12/1973 – 7/1978

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL Records Center, Foothill Annex/Pasadena, CA

Senior Library Technician, Master Vellum Center (MVC), Technical Information & Documentation Division

Position: Fulltime Contractor, position controlled by various shops, Los Angeles/Woodland Hills, CA

NARATIVE

Hired in December of 1973, just out of college, I was asked to take over as the coordinator of the Master Vellum Center (MVC), a special library within the JPL/NASA Records Center located in East Pasadena.  The purpose of the MVC was to provide for an organized and managed item retrieval system for items that either could not be stored in the TIDD building 111 on the Laboratory or that were discreet, eye only, materials.  The MVC contained an array of document and media collections.  These included the document collections:  JPL (internal) Reports categories 500 – 9000, NASA Technical Memorandums, and NASA Technical Reports.  The technical drawing and vellum collections: JPL Facility Drawings, JPL Project Drawings, JPL Technical Drawings, and JPL Publication Vellums.  The computer media (12” reel ¾” magnetic tapes) collections on racks, included: NASA Earth Resource Tapes (ERTS) collection, Viking Mars Project MTIS Pre/Post Landing tapes and Voyager 1 & 2 Mission (Prior to Jupiter Encounter).

My duties as MVC coordinator, included controlling, organizing, and managing the documentation of material coming and going from the center.  After two years I was tasked with reorganizing the facility to accommodate the expanding of a couple of the document collections and adding the new computer media collections including the NASA ERTS data tapes.  I originated a facility map and punch card check out system for documenting items pulled and sent to building 111 per formal requests.  After serving in the position for over 4.5 years, by the middle of 1978, I was interested in working up at the lab. So, when I heard about opportunity on the Viking Project I immediately applied for it.  It was a position on the Viking Project’s Imaging Team as an imaging analyst, to me, it seemed the dream job. I didn’t get it, yet weeks later I got a call, the supervisor of the Planetary Science Data Library, who asked if I was still interested in working up at the lab, I said “yes”.

JOB BULLETS

·         Managed vellum, technical drawings, document, and computer media library facility within the JPL Records Center.

·         Drove and delivered document and media requested when needed between JPL and the Foothill Annex.

·         Filed, extracted, and staged computer media, documents, technical drawings and schematics for  requesters.

·         NASA Document collections included the NASA Technical Reports (TR) and Technical Memorandums (TM).

·         JPL Document collections included the INTERNAL (prefixes 500-9000, for ‘internal’ distr only) and FORMAL.

·         JPL Technical drawings and schematics collections include B, C, D, and J size, most rolled up and stored in tubes.

·         NASA Computer Media collections included ERTS, Viking and Voyager MTIS tapes.

·         Mission/Project technical drawing and schematic collections include MJS, MOS, and VGR documents.

DURATION: 4 years 7 months

SUPERVISED Minimum: 0   Maximum: 2   Frequency: INTERMITTANTLY

REASON FOR LEAVING: OFFER & ACCEPTED POSITION ON MARS PROJECT FLIGHT OPERATIONS TEAM

NOTES: Upon giving notice of leaving to take a position on the Lab itself in the mission flight teams building 264,  before leaving the MVC, I completed the operations manual for running the Master Vellum Center.

7/1978 – 4/1982

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Main Campus, La Canada/Pasadena, CA

Section Group Supervisor/Flight Ops Team, Planetary Science Data Library

Position: Fulltime Contractor, Informatics/Sterling Software Co., LA/Woodland Hills

