Philco Aeronutronic Mars Excursion Module (MEM) 1964

[Triton]

Artist's impression of Philco Aeronutronic Mars Excursion Module (MEM) from 1964.

Source:
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/2010/04/philco-aeronutronic-mem-1964.html

 

[Caravellarella]

Re: Philco Aeronutronic Mars Excursion Module (MEM) project......

Dear Boys and Girls, here is an article in French about the Philco Aeronutronic Division Mars Excursion Module "project" made for NASA and AIAA......

The article comes from the 15th January 1965 issue of Aviation Magazine International......

Terry (Caravellarella)

 

[blackstar]

There's actually a report on this proposal somewhere, or at least an AIAA paper. I always thought that they had the coolest artwork--all those black and white images you see in the magazine are actually color paintings (but why the green skies?), and the artwork was so good that it later showed up in a National Geographic book on space in the mid-1970s. But it's also not a workable design--that spacecraft could not have made it to the surface of Mars intact.

 

[Orionblamblam]

But it's also not a workable design--that spacecraft could not have made it to the surface of Mars intact.

It would have made it to the surface of a pre-Mariner 4 Mars just fine. Sadly, the Martian atmosphere mostly fluttered away just before Mariner 4 got there, wiping out the thoats, green fighting men, naked orange hotties and hopes of straightforward aerodynamic braking and lifting landings.

In any event, it *would* make it to the surface of a post-Mariner 4 Mars intact. It would remain intact for a few microseconds of contact, at which point it would become progressively less intact over a span of milliseconds, at the end of which it would be a decidedly non-intact version of itself buried beneath the bottom of a small crater.

 

[Arjen]

Re: Philco Aeronutronic Mars Excursion Module (MEM) 1964 - SPLAT

A very surprised sperm whale and a bowl of petunias come to mind.

 

[Nik]

IIRC, consensus was the UK's Mars Lander ultimately expired due too-thin atmosphere...

AFAIR, situation resembles that near summit of Everest: If jet-stream zags instead of zigs, local pressure drops by ~10% and the fatalities mount...

Wasn't the next NASA lander redesigned as a result ??

 

[blackstar]

IIRC, consensus was the UK's Mars Lander ultimately expired due too-thin atmosphere...

AFAIR, situation resembles that near summit of Everest: If jet-stream zags instead of zigs, local pressure drops by ~10% and the fatalities mount...

Wasn't the next NASA lander redesigned as a result ??

No, that was the explanation produced by some for the failure of Beagle 2, but there were so many problems with Beagle 2 that I doubt anybody bought the atmosphere excuse:

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/330/1

Because the Beagle 2 investigation report has disappeared from the UK govt. website (it's probably been moved somewhere else) I have attached it. Note the following on page 6:

"The Commission has concluded that there was no single programmatic error which led to the loss of Beagle 2. The following factors however contributed to increased mission risk:

-Treating Beagle 2 as a 'scientific instrument' rather than as a complex, innovative spacecraft;
-Lack of guaranteed funding during the early phases of development;
-The withdrawal of MBA, the designers of the EDLS,* from the project;
-Lack of an adequate management organisation with the relevant experience;
-Lack of available margins to manage and mitigate risks."

(*EDLS = Entry, Descent & Landing System)

The next NASA Mars lander was not redesigned, and it landed successfully.

I sure hope that the Europeans learned something from the Beagle 2 experience. Considering that they tried to bury the investigation report, I think they got off on the wrong track.

 

[Nik]

I stand corrected...

 

[Michel Van]

IIRC, consensus was the UK's Mars Lander ultimately expired due too-thin atmosphere...

AFAIR, situation resembles that near summit of Everest: If jet-stream zags instead of zigs, local pressure drops by ~10% and the fatalities mount...

Wasn't the next NASA lander redesigned as a result ??

If you mean the NASA Marslander after Beagle 2,
that was 2007 Phoenix Scout, who was slightly redesigned Mars Polar Lander
but that had nothing to do with too-thin atmosphere...

it's sad that Mars was a disillusion after Mariner 4
I love the Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury version of Mars
had Mars be like that, hell year US had send Manned Missions to Mars long time ago
ironically FAIL:
a Philco Lander on Mars with four Astronauts abstinence over six mounths spaceflight,
besieged by naked orange hotties armed with sword&guns... ;D

 

[blackstar]

I stand corrected...

Take a look at the report. It's pretty damning.

