John D. Mangus NASA Physicist

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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Nicholas Mangus

John D. Mangus, Born Sept 17, 1934, Warren, Pennsylvania
Education: BS in mathematics from Gannon University, 1956
MS in physics from Penn State University, 1962

Profession: Space Flight Optical Systems Engineering

Military Service: US ARMY Chemical Corp 1957 to 1959 Primary Place of Employment: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD Time of Employment: 1962 – 1994

Activity at GSFC: Established an optical system engineering capability for the design, fabrication, assembly, and calibration of space flight optical systems. Special optical components and systems were developed for use in the spectral regions from gamma rays to the millimeter region. Work focused primarily on solar physics, astronomical and cosmological instrumentation.

Mr. Mangus conducted and/or served on numerous reviews of astronomy, solar physics, earth observation and cosmology missions. These includes the Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) instrument on Voyager I and II, Goddard Optical Package on the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory- B(OAO -B), Princeton Experimental Package on OAO-C , International Ultraviolet Explorer, Solar Maximum Mission, Magsat, Multispectral Scanner on Earth Research Technology Satellite, Visible Infrared Spectral Scanner on the Synchronous Metrological Satellite, Goddard X-ray Research Telescope on the Apollo Telescope Mount and the Goddard Spectroheliograph on Orbiting Solar Observatory -7.

He was appointed to serve on General Allen’s commission, which investigated the flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). He was later appointed by Administrator Daniel Golden to be NASA’s technical representative working with the Department of Justice on the lawsuit against Hughes Danbury Optical Systems Company which was settled out-of-court for $22.5 million on October 2, 1993.

He was assigned to the committee chaired by Noble Laureate, Charles Townes1, that was to determine how the optical system of the replacement Wide Field Camera (WFC-2) should be modified to compensate for the error in the HST primary mirror. He also served on a committee with Nobel laureate Robert
Wilson2 to prioritize instruments to be flown on HST.

Mr. Mangus’ technical specialty was the design and fabrication of Wolter Type I (x-ray) imaging telescopes and Wolter Type II (extreme ultraviolet) imaging telescopes.

His Branch participated in fabrication, assembly, alignment of flight instruments including: the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrometer (FIRAS)3 and Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) for flight on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE): the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) for flight on Hubble Space Telescope (HST): the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope
(HUT) flown on the Space Shuttle.

Mr. Mangus retired from a Senior Scientist position in the Space Science Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland in 1994.

Charles Townes invented the maser which was the precursor to the laser.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964.
Robert Wilson along with Arno Penzias discovered the cosmic back ground radiation as predicted by the Big Bang cosmological theory. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978.
John Mather, the principal investigator on FIRAS was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physic in 2006 for showing that the cosmic background radiation followed the Planck spectral curve as predicted from the Big Bang cosmological theory.

Activity after Retirement: Mr. Mangus is/has participated as a consultant to NASA in several senior review teams since that time including:

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Servicing Missions, SM2, SM3A, SM3B, SM4 and HST External and Independent Review Teams (EIRT & IRT).
Spitzer Space Telescope Review Board
The James Webb Space Telescope EIRT, IRT and SRB (Standing Review Board) Served as the JWST SRB representative to the JWST Optical PIT (Product Improvement Team) reviews The Galaxy Red Team The Wilkerson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Red Team Conducted the WMAP Optics Review The SECHHI/STEREO Review Team The Ice Sat Red Team Currently a member of the JWST Optical PIT

Publications Listing:

1962 T. K. McCubbin Jr., R. P. Grosso, and J. D. Mangus A High-Resolution Grating-Prism Spectrometer for the Infrared, Applied Optics, Vol 1, page 431, July 1962

1962 Quantitative Determination of Energy Limited Detection in Spectroscopic Instruments, The Pennsylvania State University, The Graduate School, Department of Physics, Master of Science Thesis

1964 J. Mangus and R. Stockhausen Near Infrared Solar Eclipse Observations, Proceedings of the 1965 Solar Eclipse Symposium, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field California

1965 Kenneth Hallam and John Mangus. An Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer for Satellite Astronomy, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 4, Supplement 1, 1965

1969 John D. Mangus & J.H. Underwood Optical Design of a Glancing Incidence X-Ray Telescope, Applied Optics, Vol 8, pg. 95, Jan 1969

1970 J. D. Mangus. Optical Design of Glancing Incidence Extreme Ultraviolet Telescopes, Applied Optics Vol 9, No 5, May 1970

1974 John Mangus Space Optics – A Review of Telescope Designs and Technology for the Space Sciences Disciplines, published in the book, Space Optics, ISBN 0-309-02144-s, National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C.
1974

1975 John D. Mangus and Jose Alonso. Imaging Sensitivity and Anomalies of Glancing Incidence Telescopes, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

1980 Hunter, W. R. Michels, D. J.; Fleetwood, C. M.; Mangus, J.D.; Bach, B.
W. Replication of Wolter lens components, Applied Optics, Vol 19. Issue
13pp.2128-2131 (1980)

1986 Timo T. Saha & John D. Mangus Effects of despace secondary of a Wolter Type II image quality, Applied Optics, Vol 25, No 11, 1 Jun 1986

1988 John D. Mangus Strategy and Calculations for The Design of Baffles for Wolter Type II Telescopes, Proc. SPIE.0830, Grazing Incidence Optics for Astronomical and Laboratory Applications 245 (August9, 1988 doi
10.1117/12.942188

1990 Dr. Lew Allen, Dr. Roger Angle, John D. Mangus, George Rodney, Professor Robert Shannon & Charles P. Spoelhof The Hubble Space Telescope Optical Systems Failure Report, NASA, November 1990

Awards and Honors Listing:
M.V. Ball Science Award, Warren Senior High School Science Prize, Gannon College Fellow of The Optical Society of America Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Fellow NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, May 30,1989 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, June 3, 1994 Distinguished Alumni Award, April 15, 1997 Gannon University