Last night some fossil was on T.V. (in my country) claiming to be 'the designer' of the Viking landing gear. He's Thai, has a PhD. Says he went to Cambridge then some University called London or in London? I don't doubt that he's a PhD, in fact, he teaches at one of the best University here in Bangkok, so that seems legit. But that story about him working at NASA just doesn't sound right...

He says during his time studying in the U.S., he wrote a letter to NASA inquiring about possible job but they turned him down cuz he's "Thai." Then he says after reading about how several attempts to land the Viking ended in disaster, he wrote NASA again, this time explaining that he can solve their landing problems and they gave him a job working on the project. That easy?

When asked how did he come up with the solution, this fossil says he drove up on top of a hill in LA and meditate. On the fifth day 'it' hit him. I don't know what hit him, maybe some Cholos but anyway...it gave him the engineering solution to the Viking landing problem.

Well, I think somewhere this old man is lying. Is there a way to find out who designed the landing gear?

Maybe one of these sites can help point you in the right direction.

http://www.solarviews.com/history/SP-4212/ch7-3.html

http://www.solarviews.com/history/SP-4212/ch8-5.html

http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/mpf/faqs_edl.html

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/ch8.html

the Vikings didn't have disastrous landings before they got it right, AFAIK.

The landing gear design is pretty standard, a pad/leg supported by 3 struts, one of which incorporates a shock absorber. Similar to what had been already used on the Lunar Module and/or the Surveyor probes.

The thing that makes landings on Mars so tricky is the need to do a lot of complicated things in an automated sequence. Reentry, heat-shield jettison, parachute deployment, aeroshell and parachute jettison, active retro-rockets at exactly the right height/speed, and finally land in a clear spot w/o smashing on a boulder.

Viking had a unique design in that it had these two retro packs that were each comprised of numerous smaller thrusters. This was to minimize kicking up a lot of dust in the landing area and disturbing the soil, as they wanted a pristine area to study.

I allways thought the vikings used longboats ?

Thanks guys. If he is a fraud, it's too late. I tried telling my co-workers, most of whom are well educated beyond their job description calls for, but they din't care. I can't believe he's getting away with it. This is so fecking thirdworld, man. People are willing to believe anything from anyone claiming to be so and so. Especially if they're educated in the U.S.A.

Sigh...

All I know is they've been doing very well since Brad Johnson took over as quarterback.

And Randy Moss went to Oakland.

Chuck

Wasn't he in....oh never mind.