Mariner 4 Television Experiment Team

Mariner 4 team waiting for image data.
Mariner Mars 65 Monday Experimenters Conference. 07/19/1965 Bruce Murray second from left. Requested by: I. Newlan Photo by: J. Gregoire
August 12, 1965
CreditNASA/JPL-Caltech
Language
  • english

Because the data return rate from Mariner 4 was very low, the Mariner 4 Television Experiment Team spent hours waiting for each new image to appear. In this photo they are waiting for the first picture from Mars. Mariner eventually returned 22 images. From left to right: Robert Nathan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Bruce Murray (associate professor of planetary science), Robert Sharp (Caltech), Robert Leighton (principal investigator), and Clayton La Baw (JPL).

Murray had been a member of the Caltech faculty for about five years when this photo was taken in July 1965. He went on to replace William Pickering as Director of JPL in 1976, retired from that position in 1982, and returned to Caltech.