Guide to the Robert W. Jackson Collection,
1964-1999
NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center
Inventory prepared by Leilani Marshall
NASA Ames Research Center History Office
NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames History Office
Mail-Stop 207-1
Moffett Field, CA 94035
Phone: (650) 604-1032
Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov
2004
NASA Ames Research Center. All rights reserved.
Note
Aerospace Engineering
Guide to the Robert W. Jackson Collection, 1964-1999
PP03.02
NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center
Contact Information:
- NASA Ames History Office
- NASA Ames Research Center
- Mail-Stop 207-1
- Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
- Phone: (650) 604-1032
- Fax: (650) 604-6673
- Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
- URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov/contacts.htm
- Collection processed by:
- Leilani Marshall
- Date Completed:
-
March 2004
- Encoded by:
- Leilani Marshall
- Date encoded:
- March 2004
2004 NASA Ames Research Center. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Robert W. Jackson Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1964-1999
Collection number: PP03.02
Creator:
Jackson, Robert W. (Robert William)
Extent:
1.4 cubic feet
Repository:
NASA Ames Research Center
Ames History Office
Moffett Field, California 94035
Abstract: This collection consists of materials that document four NASA space
programs during the years 1967 to 1988: Biosatellite, Magellan, Pioneer and Voyager. The
materials were collected by Robert W. Jackson, who served as Recovery Controller for the
Biosatellite program and as Flight Director for the Pioneer spacecraft.
Physical location: NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center
Language: All material is in English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-governmental
material, researcher must contact origical creator.
Preferred Citation
NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center. Moffett Field, California. PP03.02, Robert W. Jackson Collection, 1964-1999,
[Container number] : [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
Acquisition Information
Donated by Robert W. Jackson in January 2004.
Biography
Robert William Jackson was born March 31, 1937 in Yonkers, New York. He earned a BS in
Aeronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959. After
working for the Boeing Company, he received an MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from
Stanford University in 1963. He joined the NASA Ames Research Center in 1963.
At NASA Ames, Mr. Jackson provided Mission Analysis and Study Management for numerous
scientific space project studies including: Earth Orbiting and Reentry Satellites; Free
Flying and Space Station attached telescopes; Earth Escape Missions; Planetary Orbiters for
Venus, Moon, and Mars; and Entry Probe and Lander Missions to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn.
Mr. Jackson performed recovery planning for the Earth Orbiting Biosatellite flights in the
late 1960s and served as Recovery Controller during the flights. During the 1980s, he served
as Flight Director for the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft, including the periods when the
spacecraft was used as a remote observatory for Comets. He also simultaneously served as
Flight Director for the six older Interplanetary Pioneer spacecraft.
Mr. Jackson was responsible for operations planning for the Space Station-based Biological
Research Project and managed preparations for the first item of NASA Ames hardware to be
operated in the Station, a Passive Dosimeter system.
He has received numerous NASA awards including an Exceptional Service Medal for Pioneer
Venus operations.
Mr. Jackson served as Chief of the Spacecraft Operations Branch in 1992 until his
retirement from NASA in August 2001.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Robert W. Jackson Collection (1.67 linear feet) is composed of journal articles,
photographs, monographs and other publications, and reports that cover four NASA space
missions: Biosatellite, Magellan, Pioneer, and Voyager.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into four series based on these space missions.
The first series, Biosatellite, contains clippings and publications about the Biosatellite
Project. The three Biosatellites were earth-orbiting biological satellites that were
designed to return their experiments to the ground for analysis at the conclusion of their
flights. Their combined mission was to study the effects on living organisms of
weightlessness, radiation, weightlessness combined with radiation, and the absences of the
effects of the earth's rotation, such as the removal of the normal 24 hours day-night cycle.
