Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars (New Series in NASA History) by Erik M. Conway (PDF)

Description

Although the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has become synonymous with the United States’ planetary exploration during the past half century, its most recent focus has been on Mars. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the Mars Phoenix mission of 2007, JPL led the way in engineering an impressive, rapidly evolving succession of Mars orbiters and landers, including roving robotic vehicles whose successful deployment onto the Martian surface posed some of the most complicated technical problems in space flight history.In Exploration and Engineering, Erik M. Conway reveals how JPL engineers’ creative technological feats led to major breakthroughs in Mars exploration. He takes readers into the heart of the lab’s problem-solving approach and management structure, where talented scientists grappled with technical challenges while also coping, not always successfully, with funding shortfalls, unrealistic schedules, and managerial turmoil.Conway, JPL’s historian, offers an insider’s perspective into the changing goals of Mars exploration, the ways in which sophisticated computer simulations drove the design process, and the remarkable evolution of landing technologies over a thirty-year period.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐As an avid follower of all things NASA, this was the perfect book for me. The only thing I was slightly disappointed with was the lack of a complete Curiosity section. I would have loved reading about the engineering challenge of the sky crane. Still, this is a great book, and a worthy addition to space travel’s literature.

⭐This book is great! It covers the Mars probes following Viking through the Phoenix Lander. It discusses the politics, studies and failures along the way to try to schedule a sample return mission (among other things). Very good read.

⭐It was a gift. and the person has talked about it repeatedly.

⭐This is amazing book. I have read it several times. I can’t put it down. NASA needs more books like this.

⭐Full disclosure: I am a JPLer, but not technical, and Erik and I are in the same directorate.The NASA History Office has frequently identified topic areas where historical treatment is necessary and appropriate and, as a consequence, their list of publications and those that they have commissioned (like this one) are all but priceless. Exploration and Engineering is one such book and covers a unique span of time where the desire to explore Mars was realized through a string of missions leading through to today. But most people won’t recall the failures and very few understand how dramatically the whole enterprise swung back and forth as far as mission complexity, technical approach, management philosophy, and response to science questions and discovery. If you’ve heard and wondered about “faster, better, cheaper” then this is a must-read; FBC played out in the Mars program.This book probably isn’t quite right for someone who wants a soaring tale of adventure and discovery in the Apollo tradition. But it is not a dry academic book either. It fits very well for anyone really interested in the missions themselves and the thought processes involved in engineering decisions, testing and operations. I found it to be very readable and to flow very well. The book is pretty chronological but makes ample references forwards and back and explains the consequences of decisions in subsequent missions.For me it was a bit of a stroll down Memory Lane having been associated with almost all of the missions. But there was a lot that I learned or that now makes more sense. Dr. Conway captures all the structural elements of the evolution of the Mars program while still including quite a bit of the drama and tension associated with developing and flying these missions. Certainly anyone involved in Mars exploration over the last thirty years will enjoy this and gain context for their piece of the story. Mars enthusiasts who can’t help but jump up and down at landings or orbit insertions but want to dig deeper will enjoy this too. So will students of science, technology and society or the history of science; this could and probably should be used as an academic text but is far more readable than others of prominence in this field.In a book like this every story can’t be told and some recollections will differ. I was disappointed that he didn’t include the story of the French representatives making a show of walking out in protest at a Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group meeting in the late 90’s (one of my favorite JPL memories) and there might have been deeper discussion about NASA HQ efforts to keep Mars Observer’s development better on track. But I don’t begrudge any of the editorial decisions of which I am sure there were many.Overall, if anyone is looking for a good historical read, consider Exploration and Engineering. It relates an interesting period of time and one of the great exploration efforts of our time.

⭐Too much focus on the politics of JPL

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