[FPSPACE] What might have landed on Mars instead of Viking

[David Portree]

Larry:

 

I certainly do not object.

 

The ABL reminds me of the metal carrot in one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons; Bugs tries to bite it, drops it, and it opens, extends a flagpole, runs up the flag of Earth, and deploys a brass band that plays an anthem. Then it closes, job done. (And the hulking Neanderthal Bugs eats it later, but never mind.)

 

It also reminds me of a Swiss Army knife; all kinds of attachments unfolding in different directions.

 

Incidentally, the new exhibit is already prepared; it opened May 15. I was contacted just as it opened; the ABL had been misidentified as a component of the Voyager outer Solar System mission. It was already on display with a placard to that effect when I was pulled in to confirm its true identity. 

 

If it had remained misidentified, would anyone have noticed? I wonder.

David S. F. Portree

dsfportree at hotmail.com
dportree at usgs.gov
 
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/
 
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/DavidPortree/
 



 


From: ljk4 at msn.com
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:34:52 -0400
Subject: [FPSPACE] What might have landed on Mars instead of Viking



David, I hope you don't mind my touting your recent Beyond Apollo
article on the Automated Biological Laboratory (ABL) which might have
landed on the Red Planet as part of the original Voyager program
developed in the 1960s.
 
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) [link] in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is preparing a new exhibit on space exploration based 
"in large part on material on long-term loan from the New Mexico Museum of 
Space History in Alamogordo. That material included a 1/4-scale ABL model."
 
Images of that model with the article are here:
 
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/2009/10/abl-images-from-new-mexico-museum-of.html
 
The design, especially the metal petals used for uprighting and balancing
the ABL remind me a fair bit of the Soviet Luna and Mars robot landers.
Did one group copy the other, or did function follow form?
 
Thanks for the article and pics, David.  I wonder if something like ABL
could be used with modern technology for multiple lost-cost solar
system missions?
 
Larry
 
 
 		 	   		  
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