Mars Rover Curiosity

Mars Rover Curiosity

By Rob Manning, and William L. Simon
Unabridged
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“Manning’s just published account of years at NASA’s venerable Jet Propulsion Laboratory, co-written with bestselling nonfiction author William L. Simon, will resonate most with those who want an excellent inside take on the rigorous and often arduous task of designing interplanetary landers and the eureka moments that affords. Manning deserves credit for bringing his own sense of candor and humility to the prose.”

Forbes.com

In the course of our enduring quest for knowledge about ourselves and our universe, we haven't found answers to one of our most fundamental questions: Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ten years and billions of dollars in the making, the Mars rover Curiosity is poised to answer this all-important question.

Here, Rob Manning, the project's chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often frustrated experts.

Manning's fascinating personal account—which includes information from his exclusive interviews with leading Curiosity scientists—is packed with tales of revolutionary feats of science, technology, and engineering. Listeners experience firsthand the disappointment at encountering persistent technical problems, the agony of near defeat, the sense of victory at finding innovative solutions to these problems, the sheer terror of staking careers and reputations on a lander that couldn't be tested on Earth, and the rush of triumph at its successful touchdown on Mars on August 5, 2012. This is the story of persistence, dedication, and unrelenting curiosity.

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  1. Rogue Writer
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    Reaching for the Red Planet and Making It

    When starting a book written by an engineer, I steel myself for lots of technical jargon and expect to have to go back to reprocess page after page until I get it. Not so with Chief Engineer Rob Manning. He writes in a way that most can understand, conversational and filled with analogies more common to daily life to explain some of the Mars Science Laboratory’s elegantly complex systems. The book provides an excellent look into the creative and innovative thinking (and subsequent development and testing) involved in placing a roving science lab on another planet. The book also reveals how much more NASA could accomplish if not hindered by political time pressures, money, and bureaucracy. It’s especially prevalent when viewed in contrast to the leaps-and-bounds progress Elon Musk has made with his private SpaceX program.

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