The second series, Magellan, contains primarily journal articles about the Magellan
Mission. Magellan was launched in 1989, arrived at Venus in and went into orbit around the
planet in 1990, gathering radar images of its surface, data on its gravity field, and
gathering data on its geologic structure. The mission was terminated in October 1994 when
the Magellan spacecraft was sent into the atmosphere of Venus where it was destroyed,
marking the first time an operating planetary spacecraft was intentionally crashed.
The third series, Pioneer, represents the majority of the collection. It contains
clippings, images, journal issues, publications and reports on the Pioneer Missions 6-13.
The Pioneer Missions were designed to study the sun's environment and the planets in the
solar system, performing first of their kind explorations of the sun, Jupiter, Saturn and
Venus.
The most significant of these spacecraft were Pioneer 10 and 11, the first spacecraft to
explore Jupiter and Saturn, and the first spacecraft to exit the solar system. Pioneer 10's
mission ended in 1997 and the spacecraft has continued to explore the solar system when its
last contact with Earth was made in 2003. Pioneer 11's mission ended in 1995 when its
instruments had no power to make scientific observations. Both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11
carry a gold anodized plaque bolted to the spacecraft’s main frame that contains a graphic
message of Earth and its human inhabitants, in the event that the spacecraft are intercepted
by other intelligence.
The fourth and final series in the collection, Voyager, contains images and a publication
about the Voyager Mission. The Voyager Interstellar Mission was a two-spacecraft mission to
the outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that was launched in 1977. Voyager
2's mission is now known as Voyager Interstellar Mission as it heads out of the solar system
at a rate of about 290 million miles a year.
Indexing Terms
The following terms may be used to index this collection.
Personal Names
Jackson, Robert W.
Subject Terms
Magellan Spacecraft
Pioneer Project
Pioneer (Space Probes)
Space Biology
Voyager Project
Geographic Names
Moffett Field (Calif.)
Corporate Names
Ames Research Center
Separated Materials
All NASA Special Publications (NASA SP) have been removed from the collection and placed
with the Ames History Office Reference Collection.
Series I.
Biosatellite,
1965-1996
Physical Description:
7 folders
Series Scope and Content Summary
This series is arranged in three subseries based on the Biosatellite projects:
Biosatellite Project, Biosatellite II, and Biosatellite III. The first subseries,
Biosatellite Project, contains two publications that introduce the project and report on
the Biosatellite project in its entirety. The second subseries, Biosatellite II,
contains a NASA publication on the experiments of the Biosatellite II. The third and
final subseries, Biosatellite III, is composed of magazine and journal articles on the
Biosatellite III project.
Box 1, Folder 1
NASA Facts. Vol. II, No. 10. (1965?)
Box 1, Folder 2
Biosatellite Project: Historical Summary Report. December 1969.
Box 1, Folder 3
Saunders, Joseph F. The Experiments of Biosatellite II. Washington, DC:
Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, 1972. NASA SP-204.
Box 1, Folder 5
Clippings, 1971. "Biosatellite III Results." Reprinted from Aerospace
Medicine, Volume 42, Number 3, March 1971.
Series II.
Magellan,1993-1999
Physical Description:
3 folders
Series Scope and Content Summary
This series primarily contains journal articles related to the Magellan Mission to
Venus. It also includes a copy of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory newsletter "V-Gram:
Magellan Bulletin about Venus and the Radar Mapping Mission."
Series III.
Pioneer,1964-1997
Physical Description:
77 folders (3 boxes)
Series Scope and Content Summary
This series represents the bulk of the collection. It is arranged in five subseries:
Clippings, Images, Journal Issues, Publications, and Reports. The first subseries,
Clippings, contains journal and newspaper articles as well as NASA news press kits,
press releases, newsletters and bulletins from NASA Ames Research Center and Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and NASA News Special Reports. The Images subseries is
further arranged in four sub-subseries by topic: Comets, Planets, Space Probes, and
Other. Many images in this subseries are official NASA lithographs that include written
descriptions in the back of the photos with the statement "This lithograph is a
Government publication …" and others are JPL photographs. The Journal Issues
subseries includes entire issues of journals that are devoted to the Pioneer Project and
missions, such as the journal Science. The Publications subseries is further arranged in
three sub-subseries by publisher: NASA Ames Research Center Publications, NASA
Publications and Other Publications. The material in these sub-subseries includes
monographs, magazines, and other informational publications. The NASA Special
Publications monographs have been removed from the collection and placed with the NASA
Ames History Office Reference Collection (separation sheets note this new location). The
final subseries of Pioneer is Reports, which contains published and unpublished reports
about the Pioneer Project and missions.