NARATIVE

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory main ‘campus’ the Section Group Supervisor of the Planetary Science Data Library (SDL) heard about my interest in moving up to the Viking Project and called me in for an interview.  It turned out he was looking for his replacement.  It turned out my MVC background fit perfectly for the job at the Science Data Library, the facility that housed processed the Mars Viking imaging products and created the imaging catalog.  It also housed a couple large computer tape reel collections.  Whereas I had supervised two library technicians in the MVC periodically, my staff of the SDL varies between 5 to 11, depending on mission activity.  When I came on-board it was fully engaged in supporting the extended Viking Mars mission and just beginning to prepare for the Voyager mission’s encounters with the moons and planet of Jupiter.  The purpose and mission of the Planetary Science Data Library was to catalog and distribute new data to the Science Data and Imaging Teams of the Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn projects. We were tasked to build the data and imaging catalogs, provide media and requests to the GRE and MTIS, for file data and imaging products.  My team consisted of two programmers who handled the coding of catalog sheets, several library clerks responsible for filing of imaging products, origination of GRE requests, and pulling of media for MTIS, and a couple of expeditors, who moved media between our facility in building 264 to and from building 230 and 168, and delivered shipment to the main train depot in downtown Pasadena for shipment to the USGS in Arizona.

Serving on the Extended Viking Mars Mission, as requested, I attended the mission planning meetings. The ones with the Viking Imaging Team were especially important since my team was intricately involved in processing the imaging data being returned from Mars and handling all the movement of both orbital and lander imaging data.  It was a great project, the most successful planetary NASA mission to date, that not only mapped the surface of Mars yet also tested the Martian soil.

Unlike the calm and smooth pace of the Extended Viking Mission, the Voyager Mission rapidly hurried up, becoming busier and busier as each spacecraft approached Jupiter.  Flight team meetings were intense. Beside working very closely with the Voyager Imaging Team, I was also intricately involved with the Voyage Science Data Team performing services in getting their PSA data moved and processed.  Between my coming on-board and first encounter (Voyager 1 at Jupiter) starting at the end of February 1979, I had just over 7 months to prepare my team for the intense demands of ‘Encounter’.  This included preparing and getting interface agreements (memorandums of understanding) set up with each of the teams and departments that we were interdependent on for mission objectives. After the first encounter tornado was over, we had 3.5 months to Voyager 2’s encounter with giant the gas planet. Fortunately, after we said good-bye to Jupiter we had 15 months to process all our Jupiter data and imaging and prepare for Voyager 1 coming into Saturn’s and its fly-by of the moon Titan . And then another 3 months to Voyager 2’s arrival there. My team lost nearly all of its funding six months later in 1982, including the funds for my position.

Our team’s deliverables for the four encounters included creating the imaging catalog, documenting several computer media collections, a catalog of images we created through processing in the imaging Ground Reconstruction Equipment (GRE), and a large imaging hardcopy collection of Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons.

I was very proud of my team and our accomplishments.  Besides the work on the Viking and Voyager Missions, we also played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Regional Planetary Imaging Library, also placed in building, 264.

JOB BULLETS

·         Managed media library facility including media staging, filing, cataloging and building imaging data base.

·         Member of the Extended VIKING MARS MISSION, Flight Operations Team.

·         Provided public presentations on the Viking and Voyager Projects as a member of the JPL Speaker Bureau.

·         Member of the Voyager Jupiter – Saturn Mission, Flight Operations Team.

·         Supervised a group that ranged from 5 to 11 staff that included data clerks and programmers.

·         Ensure timely delivery of imaging products to Mission Imaging Scientist in the continental United States.

·         Oversaw the requesting and delivery of computer media to the GRE for creation of false color images.

·

Worked closely with the Science Data Team to coordinate the creation and distribution of data and data products.

DURATION: 3 years 9 months

SUPERVISED Minimum: 5   Maximum: 11   Frequency: FULL TIME

REASON FOR LEAVING: Funding lost, Laid Off (Pres Reagan cut backs)

NOTES:  It was heart-breaking to see my team disbanded.

SUPPORTING/SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTATION:

05/1981

Award

Group Achievement – Voyager Flt Ops, Sci Data Team

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

05/1981

Award

Group Achievement – Voyager Flt Ops, Sci Data Library

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

01/1982

Recommendation

Letter of Recommendation from Supervisor Sci Data Teams

NASAJPL Virgil Combs

THE HIGHLIGHTED ITEMS ARE DISPLAYED BELOW