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On Mars:
Exploration of the Red Planet. 1958-1978
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- THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE:
MARINER SPACECRAFT AND LAUNCH VEHICLES
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- [25] By August 1960 when Clarence R. Gates
and his colleagues at Jet Propulsion Laboratory began studying
plans for an interplanetary space-craft called Mariner B, NASA's
lunar and planetary program was taking the basic form it would
have for a decade. Mariner B, designed to explore Mars and Venus
and the space between, competed for both financial and manpower
resources with several other space science projects. Lunar
spacecraft-Pioneer, Ranger, Surveyor, and Prospector-were the main
attraction, while Mariner and Voyager with their planetary
objectives took second billing.* 1 Lunar and planetary missions were arranged
sequentially so that planners and scientists could progress from
simple to complex tasks. Designers and engineers would likewise
work on increasingly sophisticated spacecraft around a common
chassis, or "bus," that could take successively more complex
experiment packages into space. To meet these goals, NASA planned
for the structured growth and development of several basic kinds
of spacecraft. But spacecraft were only half the story.
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- Reliable launch vehicles were essential to
space exploration, and their lack had bedeviled the American space
endeavor from the beginning. Reliability and payload capacity of
the boosters (both proposed and in existence) defined the
dimensions and possible use of each kind of spacecraft. While this
relationship between launch vehicle and spacecraft was apparent in
any space project, it had an especially negative effect on Mariner
B.
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* Lunar projects were given names related to
terrestrial exploration activities; interplanetary projects were
given nautical-souning names that conveyed the impression of
travel over great distances to remote lands.
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