Box 2, Folder 48
Pioneer Space Probes and Orbiters
Box 3, Folder 50
Science. 25 January 1974. Vol. 183, No. 4122.
Box 3, Folder 51
Science. 2 May 1975. Vol. 188, No. 4187.
Box 3, Folder 52
Science. 23 February 1979. Vol. 203, No. 4382. Science. 6 July 1979. Vol.
205, No. 4401.
Box 3, Folder 53
Science. 25 January 1980. Vol. 207, No. 4429.
Box 3, Folder 54
JBIS: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. October 1984. Volume
37, No. 10.
Box 3, Folder 55
Mercury: The Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Vol.
XVII, Number 2. March/April 1988. Mercury: The Journal of the Astronomical Society
of the Pacific. Vol. XVII, Number 3. May/June 1988.
Box 3, Folder 56
Geophysical Research Letters. December 14, 1993. Volume 20, Number 23.
Selected papers on Pioneer Venus Orbiter: Entry Phase.
NASA Ames Research Center Publications
Box 3, Folder 57
Pioneer Saturn Encounter. Moffett Field, CA: Ames Research Center,
1979.
Box 3, Folder 58
Pioneer F & G: Mission to Jupiter. Moffett Field, CA: Ames
Research Center, [n.d.].
Box 3, Folder 59
Telemetry Coding Experiment for Pioneer Program. Moffett Field, CA: NASA
Ames Research Center, [n.d.].
Box 3, Folder 60
The Pioneer Mission to Jupiter. Prepared for the Office of Space Science
and Applications. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
1971. NASA SP-268.
Box 3, Folder 61
Corliss, William R. The Interplanetary Pioneers. Volume I: Summary.
Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1972. NASA
SP-278.
Box 3, Folder 62
Fimmel, Richard O., William Swindell, and Eric Burgess. Pioneer Odyssey:
Encounter With a Giant. Prepared at Ames Research Center. Washington, DC: National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1974. NASA SP-349.
Box 3, Folder 63
Fimmel, Richard O., William Swindell, and Eric Burgess. Pioneer Odyssey.
Prepared at Ames Research Center. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, 1977. NASA SP-396.
Box 3, Folder 64
Fimmel, Richard O., Lawrence Colin, and Eric Burgess. Pioneer Venus.
Prepared at Ames Research Center. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, 1983. NASA SP-461.
Box 3, Folder 65
Nicks, Oran W. Far Travelers: The Exploring Machines. Washington, DC:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1985. NASA SP-480.
Box 3, Folder 66
Fimmel, Richard O., Lawrence Colin, and Eric Burgess. Pioneering Venus: A
Planet Unveiled. Prepared at NASA Ames Research Center. Washington, DC: National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1995. NASA SP-518.
Box 3, Folder 67
Space Pioneers and Where They Are Now. Washington, DC: Educational
Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1987. NASA
EP-264.
Box 3, Folder 68
NASA Activities. January 1979. Vol. 10, No. 1.
Box 3, Folder 69
Pioneer to Jupiter: Second Exploration. Palo Alto, CA: Bendix Field
Engineering Corporation, November 1974.
Box 3, Folder 70
Pioneer Venus Encounter-1978. Moffett Field, CA: Bendix Field Engineering
Corporation, 1978.
Box 3, Folder 71
Pioneer Venus Mission Profiles-1978. Sunnyvale, CA: Bendix Field
Engineering Corporation, 1978.
