Online From Jupiter 97

Maynard G. Hine

Manager, Galileo Administrative Office

Training for the job market started early in my life (before the time of child labor laws). My father first taught me that the word "impossible" was to never exist in my vocabulary or my approach to anything I pursued. Impossible was explained as a state of mind which only destroys a persons ability to achieve. The second thing my father stressed was "Your word is your bond"! that is, if you make a commitment you deliver at all costs. Finally I was taught that one must always be honest and own up to your mistakes.

At the age of 13 I was introduced to the building trades with after school and week-end work in painting, carpentry, masonry and some electrical and plumbing work. At 15 I helped my father build a home followed the next year with my first complete design and construction job of a motel. On this I drew the plans, filed the plans with the building department, made up the complete materials list and then worked on the building from digging for the foundation through roofing and finish carpentry.

I graduated from high school at the age of 17 and entered college with a major in Architecture. After my second year I obtained a summer job with a very small electronics engineering firm which was a pioneer in the field of radio interference. At that point I had no background in electronics and was hired as a carpenter to build walls, cabinets, etc. in this growing company, Hopkins Engineering Co. I was never taught how to drag my feet and after a few weeks completed all the construction jobs required. Instead of being laid off the owner asked if I would work as an electronic technician to aid the chief engineer, an opportunity which was scheduled to change my life and my career. The chief engineer had previously been a professor of physics at a major university. As a teacher he was superb and made me dig for the knowledge to do each task assigned.

Before the end of that first summer I was on the road as a field engineer running tests on military equipment to eliminate radio interference. Not having made enough money to return to college I stayed with this firm through the fall semester. The owner, seeing I was not returning to school said he would finance my education if I would major in some field of physics, chemistry or engineering.

I transferred from the University of Oregon to UCLA where I changed my major to Applied Physics with a specialty in electronics. I continued to work for the firm but because I could not travel while in school I worked in a number of fields as needs arose. Positions held were head of the product design department, a short excursion into tool and die making, and as one of the production line managers. As these challenges arose I took courses at UCLA which I felt would help me with what I was working on. Therefore, I took "extra" courses in management, industrial engineering, etc. along with my Physics courses.

As the company expanded a decision was made to go into the "super pure" silver plating business as silver plating of electronic contacts was becoming prevalent in the industry. Because of my background the owner asked me to design and supervise the building of this new facility. After nearly four years with Hopkins he informed me he had sold the company to Sprague Electronics. I felt that perhaps the time had come to move on. Seeing that interesting things seemed to be going on behind the gates of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California I applied for a job in electronics. The date was June 16, 1955.

JPL in those days was developing missile systems for the Army. Propulsion research was the prime activity. I was told that there were no electronics positions open. I asked what they needed and was told "an architect". I applied and got the position. This position allowed me to work early morning and late evenings plus Saturdays so that I could continue my education at UCLA. Keeping my eyes open I transferred into a "Systems Engineering" job 2-1/2 years later. The Sergeant missile system was having RF interference problems and I was again in my element. During JCL's remaining years with the Army I did systems engineering in communications, guidance alignment and warhead systems. After the Russians launched Sputnik I the Army asked JPL to launch a satellite, Explorer I, as the first successful space mission for the United States. With that success JPL was transferred to NASA to undertake scientific exploration of the planetary system.

The Systems Engineering Group I was part of provided the studies and management plans for the early Ranger, Surveyor and Mariner Projects. With the approval of these missions it was obvious that a Mission Control Facility was required. Because of my architectural, systems engineering and electronic background I was selected to work as a part of the design team to build and equip the "Space Flight Operations Facility". As a part of this design the first major project which was to be controlled from this facility was Surveyor, a soft Lunar lander.

I was selected to study and work with the Surveyor Project to assure their needs were met. Upon completion of the facility and testing to verify the adequacy of all systems I was hired into the Surveyor Project Office to assure that all ground data systems including communications from the Deep Space Tracking Network were adequate and ready. After the first three missions I was named to manage the Surveyor Television Ground Data Handling System (the first real-time television data reduction system at JPL).

A new project office, Flight Science Experiments Office, was created in 1968, the Project Manager chosen had been my group supervisor when I was in Systems Engineering. He asked me to be the assistant manager in quite a new role for me, that of evaluating JPL proposals for science instruments to be flown on non-JPL projects. It was my job to determine if the resources that were quoted in the proposals were both adequate and realistic and then to negotiate and control the resources on these tasks. Four years later I was hired as a staff assistant to the Project Manager on the Voyager Project.

Shortly after the launch of Voyager, the Project Manager of Voyager was chosen to start the Galileo Project. He informed me I was moving with him. My job on Galileo has been a steady progression of activities depending upon the phase of the project and its specialized needs. In the early stage my job concentrated on establishing the guidelines for a documentation system as well as the scheduling of all subsystem activity. I also headed up a team which organized and produced the graphics for Project Reviews. As we came closer to launch I was asked to design special displays and write the script as well as provide the technical direction for special videos that explained various aspects of the Galileo Mission. I was also involved in giving talks on Galileo world-wide.

At present I am the Manager of the Office of Administration and Support for the Galileo Project. I am a working manager who believes in sharing the work load of my staff. I am honored to have a staff that is extremely talented and dedicated and together we handle all administrative functions of the Project as well as graphics support. We are involved with the production of all literature, displays, open houses, and the like. In addition, I am responsible to the Project for the design of all facilities supporting the project and mission operations. I must assure that all power, networks and communications systems are kept in reliable working order and participate heavily in the design of these systems. All personnel matters are also in my area of responsibility

One's hobbies and outside interests should never be overlooked. My outside activities have included commercial photography, world-wide travel, cars and machine shop work. I also enjoy fishing, skiing and hunting as well as competitive target shooting and am the instructor for a Junior Rifle Club. The photography and machine shop work have provided me with insight on the processes involved in getting products made.

My career at JPL has been varied and exciting. Many of the tasks have required extremely long hours but the rewards of "felt accomplishment" were indeed adequate payment for the extra time.