Author: Scott Hubbard Publisher: University of Arizona Press ISBN: 0816528969 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
The Red Planet has been a subject of fascination for humanity for thousands of years, becoming part of our folklore and popular culture. The most Earthlike of the planets in our solar system, Mars may have harbored some form of life in the past and may still possess an ecosystem in some underground refuge. The mysteries of this fourth planet from our Sun make it of central importance to NASA and its science goals for the twenty-first century.ÊÊ In the wake of the very public failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, NASA embarked on a complete reassessment of the Mars Program. Scott Hubbard was asked to lead this restructuring in 2000, becoming known as the "Mars Czar." His team's efforts resulted in a very successful decade-long series of missions--each building on the accomplishments of those before it--that adhered to the science adage "follow the water" when debating how to proceed. Hubbard's work created the Mars Odyssey mission, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Phoenix mission, and most recently the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory.Ê Now for the first time Scott Hubbard tells the complete story of how he fashioned this program, describing both the technical and political forces involved and bringing to life the national and international cast of characters engaged in this monumental endeavor.Ê Blending the exciting stories of the missions with the thrills of scientific discovery, Exploring Mars will intrigue anyone interested in the science, the engineering, or the policy of investigating other worlds. Ê
Author: William J. Clancey Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 026201775X Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
Beginning in 2004, a team of geologists and other planetary scientists did field science in a dark room in Pasadena, exploring Mars from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by means of the remotely operated Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). Clustered around monitors, living on Mars time, painstakingly plotting each movement of the rovers and their tools, sensors, and cameras, these scientists reported that they felt as if they were on Mars themselves, doing field science. The MER created a virtual experience of being on Mars. This book examines how the MER has changed the nature of planetary field science. NASA cast the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as "robotic geologists," and ascribed machine initiative to remotely controlled actions. Clancey argues that the actual explorers were not the rovers but the scientists, who imaginatively projected themselves into the body of the machine to conduct the first overland expedition of another planet. The author investigates how the design of the rover mission enables field science on Mars, explaining how the scientists and rover engineers manipulate the vehicle and why the programmable tools and analytic instruments work so well for them.
Author: William Sheehan Publisher: University of Arizona Press ISBN: 0816544247 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 769
Book Description
For millenia humans have considered Mars the most fascinating planet in our solar system. We’ve watched this Earth-like world first with the naked eye, then using telescopes, and, most recently, through robotic orbiters and landers and rovers on the surface. Historian William Sheehan and astronomer and planetary scientist Jim Bell combine their talents to tell a unique story of what we’ve learned by studying Mars through evolving technologies. What the eye sees as a mysterious red dot wandering through the sky becomes a blurry mirage of apparent seas, continents, and canals as viewed through Earth-based telescopes. Beginning with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s, space-based instruments and monitoring systems have flooded scientists with data on Mars’s meteorology and geology, and have even sought evidence of possible existence of life-forms on or beneath the surface. This knowledge has transformed our perception of the Red Planet and has provided clues for better understanding our own blue world. Discovering Mars vividly conveys the way our understanding of this other planet has grown from earliest times to the present. The story is epic in scope—an Iliad or Odyssey for our time, at least so far largely without the folly, greed, lust, and tragedy of those ancient stories. Instead, the narrative of our quest for the Red Planet has showcased some of our species’ most hopeful attributes: curiosity, cooperation, exploration, and the restless drive to understand our place in the larger universe. Sheehan and Bell have written an ambitious first draft of that narrative even as the latest chapters continue to be added both by researchers on Earth and our robotic emissaries on and around Mars, including the latest: the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter drone, which set down in Mars’s Jezero Crater in February 2021.
Author: Giuseppe Pezzella Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand ISBN: 1839623624 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 194
Book Description
More than 50 years after the Mariner 4 flyby on 15 July 1965, Mars still represents the next frontier of space explorations. Of particular focus nowadays is crewed missions to the red planet. Over three sections, this book explores missions to Mars, in situ operations, and human-rated missions. Chapters address elements of design and possible psychological effects related to human-rated missions. The information contained herein will allow for the development of safe and efficient exploration missions to Mars.
Author: Ron Miller Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books ISBN: 1467725471 Category : Young Adult Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 68
Book Description
Could life have previously flourished on Mars? Will humans be able to travel there one day? Can humans one day colonize the red planet? NASA scientists have been interested in answering questions like these for a long time. In November 2011, NASA sent the rover Curiosity to Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. By gathering information about Mars's climate and geology, the robot is helping scientists uncover the secrets of the planet and its past. Since its launch, Curiosity has made some amazing discoveries. The rover found an ancient streambed where water once flowed for thousands of years, and rock samples proved that the surface soil on Mars still has water! In addition, from drilling into Martian rock, the rover detected the key chemicals necessary for life—sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon. And Curiosity's measurement of radiation on Mars shows levels similar to that at the International Space Station. These discoveries suggest that some parts of Mars could have been habitable—and may be again in the future. Learn more about the red planet and see what else Curiosity has uncovered!
