The following interview occurred June 25, 2002, between
Genesis Mission Monitors Development Leader Bruce Barraclough
and Senior Consultant Jacinta Behne, Mid-continent Research
for Education and Learning.
J.B. You work as the Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL) monitors development leader on the Genesis mission.
What does this job title mean?
B.B. This really isn't a formal job title. It just
indicates that I was in charge of the development of the Genesis
Electron Monitor (GEM) and Genesis Ion Monitor (GIM) for the
Genesis mission. During the proposal phase, I worked on all
aspects of the conceptual science payload for the mission
(i.e. the GEM and GIM, the Concentrator, and the "Wind"
software for autonomous payload control). Once we were selected
for flight, I took responsibility for the design, development,
fabrication, testing, and flight operation of the Monitors,
and I was also charged with leading development of the WIND
flight software and for planning/coordinating the flight operation
of the science payload with the rest of the project. All of
this work required the coordinated efforts of a large team
and I was merely the frontman for the team.
J.B. Your work centers on the design of the spacecraft
monitors for gathering science information. Do you consider
yourself to be an engineer or a scientist?
BB. I actually serve in a role that somewhat bridges
the two disciplines. We defined the science that had to be
accomplished and then had to translate this into hardware
with which we could accomplish the science goals. For Genesis
and a number of other missions, I have to say that the majority
of my duties are more engineering-related but I certainly
perform a number of scientific functions also. I am mostly
involved with the design and production of instrumentation,
as opposed to data-analysis and theory, which are the other
major functional elements in my group, and so I don't do as
much science or publish as much as some of the other members
of my team.
J.B. What is the significance of the onboard monitors
on the Genesis spacecraft? How will they serve to provide
new science understanding?
B.B. Genesis is somewhat of a different mission for me
in that the Monitors do not provide primary science data.
In fact, the main science phase of the mission doesn't really
begin until after the solar wind samples have returned to
Earth and the Monitors have burned up with the spacecraft
over the Pacific Ocean. For this mission, the Monitors mainly
serve as one of many spacecraft subsystems that support the
execution of the main science objectives. For a typical space
physics mission (Genesis is more of a planetary mission),
the ion and electron plasma spectrometers typically provide
some of the most fundamental science measurements that the
mission is designed around, but for Genesis, the spectrometers
were included primarily to enable the collection of the solar
wind samples. This subsidiary role of the Monitors was a first
for me and for LANL. That being said, we do hope to gain much
science understanding from the Monitor data but this is more
a bonus than a requirement. One of the main things we hope
to accomplish is to use our data with that from three other
spacecraft located at L1 to obtain a more global view of various
aspects of solar wind physics that is not possible with typical,
single-point measurements.
J.B. Does your work on Genesis spacecraft instrumentation
offer you the opportunity to work with other Genesis mission
teams? If so, how?
B.B. Luckily, I get the chance to work with many of the
other mission teams and the teams I get to work with change
as the mission progresses. For instance, during the prelaunch
phase of the mission, I had to work with the Attitude Control;
Systems; Flight Software; Thermal/Magnetic/Electrostatic;
Fault Protection; Payload Accommodation; Assembly, Test, Launch
Operations (ATLO); Mission Assurance and other teams to get
everything ready for flight. Subsequent to Launch, I have
had the chance to work more closely with the Navigation, Flight
Ops, Command and Sequencing and other teams to ensure that
the mission is executed correctly. It is fascinating to me
to get to work with all of these other teams that do jobs
considerably different from my own and get a peek into the
expertise and talent that exists in these various functional
elements of the overall Genesis team. It is very instructional
to see how these elements do their jobs, what their concerns
and headaches are, and also to try and educate them about
the Science Payload concerns and how we try to accomplish
our jobs.
J.B. Do you have other responsibilities at LANL? If
so, what are they?
B.B. Genesis is only one of many responsibilities that
I have at LANL. This has good and bad points in that I luckily
get to work on many exciting and difficult projects but I
never have the luxury of putting really concentrated effort
and thought into any single project for very long. However,
I do typically get to stick with a mission at some level of
effort from the proposal phase all the way through to the
publication of the final mission science papers in contrast
to many of the other teams that do a specific job for the
mission (e.g., design the power system for the spacecraft)
and then have to rotate off to another project and are unable
to closely follow the progress of a particular mission. I
am simultaneously working on a number of other projects including
Ulysses, Cassini, Lunar Prospector, and several Department
of Energy/Department of Defense (DOE/DOD) missions. In addition,
we are all constantly involved in new proposal activities,
new hardware technology development for future use, strategic
planning exercises, mission development activities, scientific
review of publications and proposals, presenting talks and
writing papers, etc. I am also the supervisor for our team
of very talented LANL technicians and am responsible for insuring
that our large number of labs are up-to-date and functioning
optimally.
