Page 92 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

72 Modern Robotics

of approach has to be calculated in order for the “slingshot” effect
to work properly. In her autobiography, Shirley describes the whole
process as being like “trying to thread a needle from 50 million
miles away.”
Although this work might interest people with a more theoretical
and mathematical bent, Shirley soon became bored with planning
trajectories for hypothetical missions that were not yet funded.
In 1973, Shirley was able to get a job as a mission analyst for the
Mariner Venus-Mercury mission. Her first task was to schedule an
exact launch date for the mission. For each interplanetary mission,
considerations of planetary positions and available fuel dictate a
range of time called a “launch window,” in which a launch is fea-
sible. Shirley had to then pick a time within the window that would
best ensure that the many different experiments to be done by
Mariner would be ready for flight. This task led to conflict among
the seven principal investigators (the people in charge of the main
experiments). For example, researchers involved with photography
naturally wanted the craft to pass on the sunlit side of Mercury.
On the other hand, people concerned with studying charged par-
ticles and magnetic fields wanted to be on the dark side of the
planet, where interference from the nearby Sun would be minimized.
Shirley’s skills at diplomacy and the art of compromise were put to
the test!

Managing Risk

Shirley had to develop her communications skills in reconciling the
conflicts over priorities for space missions. Since the only language
the different scientists seemed to have in common was mathematics,
Shirley devised simple equations that related the different consider-
ations to one another. She then asked the scientists to give numeri-
cal “goodness values” to the importance of, for example, certain
photographic opportunities. Shirley’s innovative conflict resolution
approach must have impressed her superiors because she won a pro-
motion to project engineer.
Another aspect of management that interested Shirley was the need
to manage risk. Space flight is full of risks, of course, but the attitudes
toward risk among the different people involved in a mission vary