Author: Donald Rapp Publisher: Springer ISBN: 331922249X Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 604
Book Description
A mission to send humans to explore the surface of Mars has been the ultimate goal of planetary exploration since the 1950s, when von Braun conjectured a flotilla of 10 interplanetary vessels carrying a crew of at least 70 humans. Since then, more than 1,000 studies were carried out on human missions to Mars, but after 60 years of study, we remain in the early planning stages. The second edition of this book now includes an annotated history of Mars mission studies, with quantitative data wherever possible. Retained from the first edition, Donald Rapp looks at human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective. He divides the mission into a number of stages: Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit (LEO); departing from LEO toward Mars; Mars orbit insertion and entry, descent and landing; ascent from Mars; trans-Earth injection from Mars orbit and Earth return. For each segment, he analyzes requirements for candidate technologies. In this connection, he discusses the status and potential of a wide range of elements critical to a human Mars mission, including life support consumables, radiation effects and shielding, microgravity effects, abort options and mission safety, possible habitats on the Martian surface and aero-assisted orbit entry decent and landing. For any human mission to the Red Planet the possible utilization of any resources indigenous to Mars would be of great value and such possibilities, the use of indigenous resources is discussed at length. He also discusses the relationship of lunar exploratio n to Mars exploration. Detailed appendices describe the availability of solar energy on the Moon and Mars, and the potential for utilizing indigenous water on Mars. The second edition provides extensive updating and additions to the first edition, including many new figures and tables, and more than 70 new references, as of 2015.
Author: W. Henry Lambright Publisher: JHU Press ISBN: 1421412802 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
Traces NASA’s torturous journey to Mars from the fly-bys of the 1960s to landing rovers and seeking life today. Mars has captured the human imagination for decades. Since NASA’s establishment in 1958, the space agency has looked to Mars as a compelling prize, the one place, beyond the Moon, where robotic and human exploration could converge. Remarkably successful with its roaming multi-billion-dollar robot, Curiosity, NASA’s Mars program represents one of the agency’s greatest achievements. Why Mars analyzes the history of the robotic Mars exploration program from its origins to today. W. Henry Lambright examines the politics and policies behind NASA's multi-decade quest, illuminating the roles of key individuals and institutions along with their triumphs and defeats. Lambright outlines the ebbs and flows of policy evolution, focusing on critical points of change and factors that spurred strategic reorientation. He explains Mars exploration as a striking example of “big science” and describes the ways a powerful advocacy coalition—composed of NASA decision makers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mars academic science community, and many others—has influenced governmental decisions on Mars exploration, making it, at times, a national priority. The quest for Mars stretches over many years and involves billions of dollars. What does it take to mount and give coherence to a multi-mission, big science program? How do advocates and decision makers maintain goals and adapt their programs in the face of opposition and budgetary stringency? Where do they succeed in their strategies? Where do they fall short? Lambright’s insightful book suggests that from Mars exploration we can learn lessons that apply to other large-scale national endeavors in science and technology.
Author: Piers Bizony Publisher: Motorbooks International ISBN: 0760373140 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 205
Book Description
With authoritative text and NASA photography and artworks, NASA Missions to Mars tells the story of NASA’s programs to explore the Red Planet—from the first tentative flybys to the present—and offers a glimpse into the future of Mars exploration.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 030909724X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 166
Book Description
Recent spacecraft and robotic probes to Mars have yielded data that are changing our understanding significantly about the possibility of existing or past life on that planet. Coupled with advances in biology and life-detection techniques, these developments place increasing importance on the need to protect Mars from contamination by Earth-borne organisms. To help with this effort, NASA requested that the NRC examine existing planetary protection measures for Mars and recommend changes and further research to improve such measures. This report discusses policies, requirements, and techniques to protect Mars from organisms originating on Earth that could interfere with scientific investigations. It provides recommendations on cleanliness and biological burden levels of Mars-bound spacecraft, methods to reach those levels, and research to reduce uncertainties in preventing forward contamination of Mars.
Author: Scott Hubbard
Author: William J. Clancey
Author: Robert S. Richardson
Author: William Sheehan
Author: Giuseppe Pezzella
Author: Ron Miller
Author: Donald Rapp
Author: W. Henry Lambright
Author: Piers Bizony
Author: National Research Council