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Guide to the Roger D. Arno Papers,
1966-2009
PP14.01
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Table of contents
Title: Roger D. Arno Papers
Date (inclusive): 1966-2009
Collection Number: PP14.01
Creator:
Arno, Roger D.
Extent:
Number of containers: 3
Volume: .9 cubic feet
Volume: .9 cubic feet
Repository:
Ames Research Center,
Ames History Archives
Moffett Field, California 94035
Abstract: This collection contains personal papers of Roger D. Arno, a retired NASA Ames Research Center engineer and artist, including
portfolios, sketches, drawings, posters, artifacts, and optical media. The bulk of the collection comprises digital and paper
copies of Arno's artwork, in the form of technical and astronomical illustrations representing engineering concepts, as well
as editorial cartoons about NASA people and projects. Also present are Arno's memoirs about his career with NASA.
Language:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government
material, researcher must contact the original creator. This collection contains copyrighted material.
NASA Ames History Archives, NASA Ames Research Center. Moffett Field, California. PP14.01, Roger D. Arno Papers, [Container
number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
NASA ARC. PP14.01, [Container number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
File structures for the optical media are detailed in a supplemental finding aid filed under collection number pp1401.
Metadata for all digital material is filed under collection number pp1401.
Administrative Information
ART1387: Artifacts Collection, Artwork Series
AFS8000.5-LCROSS: LCROSS Project Collection, 2007-2010
Donated by Roger D. Arno on January 30, February 13, and April 8, 2014.
Accrual of original watercolor of Martin A. "Marty" Knutson was added to the collection in January 2019 (donated by Sarah
Filsuf; Accession 2019-003).
Accrual of materials produced by Arno ws added to the collection in August 2020 (donated by Catherine Johnson in May 2019;
Accession 2019-015).
Roger Arno's civil service career at NASA Ames Research Center spanned from 1966 to his retirement in 2000, after which he
continued to work as a consultant for another decade. Unusually, Arno worked as both engineer and artist, dual roles that
proved to be complementary. As an engineer, Arno supported many research and design projects (proposed and actual) that were
related to manned, unmanned, and biological research missions. As an artist, he illustrated numerous engineering and design
concepts and created outreach materials. His artwork ranged from precise computer-aided designs and detailed illustrations
of elaborate scenes, to logo art and animations. In the 1960s and 1970s, Arno's designs were rendered by hand, mainly in the
form of pencil or pen and ink drawings. Later, the majority were executed by computer, with increasing sophistication as design
software matured. Ever the commentator, Arno combined his artistic ability with a healthy sense of humor to provide amusing
sketches of colleagues and projects, as well as frank, sometimes acerbic, editorial commentary about NASA.
In January 1966, Clarence "Sy" Syvertson hired Arno to join NASA's Mission Analysis Division (MAD) created by Alfred Eggers.
In this role, Arno's efforts included advanced mission planning and researching space power systems. He used his skill as
an artist to illustrate aspects of his research and poke some fun at what he saw as misguided activities or questionable decisions.
He also was tasked with putting together special occasion cartoons and roasts. In this first year with the MAD, Arno also
pursued advanced coursework at Santa Clara University, earning a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering by 1967. He worked
in the MAD until it was dissolved in the 1970s (circa 1975).
In the next decade, his work focused on Earth resource research and applications, mainly remote sensing land resource surveys
in which data were collected by aircraft and satellite, and analyzed with computers, rather than the traditional process of
reviewing photographs by hand. He also created outreach materials, such as an unofficial comic-book-type booklet to educate
forestry service units about remote sensing and a sketch of an earth resources (ER-2) aircraft. By mid decade in 1976, Arno
was honored with an assignment to visually document the Apollo Soyuz Recovery Mission for NASA's art program.
Arno spent the 1980s supporting NASA's Space Station Biological Research Program (SSBRP) development activities, by planning
out how to design and implement an animal research facility on an international space station. Guiding the development of
specifications, hardware, and systems for this ambitious effort proved both rewarding and challenging, but ended in disappointment
when the program was ultimately cancelled. Arno produced a great deal of artwork at this time presenting, among other things,
various life sciences accommodation hardware scenarios. He used traditional and electronic media to create visual representations
ranging from painterly colored pencil drawings to precise schematics. Throughout the process, Arno provided a running commentary
with editorial cartoons. He used these to vent his frustrations over complicated reporting structures, reorganizations, and
astronaut objections to perceived smells and vibration of onboard animal research facilities. He also produced comical sketches,
such as personifications of research animals as suburbanites going about their daily routines, sometimes complaining about
the astronauts.
In the 1990s, Arno supported mission concept development and associated proposals for a wide variety of subjects, from planetary
landers and micro satellites to sample handling facilities. Notably, Arno supported the proposal effort for Lunar Prospector,
which won the honor of being the first of NASA's Discovery Missions. Arno's computer graphic designs evolved and matured during
this decade, as he continued to master a procession of increasingly sophisticated design and animation software tools.
