The firsthand account of the trials and tribulations
of engineering one of the most complex pieces of space
technology, the Mars Rover Curiosity, by its chief
engineer Rob Manning 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. In ''Mars Rover Curiosity:
An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer,'' 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. Readers 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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