The backhoe permitted surface trenching operations,
collection

of magnetic surface materials, and the brushing of loose surface materials

which could overlay a bedrock substrate.

"Jim Oberg" writes:

top of the VL. The SSAA consisted of a controlled 3-axis 3-m (10-ft)
furlable

tube boom and collector head capable of acquiring surface samples at any
location

within an approximate 12.1 m 2 (130 ft 2) area in front of the VL and
delivering

1000-?m sieved or raw samples to the required experiments. The GCMS PDA

One of the things I haven't forgotten seeing in a museum
(Smithsonian?) 20 years ago was that ingenious-looking tube-ish beam
that rolls out of a small canister. It belongs in some Clever Gadget
Hall of Fame, right after the folding wing joint on some WWII Navy
planes which seems to fold in two ways with only one hinge line.

"Gary W. Swearingen" wrote
One of the things I haven't forgotten seeing in a museum
(Smithsonian?) 20 years ago was that ingenious-looking tube-ish beam
that rolls out of a small canister. It belongs in some Clever Gadget
Hall of Fame, right after the folding wing joint on some WWII Navy
planes which seems to fold in two ways with only one hinge line.

Yeah, but what was the metal that the tube was made of?
I can't find that, yet...

Jim Oberg wrote:
For 'ROBOT' magazine, I need to find tech specs and
mechanical details -- and hi res photos and drawings --
of the viking lander 'sampler arm' and head. I've spent
an hour going to 'usual suspects' and googling and come
up dry. Can any of the world's best space history experts help?

It's in the NASM, pictures ought to be easy to come by.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/viking.html

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/ceps...MARSimage.html
(wich, sadly, has a LOT of broken links)

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/ceps...viking_MOF.gif

and the picture Jim wants is:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/ceps...VL_sampler.gif

Glen Overby

Jim:

There is also and engineering version of the Viking Lander in the
Aerospace Museum in Los Angeles, near the Coleseum.

The arm used two "u" shaped halves of a metal that had memory and
operated similar to a tape measure. When stored, it was a flat ribbon.
When extended, the metal sprung back into a double curve.

Matthew Ota

Jim Oberg wrote:
"Gary W. Swearingen" wrote
One of the things I haven't forgotten seeing in a museum
(Smithsonian?) 20 years ago was that ingenious-looking tube-ish beam
that rolls out of a small canister. It belongs in some Clever Gadget
Hall of Fame, right after the folding wing joint on some WWII Navy
planes which seems to fold in two ways with only one hinge line.

Yeah, but what was the metal that the tube was made of?
I can't find that, yet...

Jim Oberg wrote:

Start on pdf page 183:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1981001592.pdf
As expected, this was one of Rusty's finds. :-)



Cosmo-thanks.....

Perfect.



Nifty drawing of the head of the sample boom also.
If anyone wants to know all the details of the landers rocket systems,
that PDF is the place to go; after going through it, I felt like I could
build the thing's rockets.
You weren't kidding about that arm being hard to find data on; there's
surprisingly little info on it available on the web.
I only found the PDF by doing a Google "group" search under "NASA Viking
PDF Rusty" knowing that if such a thing existed, Rusty would have found
it at one point or another.
This was the guy who found the dread spacesuit vomit tube PDF. :-D

Pat

Gary W. Swearingen wrote:

One of the things I haven't forgotten seeing in a museum
(Smithsonian?) 20 years ago was that ingenious-looking tube-ish beam
that rolls out of a small canister. It belongs in some Clever Gadget
Hall of Fame, right after the folding wing joint on some WWII Navy
planes which seems to fold in two ways with only one hinge line.


The Grumman system. They came up with that by sticking a bent paper clip
into a rubber eraser.
What was really clever about the Viking tube system was that the sample
traveled up the hollow interior of the arm.

Pat

Jim Oberg wrote:

"Gary W. Swearingen" wrote


One of the things I haven't forgotten seeing in a museum
(Smithsonian?) 20 years ago was that ingenious-looking tube-ish beam
that rolls out of a small canister. It belongs in some Clever Gadget
Hall of Fame, right after the folding wing joint on some WWII Navy
planes which seems to fold in two ways with only one hinge line.



Yeah, but what was the metal that the tube was made of?
I can't find that, yet...




You aren't going to believe this one...I remembered I had the book "The
Search For Life On Mars" by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr., so I went and got it
off the shelf. Then I crack open the book at random, ending up on pages
80- 81, and that's where this is written:
"The sampler would extend outward and slightly upward on the end of a
boom that lengthened in a seemingly miraculous fashion, for the box
looked far too small to contain the boom's ever-increasing length. The
boom would appear to grow, almost as if the box were a mill for making
metal rods. Actually the boom worked like a steel tape measure; there
were two ribbons of prestressed steel which unrolled in such a manner as
to form a single tube with a somewhat oval cross section."

So there you go.

Pat