Arno retired in 2000 but was soon asked to return and assist with various efforts as a consultant, most recently contributing
to the successful proposal for another mission to the Moon, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). After
the mission was selected, Arno remained on the LCROSS team and supported the mission's outreach efforts by producing logos,
posters, illustrations, and computer animations.
NASA Ames History Archives, NASA Ames Research Center. Moffett Field, California. PP14.01, Roger D. Arno Papers, 1 : 1. Arno,
Roger, n.d., ca. 2014.
NASA -- Ames Research Center: Excellence in Pursuit of Identity, A Personal Perspective.
The following terms may be used to index this collection.
Ames Research Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Mission Analysis Division
Arno, Roger D.
Bauer, Ethel H.
Beggs, James M.
Givens, John J.
Goldin, Daniel Saul, 1940-
Hubbard, G. Scott, 1948-
Klein, Harold P.
Knudson, Martin A.
Mark, Hans M.
Souza, Kenneth Allen
Worden, Al, 1932-2020
Ames Research Center--Art collections
Animals in space
Apollo Soyuz Test Project
Astronomy in art
Biological Facility Research Project
Centrifuges
Exobiology
International Space Station
Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Spacecraft)
Lunar Prospector (Spacecraft)
Outer space in art
Remote sensing
Space Station Biological Research Project
Space vehicles in art
The bulk of this collection comprises nearly forty years of Roger Arno's artwork, primarily in the form of computer graphic
designs and copies of hand drawn editorial cartoons. Optical media in the collection contain an assemblage of his born digital
graphic designs including mission concept and astronomical illustrations of scenes involving manned planetary exploration,
space vehicles, satellites, hardware systems, and proposal cover art, as well as animations of a "Free Flyer" heavy spacecraft
and LCROSS mission visualizations, showing launch, spacecraft separation, orbit, reentry (FFH), and lunar impact (LCROSS).
The disks also contain digital copies of his cartoons, hand drawn illustrations, and a few photographs of Arno and others,
such as astronaut Alfred Worden and Hollywood film producer and director James Cameron. The born digital contents show a wide
range of works that were created from the 1980s to the 2000s with a progression of design software tools.
Also present are portfolios complied by Arno, containing his memoirs and printed copies of selected artwork and cartoons.
Though most were assembled to present his work products and perspectives over the decades, one is as an example of the many
retirement booklets Arno gave to friends and colleagues when they left Ames. These portfolios roughly follow the stages of
Arno's career, with duplication of some material across them.
In addition to the portfolios are a few sets of original drawings along with photographic reproductions of them. From these,
one can see a sequence of methods Arno used to illustrate concepts by hand. For example, there are two drawings of a female
astronaut working in a life sciences module. One is a draft pencil sketch and the other is a brightly-colored version of the
composition in watercolor, pen, and ink. Another set includes a pen and ink drawing of a scene, a reproduction of the drawing
with printed text labels pasted on it, and a reproduction of the drawing and paste-up, colorized in cool tones.
The collection also includes objects Arno designed, such as mission memorabilia, and three publications, including a children's
book entitled "The Story of Space & Rockets," a book about the ER-2 flight and observation capabilities created for pilot
Marty Knutson, and a selection of Arno's pencil sketches of non-NASA subjects with a personal introduction. Finally, colleague
Catherine "Caye" Johnson's copies of retirement booklets and other printed compilations of Arno's cartoons and commentary
that he distributed over the years were added to the collection. Some of these include Johnson's comments about individuals
and topics covered in some of the cartoons.
The main body of Arno's sketches and graphic designs in this collection provides a glimpse into how artwork was produced for
NASA Ames for nearly half a century. The works embody a historical progression of techniques from hand illustrations to computer-aided
drawings, created using increasingly sophisticated software tools. Arno's memoirs provide a summary of his career as engineer
and artist at Ames in his own words. From these and his editorial cartoons, one can see the frankness and frivolity of the
man as he reveals perspectives not so easily found in official records.
Formats: Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Document Format (PDF), QuickTime Movie (MOV).
Arrangement of the Roger D. Arno Papers
These records are arranged by format, with paper records first, followed by original artwork, optical media, posters, and
artifacts. The contents of the optical media are in their original order.
Digital files were retrieved from the "Arno Space Art" and "LCROSS and Free Flyer Highlights..." CD-R disks during processing,
and access copies were created. Among these, for accessibility and stability, images were converted to JPEG format, documents
and presentations were converted to PDF format, missing file extensions were appended, and nonconforming operating system
control characters were removed from filenames. Content on the "LCROSS" DVD was locked, so a disk image could not be created,
but this is not a unique disk. Additional information is filed under collection number pp1401.