Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars (New Series in NASA History)
By
Erik M. Conway (Author)
Paperback
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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. 10 Line drawings, black and white; 11 Halftones, black and white CPSIA choking or other US hazard warning - No California Proposition 65 hazard warning necessary
About the Author
Erik M. Conway is a historian of science and technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He is the author of Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History.
More Details
- Contributor: Erik M. Conway
- Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
- ISBN13: 9781421421223
- Number of Pages: 416
- Packaged Dimensions: 152x229x25mm
- Packaged Weight: 680
- Format: Paperback
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Release Date: 2016-09-23
- Series: New Series in NASA History
- Binding: Paperback / softback
- Biography: Erik M. Conway is a historian of science and technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He is the author of Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History.
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