Recommended Robotics Reading
Martian Summer: Delightful, insightful and thoroughly entertaining. I got a VG copy off EBay for $8.
Synopsis
A sweepstakes winner whose prize was three months inside NASA's control center during a robotic expedition to Mars, Andrew Kessler's enthusiasm for interplanetary travel and willingness to ask the extra question make MARTIAN SUMMER a revealing look at the space program and a search for microbial life elsewhere in the universe. Kessler's field trip includes direct contact with NASA physicists and engineers, plus behind-the-scenes access to mission operators while the Phoenix spacecraft explores and digs underneath the red planet's surface. Portraying both great scientific details and hundreds of robust human characters, Kessler's memoir is at once wide-eyed and finely tuned.
Key Details
Author: Andrew Kessler
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1605981761
ISBN-13: 9781605981765
Size
Length: 341 pages
Thickness: 1.5 in
Weight: 19.2 oz
Publisher's Note
There's never been a better time to be an armchair astronaut. forget this planet. The economy is terrible, global warming is inevitable, and there are at least eight major wars happening right now. That's why Kessler left home and moved to Mars. Well, not all the way to Mars. The closest spot on earth you can get without a rocket. in the summer of 2008, he lived a space dream, spending three months in mission control of The Phoenix expedition with 130 top NASA scientists and engineers as they explored Mars. This story is a human drama about modern-day Magellans battling NASA politics-you haven't lived until you've seen this miracle of birth from the inside-and the bizarre world of daily life in mission control. Kessler was the first outsider ever granted unfettered access to such an event, giving us a true Mars exclusive.
The Phoenix Mars mission was the first man-made probe ever sent to the Martian arctic. They planned to find out how climate change can turn a warm wet planet (read: Earth) into a cold barren desert (read: Mars). That might seem like a trivial pursuit, but it's probably the most impressive feat we humans can achieve. It takes nearly the entirety of human knowledge to do it. This is only the sixth landing on Mars. Along the way, Phoenix discovered a giant frozen ocean trapped beneath the north pole of Mars, exotic food for aliens and liquid water. This is not science fiction. It's fact. Not bad for a summer holiday.
Synopsis
A sweepstakes winner whose prize was three months inside NASA's control center during a robotic expedition to Mars, Andrew Kessler's enthusiasm for interplanetary travel and willingness to ask the extra question make MARTIAN SUMMER a revealing look at the space program and a search for microbial life elsewhere in the universe. Kessler's field trip includes direct contact with NASA physicists and engineers, plus behind-the-scenes access to mission operators while the Phoenix spacecraft explores and digs underneath the red planet's surface. Portraying both great scientific details and hundreds of robust human characters, Kessler's memoir is at once wide-eyed and finely tuned.
Key Details
Author: Andrew Kessler
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1605981761
ISBN-13: 9781605981765
Size
Length: 341 pages
Thickness: 1.5 in
Weight: 19.2 oz
Publisher's Note
There's never been a better time to be an armchair astronaut. forget this planet. The economy is terrible, global warming is inevitable, and there are at least eight major wars happening right now. That's why Kessler left home and moved to Mars. Well, not all the way to Mars. The closest spot on earth you can get without a rocket. in the summer of 2008, he lived a space dream, spending three months in mission control of The Phoenix expedition with 130 top NASA scientists and engineers as they explored Mars. This story is a human drama about modern-day Magellans battling NASA politics-you haven't lived until you've seen this miracle of birth from the inside-and the bizarre world of daily life in mission control. Kessler was the first outsider ever granted unfettered access to such an event, giving us a true Mars exclusive.
The Phoenix Mars mission was the first man-made probe ever sent to the Martian arctic. They planned to find out how climate change can turn a warm wet planet (read: Earth) into a cold barren desert (read: Mars). That might seem like a trivial pursuit, but it's probably the most impressive feat we humans can achieve. It takes nearly the entirety of human knowledge to do it. This is only the sixth landing on Mars. Along the way, Phoenix discovered a giant frozen ocean trapped beneath the north pole of Mars, exotic food for aliens and liquid water. This is not science fiction. It's fact. Not bad for a summer holiday.
169 x 254 - 16K
Comments
Brand new hardback copy for $8.34 shipped...