Cool.
I worked for the company that made the actuators for Voyager ..that are still working just fine to this day.
Schaeffer Magnetics in Chatsworth .. wore lab coat, worked in clean room,
had JPL doods over inspecting finished product and signing off tests an such.
One of the Inspectors flew P-38's in North Africa.
Was *very* cool .. like workin in a toy shop.
Interesting work ethic there .. nothing left the shop unless it was able to do what it was supposed to.
We did it right the first time . . period.
One of the many things my team did ..
Had an actuator that was meant for the shuttle arm
.. projected torque output was beyond what our granite slab mounting table that was bolted to the floor could handle.
So. . I suggested using a single 'D' cell flashlight battery and measuring how much torque was available.
Well .. we bolted a 6 foot arm to it, and had our lovely receptionist
(a one time Las Vegas Show Girl who was very easy to look at)
..grab onto the end of it and we lifted her off the floor.
Mr. Schaeffer walked in as we were lifting her,
..said it would be a great image for advertising the actuator
He was blown away when we showed him it was wired to a flashlight battery for power
Mr. Schaeffer was a DD Commander in WW2..he was off Iwo during the invasion,
..he was one of the lucky ones not hit by Kamikaze during the Iwo landings.
Very much a no-nonsense get it done type .. we got along great.
During my interview ..instead of asking about my quals or job history ..
..he asked what my mean time between failure was on my race car for the motor.
I kinda laughed .. told him I had never broken a motor, and had raced my Duster *then* for over 10 years.
His next words were 'You're hired, when can you start?'
Good times.
-Frank aka GE
Engineering Tech Lead no less .. a rocket scientist some would say
and yes .. I have systems I built in space, still working just fine.
