I've got three talks I give for local Astro Socs and the BAA, a Spirit one, an Opportunity one ( as each rover has far more material than can ever be squeezed into an hour as it is ) and '33 Cameras' which covers Viking landers, Pathfinder, MGS, MO2K, MEX, MER and MRO from a more technical point of view...

But, I'm giving two talks to the BAA in the near future ( Oppy talk at the end of Jan in London - boiled down to 45 mins...eeek ) and then I'm talking at the Out of London Weekend a little later in the year.

Having given my Spirit talk and my Opportunity talk to the BAA at that point, and 33 Cameras to the BAA's Instruments and Imaging section, I think it's time for another talk. Something slightly more light hearted perhaps, but with a message in there, so I've come up with some ideas for what I think could be a fantastic talk in the 45 - 60 min bracket - showing some of the cock ups that have happened in the past, and the success that has occured despite these cockups. i.e. the Near trajectory, Genesis, Stardust Filter Wheel, Hubble mirror, Galileo HGA and so on and so forth - show what went wrong, why, and what was done to drag things back. I often get quite a few laughs during my talks as I try to keep them as light hearted but informative as I can ( I have suffered enough hour long talks of utter dead pan boredom to know that I never want to give one ) . I dont want to turn this into a stand up routine, but I think this talk could actually be good down to seniors at school as well ( 16-18ish ) and get people to realise the challenges and achievments of these missions. Look what NEAR managed despite totally missing it's first rendezvous with Eros, look how DS1 met Braille despite having no Star Scanner, look what Galileo did without an HGA etc etc, Look how, despite being a laughing stock, Hubble came back to glory etc etc

Whadda ya think and what do you think I should cover. I'm not too sure about covering TOTAL failures, Contour, MPL and MCO - perhaps I should, especially where there is a lesson to be learnt from it - but it'd be interesting to see what you guys think of the idea and what I might throw in there.


Doug

It might also be good to talk about missions that succeeded above and beyond what was envisioned for them, like the Pioneer Venus probe that transmitted from the surface, and Viking 1's 7+ years on Mars. The good kind of failure; a failure to stop working.

You might want to mention Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), which was a complete failure in it's primary role, but which did useful astrophysical work by using the starfinder auxiliary 'scope.

tty

Dec 16th in London
http://britastro.org/baa/component/option,...y,16/Itemid,26/

Doug

Hmm...

Galileo's main antenna, Mariner 10's numerous near-death experiences, SOHO's return from the dead, Nozomi, Hayabusa (and it's puir wee lost lander), MCO (count it as a lander), DS2 and MPL, Mars 96, Ranger-A, Mariner 3, the Pioneer Venus atmosphere probes that became landers...

On the manned side there are the obvious ones, but also the Salyut failures and the recovery missions, the shuttle satellite rescues (remember the fly-swatter?), the Apollo 17 LRV fender, Voskhod 2's 'interesting' landing (not to mention Soyuz aborts and the famous night under the frozen lake). Or, what about the lost Apollo training capsule wich the Soviet Navy found - and then returned to the US Coastguard?

Bob Shaw

It's going to be unmanned....currently on the menu...

SOHO Recovery
Galileo HGA
Spirit Sol 18 + wheel lock
Opportunity Arm Heater + Steering Actuator
MER 'chutes and 'bags
Genesis
Stardust Camera
Hugyen Relay and mission redesign
MPL
MCO
Mars Observer ( which gave birth to so many missions thereafter )
MEX Marsis antenna and SRC for HRSC
Hayabusa for sure - and given that I've only got an hour typically - that'll be plenty


Nothing too old ( because frankly - I wann't even alive at the time)

I'm NOT joking but I think that talking about "cleaning events of the rovers" could be enjoyed by the public and is still in the context.

Yeah. I think I posted an image on the way to Corner Crater...

Bob Shaw

I've talked about Rover cleaning in Rover talks Certainly it'll get mentioned.


Doug

OK, I consider this as another re-re-work