Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.). Avionic Equipment Office.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL), Section 348, Avionic Equipment, deals with the engineering research, designing and manufacturing of computer, electrical and mechanical components for various spacecraft such as Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Mariner, Cassini, Hubble Space Telescope and some Space Shuttle flights. Some of the major components designed and built by the section were Mars Pathfinder's Dry Readout Inertial Reference Unit (DRIRU) 2, Stepping Motors, Gyro Systems, Robotic Components, Actuators, Scan Platform, Magnetic Suspension Systems, Optical Control Units, Electronic Circuit Boards, various Motor Assemblies and a great number of other devices.

The division and section numbers and titles have changed throughout the years. The sequence of these changes are as follows: Section 342, Spacecraft Secondary Power, May 1965 - November 1969; Section 342, Spacecraft Power, December 1969 - May 1970; Section 361, Flight Computers and Sequencers, June 1970 - October 1977; Section 361, Spacecraft Computer, July 1978 - July 1984; Section 348, Spacecraft Data Systems, February 1985 - May 1987; Section 348, Flight Command and Data Management Systems, June 1987 - June 1994; Section 344, Avionic Equipment, July 1994 - December 1995.

During the years, Section 348 had kept an accurate research library, consisting of all drawings, specifications, reports, interoffice memoranda, viewgraphs, photographs, manufacturer product catalogs and other pertinent material. The records were stored in file cabinets, which were maintained by an individual file clerk. This specific collection contains these records.

Project Viking was composed of two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. Viking 1 and 2 were the first successful soft landings on the planet Mars. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface and search for evidence of life. The two Vikings were launched in August and September 1975. The Viking Lander 1 touched down at Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The Viking Lander 2 touched down at Utopia Planitia on September 3, 1976. The Viking orbiters and landers continued sending back data until 1982.

Project Voyager was a dual spacecraft long-range mission that conducted a "Grand Tour" of the Outer Planets. The project, originally called "Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977" (MJS77) was approved by NASA and Congress in June 1972. MJS77 was renamed Voyager in 1977, slightly before the first launch date. The two Voyager spacecraft were launched in August and September 1977. Voyager 1 made its closest encounter with Jupiter on March 5, 1979; Voyager 2 reached Jupiter on July 9, 1979. Voyager 1 reached Saturn on November 13, 1980. Voyager 2 reached Saturn on August 26, 1981. Voyager 2 then headed towards Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 traveled north of the Ecliptic after its Saturn encounter. Voyager 2 encountered Uranus on January 24, 1986 and Neptune on August 25, 1989. Both Voyager spacecraft continue to send back scientific telemetry, twenty-two years after leaving Earth and will continue doing so until the power runs out in both spacecraft, around 2017.

In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was first to observe Jupiter through a telescope. Galileo also soon discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter. Project Galileo, a Jupiter orbiter and atmospheric probe, the next logical step in the exploration of Jupiter after Voyager, was initiated in November 1977. The project was originally called Jupiter Orbiter Probe (JOP), but was quickly christened Project Galileo. Following several postponements involving the Space Shuttle, the launch of Galileo, originally scheduled for April 1982, was rescheduled for May 1986. The explosion of the Shuttle Challenger in January 1986 further postponed the launching of Galileo. The Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-34 mission, ultimately launched Galileo in October 1989.

Due to the multiple postponements, Galileo missed the launch window for a direct flight to Jupiter. According to NASA, the reason for the postponements was because they couldn't use a certain launch vehicle on the shuttle. Galileo was forced to fly a trajectory involving gravity-assisted flybys of Venus once and Earth twice, before arriving at Jupiter on December 7, 1995. The Galileo probe entered the atmosphere of Jupiter, sending back data for an hour before burning up. The Galileo orbiter continues orbiting Jupiter, exploring its moons and sending back data.

The Cassini mission is an international venture involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and several separate European academic and industrial partners. The mission is managed for NASA by JPL. The spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on October 1997. The two-story-tall robotic spacecraft will begin a journey of many years to reach and explore the exciting realm of Saturn, the most distant planet that can easily be seen by the unaided human eye. In addition to Saturn's interesting atmosphere and interior, its vast system contains the most spectacular of the four planetary ring systems, numerous icy satellites with a variety of unique surface features, a huge magnetosphere teeming with particles that interact with the rings and moons and the intriguing moon Titan, which is slightly larger than the planet Mercury and whose hazy atmosphere is denser than that of Earth.

From the description of Avionic Equipment Research Library Collection, 1931-1992 (Bulk 1965-1992). (Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives). WorldCat record id: 733100122