Martians of the Month
February Martian of the Month - Jim Simmons
Jim Simmons is key to our successful videoconferences with the Russian
Space Agency, other NASA centers, and Lockheed Martin. He has been willing
and able to set up conferences with Russia (scheduled at ungodly hours)
on a regular basis, including multiple additional parties. All the conferences
work very smoothly while Jim works quietly in the background, making sure
that we never go into the ditch. The Russian activity has been very successful
largely because of our mutual use of the information highway. A major thoroughfare
on that highway is videoconferencing and without videoconferencing, our
progress would have been much slower.
March Martian of the Month - Robin O'Brien
Robin is the lead engineer for the Ground Data System D1.0 Assembly, Test
and Launch Operations (ATLO) support for Mars
Global Surveyor. The system has been successfully supporting ATLO for
many months. Due to the importance of the system, and the fact that it provides
some newly-developed, first-time-use capabilities, it was originally carried
as an item on the project Risk List. Robin and the Ground Data System team
have come through like champs. The system works well and is no longer a
"risk item".
April Martian of the Month - Wayne Lee
Wayne has been a major contributor to the Mars Global Surveyor mission design
effort. He co-authored the high quality Mission Plan which was published
on time, and he authored the MRR and the DMR, which were also published
on schedule. Wayne has performed excellently in working special tasks such
as the launch probability problem and more recently, the question of what
backup mapping orbit options are available if we cannot reach the 2pm mapping
orbit. In addition to his normal tasks, Wayne tirelessly supports the Outreach
Program.