Albee, Arden Leroy, 1928-

This collection includes documents that Arden Albee either collected or created during the period he participated in planetary and lunar exploration projects for JPL from 1961-2006, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1971-1996. The projects include the Mars Airplane, The Mars Rover/ Sample Return missions, Pathfinder, Mars Observer, Mars Global Surveyor, and the soviet joint Mars missions, along with projects that were not implemented. There are a number of related collections in the Archives including mission and directors collections.

Arden Leroy Albee was born on May 28, 1928 in Port Huron, Michigan. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1957. From 1950 -1959 he was a Geologist with the U. S. Geological Survey. He was involved in geologic mapping and investigation of mineral resources. He also is a registered Geologist in the state of California. In 1959 he became a professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology, and was involved in a number of investigations. Dr. Albee worked with four JPL directors as Chief Scientist, Project Scientist and committee chair, and made significant contributions to the Mars program.

Dr. Albee became more involved in JPL at the end of William Hayward Pickering's directorship in 1972. In 1958 Dr. Pickering headed JPL's transfer from the military to NASA and the subsequent transition into planetary exploration. Dr. Albee served on numerous NASA planning and advisory committees in the early 1970s including the chair the Lunar Science Review Panel, and a member of the Lunar Planning Committee, the Terrestrial Bodies Science Working Group, the Physical Science Committee and the Mars '84 Science Working Group. The collection contains examples of his Mars work during this period including Viking wrap up studies and a proposal for a Viking 3.

In 1976, the same year that Dr. Albee won the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, Dr .Bruce C. Murray succeeded Pickering as director. Dr. Murray appointed Arden Albee as Chief Scientist and member of the executive council in 1978, replacing Professor Rochus E. Vogt. Interestingly, Dr. Murray was also a professor at Caltech in the Geology department and he changed the focus of planetary exploration from Pickering's emphasis on the search for life, to a focus on surface chemistry. During Dr. Murray's directorship Dr. Albee was a member of the Space Science Advisory Committee. He was chairman of a number of committees including the Mars Science Working Group and the Mars Science Steering Group in and was a leader of the Mars Study Program until1980. During this period he worked on the Mars Airplane project, and planning for joint USSR missions which he continued into the 1990s.

Lew Allen succeeded Dr. Murray as director in 1982. Although Lew Allen came from the Defense Department, Dr. Albee continued as Chief Scientist for two years until 1984 when he was replaced by Moustafa Chahine. In 1984 Dr. Albee became the Dean of Graduate studies at Caltech in 1984, a title he retained for 16 years. The same year he became the Project Scientist on the Mars Observer/Mars Global Surveyor Missions. Mars Observer was lost prior to arrival on Mars; however the replacement project, Mars Global Surveyor, was very successful and has returned more images than any other project. Lew Allen was a technology enthusiast, and was a strong supporter of planetary surface robotics and technologies for the study of extrasolar planets. In the 1980s Dr. Albee was a member of the Solar System Exploration Committee, the Solar System Exploration Management Council and the Task Group on Planetary and Lunar Exploration.

Edward Stone became director in 1990 and served until 2001. During his directorship small fast paced missions replaced the slower planetary missions of the past. JPL took on more jobs with less money and less personnel. The era, called "Faster better cheaper" resulted in Pathfinder which was a very successful mission, as well as Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, which were both lost in 1999. Dr. Albee worked on all of these projects as well as being a member of the Mars Rover/Sample Return Science Working Group and the USA-USSR Joint Working Group on Solar System Exploration in the 1990s.