J.B. What have you found to be the most fascinating
thing about the Genesis mission?
B.B. The most fascinating aspect of the Genesis mission
to me is the science that will be derived from the returned
samples. When you think about it, it is quite remarkable that
we propose to analyze a very few atoms that are implanted
in the returned sample materials, determine what the present
composition of the outer layers of the sun is, and use this
information to help us understand the condensation of the
early solar nebula into the planets, comets, asteroids, etc.,
4.5 billion years ago. This is so long ago and far away that
it always amazes me that anything at all can be learned about
these times and the subsequent evolution of the wide range
of solar system bodies, and yet we can learn many things in
a surprising amount of detail. Truly remarkable if you consider
it!
J.B. What do you see as the riskiest part of the Genesis
mission?
B.B. I don't see any part of the mission as being considerably
more risky than another as we worked very hard for a number
of years to minimize as much of the mission risk as we possibly
could and we worked hardest of all on the (initially) riskiest
parts so that there wouldn't be a significant probability
of them coming back to bite us. All space work is risky and
the better, faster, cheaper philosophy under which the Genesis
mission was implemented was perhaps riskier than some other
missions because of the faster and cheaper parts. However,
I think the success of the mission to date shows that all
the talented people who worked on the mission identified all
the mission components with a significant risk and figured
out a way to ensure their success.
J.B. What is your work history in space science? Can
you share your involvement in some past NASA missions with
us? How did that work lead to your work on Genesis?
B.B. I've only been in the space business since 1987,
but in that time I have had the privilege of being involved
to a greater or lesser extent in quite of number of missions
that have been flown (not to mention the large number of proposed
missions that were never selected for flight)! Some of these
missions were NASA funded (e.g., Cassini, Ulysses, Lunar Prospector,
Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), Genesis) but a number
of others were European Space Agency (ESA), DoD and/or DOE
funded, e.g. Defense Support Program (DSP), Combined Release
and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), Space and Atmospheric
Burst Reporting System (SABRS). So I have been involved in
civilian as well as military space activities over the years.
During this time, I learned how to design, fabricate, test
and fly various types of plasma, neutral particle, neutron
and gamma-ray instrumentation, as this is what my Group at
LANL specializes in. Marcia Neugebauer knew of LANL's expertise
in these types of instrumentation and she recommended early
on that the Genesis team contact us during the early phases
of the proposal development to see if we would be interested
in providing the Monitors, the Concentrator, and the software
that would control these items. This is basically how I came
to be involved in Genesis.
J.B. Can you capture an image of your everyday work life
for us?
B.B. I generally come in between 7:00 and 7:30, fire up
my computer, check my e-mail (which, given the volume, has
become more of a curse than a blessing), check my calendar
for the day, surf the Web a bit to see what the current space
weather is, check any new data from our various spacecraft
to see that all is well, and then begin working on individual
projects that need attention. Generally, I get very little
concentrated time to devote to any particular activity as
there are always fires to put out, telecons, local meetings,
talks to attend, visitors to host, demands from management
for various items, etc. Eventually, I find time to check in
with our technicians and see that things are going well in
the labs. I eat lunch at my desk and then try to get back
to project work. Generally, I find a little more time in the
afternoon to look at data, write up reports, work on new proposals,
etc. I usually head home around 6:00 and then do it all over
again the next day. During some periods, it seems like I have
to go on travel much more than during other periods, and then
of course, my day is considerably different but the work at
the office always manages to pile up while I am gone and demands
attention when I return. When we happen to be heavily in the
hardware fabrication and testing phase of a given mission
all of this routine goes out the window. I will spend most
of the day in the shops or the lab while all the other work
piles up, sometimes for many weeks at a time. During such
a period, most of my normal duties have to be put aside while
I tend to the hardware, which tends to demand priority over
everything else.
J.B. How did your educational background prepare you
for this job?
