Synopses & Reviews
In its eerie likeness to Earth, Mars has long captured our imaginations both as a destination for humankind and a possible home to extraterrestrial life. This fall, the Curiosity rover will land on Mars with the mission to determine whether the Red Planet has ever been capable of supporting living beings. In
Red Rover, geochemist and planetary scientist Roger Wiens, who built the ChemCam instrument on the rover the main tool for measuring Mars's past habitability will tell the unlikely story of how this sophisticated robotic rover came to be. Facing tight deadlines, slim budgets, and the ever-present threat of shutdown, Wiens's team managed overcome seemingly intractable engineering and political problems to get their robot successfully off the ground.
An inspiring account of the real-life challenges of space exploration, Red Rover vividly narrates the race to answer the enduring question: could there be life on Mars?
Review
An engaging history of robotic space exploration....A remarkable memoir and testament to the ingenuity of the space programs many scientists who build the tools needed to explore our solar system.” Booklist
Review
Wiens offers a backstage tour of the delights and disappointments of working on missions." Scientific American
Review
Wiens's writing is clear and engaging....A unique contribution...this book reinforces a vision of outer space as emblematic of technological progress, but also nicely encapsulates the external, messy factors that influence, hinder, and help the development of a robotic explorer.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly
Review
This entertaining insider account of Wiens's work on two groundbreaking robotic space explorers the Genesis and Curiosity Rover captures all the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of modern space science....Wiens brings his work to life, candidly addressing the inevitable technological and bureaucratic obstacles and failures that compose the frustrating prelude to scientific victory.” Publishers Weekly
Review
The author provides fascinating insight into the struggle to solve scientific problems despite technical constraints and equipment failures....A winning memoir of great achievement.” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In its eerie likeness to Earth, Mars has long captured our imaginations--both as a destination for humankind and as a possible home to extraterrestrial life. It is our twenty-first century New World; its explorers robots, shipped 350 million miles from Earth to uncover the distant planet's secrets.
Its most recent scout is Curiosity--a one-ton, Jeep-sized nuclear-powered space laboratory--which is now roving the Martian surface to determine whether the red planet has ever been physically capable of supporting life. In Red Rover, geochemist Roger Wiens, the principal investigator for the ChemCam laser instrument on the rover and veteran of numerous robotic NASA missions, tells the unlikely story of his involvement in sending sophisticated hardware into space, culminating in the Curiosity rover's amazing journey to Mars.
In so doing, Wiens paints the portrait of one of the most exciting scientific stories of our time: the new era of robotic space exploration. Starting with NASA's introduction of the Discovery Program in 1992, scrappier, more nimble missions became the order of the day, as manned missions were confined to Earth orbit, and behemoth projects went extinct. This strategic shift presented huge scientific opportunities, but tight budgets meant that success depended more than ever on creative engineering and human ingenuity. Beginning with the Genesis mission that launched his career, Wiens describes the competitive, DIY spirit of these robotic enterprises, from conception to construction, from launch to heart-stopping crashes and smooth landings.
An inspiring account of the real-life challenges of space exploration, Red Rover vividly narrates what goes into answering the question: is there life elsewhere in the universe?
About the Author
Roger Wiens is the principal investigator for the ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity Rover, and is based at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He is also an adjunct research faculty in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Wiens has worked as a scientist at CalTech, the University of California, and was in charge of building three instruments for NASA's Genesis mission. He has also been involved in other NASA robotic missions, including Stardust, Mars Odyssey, Lunar Prospector, and Deep Space-One.