Box 3, Folder 72
A Diamond to Venus. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: D. Drukker & Zn.
N.V, [n.d.].
Box 3, Folder 73
Pioneer Venus Exploration. [El Segundo, CA]: Hughes Aircraft Co.,
[n.d.].
Box 3, Folder 74
"Proposal for the design and development of the Pioneer Venus Spacecraft
System. Summary." [El Segundo, CA]: Hughes Aircraft Company, August
1973.
Box 3, Folder 75
"Pioneer Program: Pioneer Venus Project Plan." Pioneer Document PC-400.
Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center, 1974.
Box 4, Folder 76
"Analysis of Spacecraft Anomalies." By Charles E. Bloomquist and Winifred
C. Graham. March 1976. PRC R-1833. Prepared under Contract No. NAS 2-9041 for Ames
Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Box 4, Folder 77
"Pioneer Venus: Final Project Report." December 1978. Contract No. NAS
2-8300. El Segundo, CA: Hughes Aircraft Company, 1978.
Box 4, Folder 78
"Pioneer Venus Extended Mission II: Presentation to NASA HQ." April 30,
1981.
Box 4, Folder 79
"Pioneer Venus Orbiter Mission Phases II and III." NASA Ames Research
Center. Revised, March 1982.
Box 4, Folder 80
"Pioneer 10 and 1 Heliospheric Mission." Presentation. April 9,
1982.
Box 4, Folder 81
"Thermal Structure of the Atmosphere of Venus From Pioneer Venus Radio
Occultations." Arvydas J. Kliore and Indu R. Patel, Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Revised August 30, 1982.
Box 4, Folder 82
"Post Launch Mission Operation Report: Pioneer Venus Orbiter &
Multiprobe Mission Success Assessment." Report No. S-825-78-01/02. December 8,
1982.
Box 4, Folder 83
"Pioneer to Venus: The Multiprobe and Orbiter Missions." Roger A. Craig,
Lawrence Colin and Richard O. Fimmel. NASA Ames Research Center. December 23,
1983.
Box 4, Folder 84
"Pioneer Venus Orbiter Mission: Post-Halley." July 1985.
Box 4, Folder 85
"Pioneer Venus Orbiter: Ten Years of Discovery." A Report of the Pioneer
Venus Science Steering Group. Edited by Lawrence Colin. August 1989.
Box 4, Folder 86
"Pioneer Venus 12.5 km Anamoly Workshop Report (Volume I)". Proceedings of
a workshop held at Moffett Field, California September 28-29, 1993. NASA Conference
Publication 3303.
Box 4, Folder 87
"Pioneer Venus Orbiter Post-Entry Summary Report." Document No. P-1002.
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. May 20, 1994.
Box 4, Folder 88
"Interplanetary Pioneer Success Story." A paper prepared for Wincon 70,
IEEE. By Thomas M. Lough, John Mulkern and Bernard Roseman, [n.d.].
Series IV.
Voyager,1977-1980
Physical Description:
2 folders
Series Scope and Content Summary
The fourth and final series in the collection, Voyager, contains images and a
publication about the Voyager Mission. The Voyager Interstellar Mission was a
two-spacecraft mission to the outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that
was launched in 1977. The mission was designed to take advantage of a rare geometric
arrangement of the outer planets that only happens every 175 years and that allowed the
spacecraft to visit all four planets using the minimum amount of fuel and time. Voyager
1 visited Jupiter in March 1979 and Saturn in November 1980, and then continued on its
way out of the solar system at a rate of 320 million miles a year, conducting studies of
interplanetary space. Voyager 2 also visited Jupiter in July 1979 and Saturn in August
1981, but then continued on its way to Uranus (January 1986) and Neptune (August 1989).
Voyager 2's mission is now known as Voyager Interstellar Mission as it heads out of the
solar system at a rate of about 290 million miles a year.
Box 4, Folder 90
Voyager to Jupiter and Saturn. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, 1977. NASA SP-420.