The Beagle 2 story is a good one. The guy who was behind it, Colin Pillinger, often used an anti-American theme to fund his mission, claiming that he was doing Mars the "right" way, unlike the dummies at NASA. Many years ago I was told by a senior NASA Mars program manager that eventually somebody spoke to Pillinger about that and told him he needed to ratchet down his rhetoric if he wanted American help on his mission (at the very least he was going to need the Deep Space Network for communications, and he later had engineering support). In the end, it was a review by JPL that identified the many problems with the spacecraft.

The point I made in my article is something that I learned working on the CAIB--an investigation is not very useful if all it does is identify the problems. The conclusions have to be public and widely distributed so that people learn from mistakes.

 

[blackstar]

it's sad that Mars was a disillusion after Mariner 4

I vaguely remember reading that Mariner 4 gets all the credit, but that in actuality the thinness of the Martian atmosphere was discovered by telescopes in the year or so before that mission. It was pretty widely accepted among space scientists. Mariner 4 merely confirmed it.

 

[Michel Van]

it's sad that Mars was a disillusion after Mariner 4

I vaguely remember reading that Mariner 4 gets all the credit, but that in actuality the thinness of the Martian atmosphere was discovered by telescopes in the year or so before that mission. It was pretty widely accepted among space scientists. Mariner 4 merely confirmed it.

I was referencing on Mariner 4 picture: no channels or vegetation, but a Lunar like landscape with craters

After discovery of too thin Mars Atmosphere
the Mars lander became Capsule like with rocket engine landing, like NAA 1968 Mars lander

 

[blackstar]

I was referencing on Mariner 4 picture: no channels or vegetation, but a Lunar like landscape with craters

After discovery of too thin Mars Atmosphere
the Mars lander became Capsule like with rocket engine landing, like NAA 1968 Mars lander

There's a pretty good NASA monograph that discusses how studies of human Mars missions changed substantially after the atmosphere model changed:

http://history.nasa.gov/monograph21/humans_to_Mars.htm

What you describe is also correct. There have been several times during our study of Mars over the past 6+ decades where our understanding of the planet shifted and that shifted the exploration strategies. I believe that once those Mariner 4 pictures showed that Mars was more like the Moon than like our imagination, it decreased general interest in Mars exploration.

Another important one was after Viking. Those missions cost so much, and their failure to discover life was so disappointing, that it made it extremely difficult for the United States to fund further Mars missions. The next one did not fly until the early 1990s, and it failed, which then contributed to yet another shift in the exploration program.

 

[OM]

I believe that once those Mariner 4 pictures showed that Mars was more like the Moon than like our imagination, it decreased general interest in Mars exploration.

...It inarguably did, and the same effect happened with Venus once it became apparent that underneath all those clouds there wasn't anything resembling a primordial jungle with a perpetual global rainshower. Had either planet shown even the slightest hints of water - if not processes associated with life - then we'd have already landed and probably colonized by now. After almost five decades of studying both planets in detail, the fact that the presence of water locked under the soil has given Mars a clear lion's share of interest and further study.

Who was it that said "follow the water" anyhow? Sagan or Clarke?

 

[RanulfC]

Semi-OT/Side note, just got done reading the second book in a "new" S.M. Stirling series "In The Court of the Crimson Kings"
It takes place in a "universe-next-door" where High-Tech Galactics took and interest in the Solar System 200-million years ago and "terra-formed" both Venus and Mars as well as transplanting primitive Earth life on both worlds.

The first book, (which I have not yet read) takes place on Venus and is called "The Sky People" dealing with finding a tribe of primitive humans there that are worshiping a "galactic" artifact and (since the cold war is still going on in 2000+) dealing with both the item, the people on Venus and power-struggles on and off Earth.

ITCotCK takes place on Mars and opens with the "live-TV broadcast" of the "Viking" lander(s) in 1962, specifically in the "pro" suite of the 1962 World Science Fiction Convention

The premis is since we pretty much KNEW both Venus and Mars has Oxygen atmospheres AND we could see some artificiality on Mars (the Canals) when we and the Soviets went into space we "bypassed" an orbital or Lunar "space-race" for the planets.

All and all a fun read.

Randy

 

[hesham]

From, Revista de Aeronautica y Astronautica 1964,

Scientists from the Philco Corporation have designed a manned spacecraft capable of reaching Mars or Venus.

At the bottom of the photograph we see a drawing of the spaceship. In the upper one, the spacecraft a near Mars after having separated from part of its propulsion units.