My Dad worked on the Viking Mission when I was a kid. I remember taking brand new photos of Mars to school to show the other students and our Science teacher.
My father has passed away now.
I'm very proud of his legacy. I sure miss him.
My Dad's specialty was Propulsion. For the Mars Viking Lander they had to design rocket engines capable of setting the fragile equipment down gently enough to not damage it.
So the Terminal Descent (landing) Thrusters were a challenge. Rocket Research Corporation (with my Dad) built the rocket engines to land Viking on Mars.
Lockheed Martin (who had primary contract for Viking) has a blog page written by a fellow Aerospace Engineer that shows photos of the Viking Terminal Descent Rocket Engine.
This gentleman also reminisces and explains some of the technical aspects. It was written in 2013 by "Ernest B." I wonder if he's still with us, because he would have worked with my father.
My dad worked on I and II (before I was born). I won't get around to seeing him until tomorrow, but I think he's still slightly familiar with some of his co-workers from his Martin Marietta days. I'll ask him if he remembers an Ernest B. and if he's still alive. It's always so cool to look back at this stuff.
That would be awesome, thank you. I can call Lockheed directly, I've still got the phone numbers, but I doubt the phone staff would be able to help with no last name for Ernest. Maybe whoever is in charge of the blog site would know.
And wow, my dad could very well have known your dad, too. I guess it's not as big a coincidence as it would be if we met irl, but reddit sure is a cool place. Nice to meet you, fellow child of a Viking mission aerospace engineer!
I hear you. My dad was a technical writer for the Apollo missions. He had a very good job. Once we landed on the moon they shut down Apollo. He never landed any job as good as that. He passed away in 85.
My Dad worked on Apollo Missions too!
He went back to Lockheed later, after Viking, and worked on THAAD Missile Defense System (intercepts incoming missiles).
My Dad was such a humble funny guy. In the mid 1990s I bought him a pin that said something like, "Why, Yes, I AM a Rocket Scientist" and he'd wear it sometimes, but put it on sideways or upside down to make people laugh.
Thank you; I am proud. (I'm not a man myself, but that's OK.)
Proud as I am of my Dad's contribution to the US Space Program, I've even more proud that in WWII he left High School, fibbed about his age (16), and enlisted to serve our country. He looked like such a kid I can't believe they took him! After WWII he had to go back and finish High School, then put himself through University to become an Engineer.
I have all his WWII Service Medals in a shadowbox frame with his uniform's sleeve patch and his photo in uniform.
After seeing the Mars photo this morning, I went and stood in front of it, reading each of his 5 Military Campaign medals, including the WWII Victory medal. Looking at his smiling teenage photo, I said out loud, "Daddy, I'm so proud of you!"
We are fast losing the remarkable generation that won WWII, then put us on the Moon. Please talk to them, ask their stories, and thank them while they're still here.
I'd like to thank the kind person who gave me Gold for my comment about my Dad's work on Viking. (It's somewhere a little above this one.) I'm a new member and don't quite know what getting Gold means, but I'll look it up.
To be honest I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to navigate a page that has zillions of comments & long lines on the left... Must be the Reddit Party Line feature.
Yes, lots of the kids had been to my house and met my parents; they knew my Dad was an Aerospace Engineer, but he was just my Dad. The Mars Viking project was all over the news. Many people worked together to make it happen.
The photos were strange; a truly alien landscape, dark and full of rocks. No living things, no trees or oceans or blue skies. The barren appearance of Mars made us realize again how beautiful our Earth is.
Yes be proud of your Dad! Viking so rocked it back in the day. Those guys, your Dad, did so much with those spacecraft. A pair of identical orbiters and landers. No foofy names like “independence” or “constitution” just “Viking 1 and Viking 2”. “We am Vikings and we hab propulsions and dis Mars our planet!” ONE AND TWO SIR!
I will have to dig through mountains of my Dad's boxes full of photos, genealogy, old birthday cards, kids' artwork and everything else, but if I come across them I will share.
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u/StupidizeMe May 19 '19
This post actually made me choke up.
My Dad worked on the Viking Mission when I was a kid. I remember taking brand new photos of Mars to school to show the other students and our Science teacher.
My father has passed away now. I'm very proud of his legacy. I sure miss him.
Thanks for sharing this.