B.B. It didn't except in a general way. My undergraduate
and graduate training was in chemistry, geology, oceanography,
and geochemistry. If I had known that I was going to spend
a number of years doing space and planetary physics, I would
certainly have pursued a different course of training and
taken a lot more physics, math and engineering classes. As
it is, I had to learn a lot on the job, and there are still
so many areas I am not very smart about. Fortunately, I work
with a great team of real experts and can count on them to
fill in the gaps in my knowledge.
J.B. How does someone prepare to be a spacecraft monitors
team leader? Is there college preparatory work that serves
to help in achieving this role?
B.B. I don't think there is anything specific that I could
recommend. A person should certainly get a good basic grounding
in science and technology. It would be very helpful to do
graduate or postdoctoral studies in an environment where spaceflight
hardware is actually being produced and flown, as much of
what a person needs to know in this business is learned by
experience rather than in the classroom.
J.B. What career path led you to your current scope of
work at LANL?
B.B. A circuitous one. I started working at LANL in 1978
in the area of analytical chemistry and from there moved into
organic geochemistry and fossil fuel work. The Lab sent me
off to graduate school at University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) where I pursued studies in geo- and cosmochemistry
and I pursued this area for a short time after I returned
to LANL. In 1986, I noticed an internal job opening in the
Space and Atmospheric Sciences Group, which I knew to be a
very high-powered bunch and one that I would like to be associated
with, even though I had no particular expertise in this area.
I applied for the position and was accepted, and so began
my career in the space sciences, a move I have never regretted.
J.B. Have there been surprises in your education and
career history?
B.B. That I am in the sciences at all is a bit of a surprise.
When I graduated from high school I had no particular idea
of what I would like to pursue in college. Just before freshman
registration, I received a letter from the Chemistry Dept.
telling me that if I would sign up for a special first year
series of chemistry classes, I could skip several other courses
that were required for graduation and earn extra graduation
credits. This sounded like a good deal to me so I signed up
for Chemistry. I became interested in the subject, and my
education proceeded from there. If that unexpected letter
had never arrived in the mail, I don't really know what sort
of education I would have pursued.
J.B. What is your family life like? What leisure time activities
do you do for fun?
B.B. I have a wife and two boys, ages 13 and 14. In my
job, a person could be on travel a great deal of the time
and I have to consciously try and minimize my travel so that
I can spend time with my family. My hours are fortunately
very flexible so it is possible for me to attend school functions
during the day, help out if someone is sick, watch kids if
my wife is out of town, etc. We always make it a point to
eat dinner together in the evening and then I'll help with
homework, work/read a little, and then try to unwind for a
couple of hours before going to bed and then doing it all
over again. As for leisure activities, we always try and do
some fun things like travel and camping when the kids have
summer vacation. This year, we're all going to Greece for
a month and a couple of years ago we went to Costa Rica. In
addition, I am a soccer referee for kids' games from very
young through high school level and I have a lot of involvement
with this activity in the Spring and Fall. We also have to
go around the region to all the various soccer games and tournaments
one of my sons is involved with. I am a competitive shooter
and I am also a private pilot, but I haven't had the chance
(or money!) to go flying much in the past year.
J.B. What advice can you offer to young scientists and
engineers?
B.B. Get into some area of endeavor that personally excites
you, even if it isn't one where you're already an expert.
If you initially need a mentor, find a first-rate one and
establish a good working relationship with that person. Develop
real expertise in one to several key areas but also develop
a more than superficial knowledge of many other areas that
are useful in your field. Develop lots of contacts and don't
be hesitant to exploit them. Don't be afraid to move into
new areas and expand your experience.
J.B. Are there keys to success that you would like to
share?
B.B. This question assumes that I am a success and have
some secrets to share! In my business, I have found that building
or becoming a member of a really good team is certainly one
of the keys to success. Our work is much too complicated and
specialized for any one person to be able to do everything
by themself. You need a team to accomplish your work and you
are very dependent on your team for your success (or failure).
If you take on a job, make sure it is done right and not in
some half-baked manner. Take on progressively more difficult
assignments. Don't hesitate to ask for help or instruction
if you need it. Make as many contacts as you can in as wide
a range of areas as possible. Put in some time on office and
scientific politics and on service assignments (award committees,
review panels, publication review, etc.). Publish as much
as you can and present your ideas at appropriate meetings.
These are some of the keys that I have observed help people
succeed in what they're doing.
Read
more interviews with Genesis team members that tell you
about their lives, their jobs, and about the important role
they play in the Genesis mission.
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