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Len Adams, earlier
Head of the Radiation Effects and Component Analysis Techniques
Section at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research
and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and later a consultant and honorary
professor at Brunel University, spent most of his career doing work
he really enjoyed. He was born in 1938 in India, where his father
was on a Royal Air Force posting. His early career was in the British
Merchant Navy as the youngest, fully qualified, radio officer in
the fleet. He served firstly on passenger liners and then moved
on to tankers and tank landing ships. After five years he left the
sea, and worked at GEC Stanmore Research Laboratories as a missiles
trials engineer. He subsequently worked at Imperial College’s
field station in Ascot, as an experimental officer doing research
into thunderstorms. In 1965 he moved on to being an engineer at
the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) in Delft, The Netherlands.
Here he started in the Technical Directorate being involved with
building and testing of rocket payloads and later satellite systems.
The work of this growing international organisation, originally
scientific, evolved into spacecraft engineering and launch for the
whole of Europe. In the late sixties, Len moved with the organisation
to the large laboratory, ESTEC, at Noordwijk and lived in Oegstgeest,
near Leiden.
Len developed several of the arts which were desperately needed
for making good spacecraft and as a Component Laboratory Manager,
Len guided a team of experts which gave technical support to ESRO
project groups in all matters concerning electronic components.
Component reliability evaluations and failure analysis were carried
out in this group’s own laboratory, which at that time was
rated as one of the most advanced Component Laboratories in Europe.
The application of advanced techniques to failure analysis also
soon opened the door to the radiation area. The component laboratory’s
150 KeV X-ray system and Scanning Electron Microscopes were used
as early irradiation sources. As a resourceful engineer with physics
experience Len very early tackled "Radiation Hardness Assurance"
addressing all aspects of the effects of space radiation on components.
Len supplied that resourcefulness, which extended to imaginative
ways of using laboratory radiation to simulate the "great radiation
laboratory" of outer space. The successful development of the
laboratory CASE (Californium-252 Assessment of Single-event Effects)
system and later the installation of the Co-60 gamma cell, are good
examples of rapid progress. With the successful installation of
external test sites such as the Proton Irradiation Facility at PSI,
Switzerland and the Heavy-ion Irradiation Facility at UCL, Belgium,
Len, as Head of the Radiation Effects and Component Analysis Techniques
Section of the European Space Agency, was behind numerous internal
and external activities, studies, qualification programs and later
flight experiments. Len’s passion for flying radiation experiments
started back in 1977 with the GEOS flight where simple MOS transistors
measured the space environment in geostationary orbit, to current
Standard Radiation Environment Monitors (REM) flown on MIR and STRV-1A,
and the SREM on PROBA and Rosetta. Because of the complex mixture
of skills needed, Len's group soon grew to a considerable size and
had an international reputation as an original contributor to space
technology and a source of funds for research. Len's role also evolved
into being the point to which NASA and other national space agencies
could come for information and collaboration in this specialist
field. Thus, a part of the life of Len and his staff was extensive
travel missions to the USA, Japan, Russia, India and South American
countries, co-ordinating projects, giving scientific papers or reporting
back to management on the policies and plans of other nations. His
professional activities in promoting the science of radiation effects
included work with the RADECS Association in Europe and IEEE/NSREC
in the USA. Len often served as a reviewer or session chair at theses
conferences and published many papers at the IEEE/Transactions on
Nuclear Science, in RADECS proceedings and other scientific journals.
Important and lasting products of this intensive (and well-funded)
work were the numerous ESA standards documents involving "Radiation
Hardness Assurance" and the associated information banks. One
of the "Contractor Reports" in this activity later evolved
into the "Radiation Effects Handbook," by Holmes-Siedle
and Adams, published by Oxford University Press, in two editions,
1992 and 2002, which attempted to encapsulate all this knowledge
into a straightforward guide for engineers.
An illustration of the speed at which Len got things done was his
active support for a new invention called a RADFET, a special semiconductor
transistor that measured accumulated radiation damage in space for
a suitably small expense of weight and power (unmanned satellites
cannot spare much of either). Starting development in 1975, the
device was flying in space by 1977. This must be a record for speed,
since ideas usually take much longer to get into space. This illustrates
a special influence which Len had on the projects which he handled.
One knew that Len would always be positive and speedy. Any discussion
or disagreements would be resolved in a friendly way and one would
come out of the discussion feeling better and probably laughing
as well. It was in this aspect that his bubbling personality and
enjoyment of his work came out: in large organisations, special
persuasion may be needed to achieve results. Around ESTEC, Len's
laugh was often audible while a masterpiece of persuasion took place
in a corridor. The process would often be rounded off later with
a friendly meal or a "pie and a pint."
After retirement in 1998, Len moved to England. He did consulting
work for Spur Electron, a small component reliability firm, advised
CERN in Geneva on the parts requirements for the new LHC accelerator
and, as an Honorary Professor, directed the research of at least
one student at Brunel University. At his home at Aldeburgh on the
East Coast, he was able to follow his enthusiasms for model making,
especially boats, restoring old cars, gardening and experimental
cuisine. Through his son-in-law he developed an interest in steam
railways, and enjoyed a number of trips out on the footplate of
various engines on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. He also experienced
more unusual forms of travel, including the steam lorry shown in
the photograph and a flight in a Tiger Moth aircraft.
He met his wife Yvette at GEC Stanmore, and they were married in
1962. He is survived by Yvette and their two daughters, Nikki and
Jayne.
The obituary above was written by Andrew Holmes-Siedle, Oxford,
UK and Reno Harboe-Sorensen, Nordwijk, The Netherlands who met Len
in 1975 and 1970 respectively. Overseas colleagues and friends wishing
to make a memorial donation for Len Adams may send checks made out
to "Aldeburgh Community Responders," a volunteer first-aid
team which helped with Len's illness more than once. In the first
instance, they may contact the authors of this obituary (Andrew's
email is holmes.siedle@dial.pipex.com).
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