Books about individual planetary/science missions

[NovaSilisko]

Decided to move this to its own thread rather than hogging the InSight thread. Quoting all the posts that led up to it...

We should probably wait at least few days/weeks before proclaiming all is lost, though...

I completely agree.  NASA and JPL have incredible technical skills and they will recognize what's at stake.  For anyone who's read a book on the design of a planetary mission or complex instrument (the InSight seismometer certainly counts as the latter) near death experiences followed by disciplined recoveries seem to be routine.  What will happen with InSight will be determined by extremely seasoned professionals.

I... didn't actually know there were books about planetary mission design. I've always wanted to know the real deep dirty intricacies of these missions and the issues that arise inside that nobody ever really hears about. Could you perhaps direct me to some? (via PM is okay)

I... didn't actually know there were books about planetary mission design. I've always wanted to know the real deep dirty intricacies of these missions and the issues that arise inside that nobody ever really hears about. Could you perhaps direct me to some? (via PM is okay)

Create a thread in General perhaps. But this is a good start, very detailed, by PI

http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Prospector-Against-All-Odds/dp/1928771319
review:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/751/1

I... didn't actually know there were books about planetary mission design. I've always wanted to know the real deep dirty intricacies of these missions and the issues that arise inside that nobody ever really hears about. Could you perhaps direct me to some? (via PM is okay)

Create a thread in General perhaps. But this is a good start, very detailed, by PI

http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Prospector-Against-All-Odds/dp/1928771319
review:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/751/1

Also do a search on Amazon by mission.  There's been several books on Curiosity, at least one on the MER rovers, several on Galileo and Voyager.   The Robotic Exploration of the Solar System series also goes into exhaustive detail on the planning for missions as well as the missions themselves and cover missions from all nations.

I... didn't actually know there were books about planetary mission design. I've always wanted to know the real deep dirty intricacies of these missions and the issues that arise inside that nobody ever really hears about. Could you perhaps direct me to some? (via PM is okay)

Create a thread in General perhaps. But this is a good start, very detailed, by PI

http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Prospector-Against-All-Odds/dp/1928771319
review:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/751/1

I wouldn't recommend that one.  The author is an ass and biased.

[savuporo]

Steve Squyres account - again, PI telling the tale on MERs

http://www.amazon.com/Roving-Mars-Spirit-Opportunity-Exploration/dp/1401308511

As for Jims comment - people that get stuff done in highly political and bureaucratic environment often are somewhat abrasive. They aren't necessarily great writers either. This does not take away from the insider view of how things actually get made, if you manage to slog through.

[jgoldader]

My outer planet library:

Voyager's Grand Tour, by Dethloff and Schorn

Voyager Tales, by Swift (this is a stupendously good book, worth all of its expensive price, it's a series of interviews with people who were part of the Voyager project, from the Project Director all the way to the folks who worked the PR department and even a security officer, IIRC)

The Depths of Space by Wolverton (Pioneer 10/11) (really enjoyable book)

Far Encounter by Burgess (Voyager Neptune)

Imaging Saturn by Cooper (Voyager at Saturn)

Voyage to Jupiter by Morrison & Samz

Voyages to Saturn by Morrison

Mission Jupiter by Fischer (Galileo)

Galileo needs some more love; there were so many difficulties with that mission that overcoming them must make a good story.  I assume there will be some nice New Horizons and Cassini retrospectives over the next couple of years.

[notsorandom]

I'd recommend Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission by Andrew Mishkin. It has plenty of detail about the hows and whys of Sojouner's design. Many of the decisions made back then have been used in subsequent rovers.

[zubenelgenubi]

Stretching the purpose of the thread:
Journey Into Space: The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration by Bruce Murray, 1989
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Into-Space-Decades-Exploration/dp/0393307034

A very interesting book from a geologist's/JPL director's/The Planetary Society's cofounder viewpoint.
http://www.planetary.org/about/our-founders/bruce-murray.html

And a C-SPAN book discussion with the author that I found while composing this post; I'll make time to watch this!  From July 20, 1989:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?8481-1/book-discussion-journey-space

[QuantumG]

Martin Summer by Andrew Kessler is a great read about the Phoenix lander.

[savuporo]

TwoFour about Curiosity, reviewed by Jeff Foust

Mars Up Close
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2573/1
Curiosity
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2568/1
Mars Rover Curiosity
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2619/1
Red Rover
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2254/1

[savuporo]

Galileo : "Mission to Jupiter: A History of the Galileo Project" http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1039/1

Same author, hasn't made it to TheSpaceReview yet
http://www.amazon.com/Cassini-Huygens-Visit-Saturn-Historic-Springer-ebook/dp/B00RQ1TSYU

Jim Bell, The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission
http://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Age-Forty-Year-Voyager-Mission/dp/0525954325

[NovaSilisko]

Thanks all for the suggestions. Keep them coming. I'll pick one to start with soon enough...

[Arb]

To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration
Don E. Wilhelms
1993

A retired USGS planetary geologist who was an active participant in the lunar program offers a detailed historical view of scientific efforts to understand lunar geology (including the pre-Apollo era). It was the responsibility of the scientific team of which Don Wilhelms was a member to assemble an overall picture of the Moon's structure and history in order to recommend where on the lunar surface fieldwork should be conducted and samples collected. His book relates the site-selection process in detail, and draws in concomitant events concerning mission operations to show how they affected the course of the scientific program. While discussing all six landings in detail, he tells the behind-the-scenes story of telescopic and spacecraft investigations before, during, and after the manned landings.

-Adapted from http://www.amazon.com/To-Rocky-Moon-Geologists-Exploration/dp/0816514437

Also available free online at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/rockyMoon/ but this is a chunky book best read in dead tree format.

Most excellent.

[Arb]

Don E. Wilhelms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wilhelms) also wrote The geologic history of the Moon, USGS Professional Paper 1348, 1987. the definitive work on the subject and a must for fans of lunar geological maps.

Available as a free pdf at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1348 but much more wonderful on paper if you can find a 1987 original - these were "printed on magazine quality slick paper stock in a large format. Images were tack-sharp and gorgeous" -Amazon.com reviewer B. Pohnan.

[the_other_Doug]

Don E. Wilhelms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wilhelms) also wrote The geologic history of the Moon, USGS Professional Paper 1348, 1987. the definitive work on the subject and a must for fans of lunar geological maps.

Available as a free pdf at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1348 but much more wonderful on paper if you can find a 1987 original - these were "printed on magazine quality slick paper stock in a large format. Images were tack-sharp and gorgeous" -Amazon.com reviewer B. Pohnan.

I really enjoyed how Wilhelms, in summing up (in "To a  Rocky Moon") what we had tentatively learned about the Moon just prior to the Apollo landings, went through the various theories that had abounded in the past half-century or so since serious lunar geology had arisen, discounting the invalidated ones by saying things like "The Moon has never had large bodies of standing or flowing water, so is not Greenish" (referencing the theories of a Dr. Green, sorry, can't recall his first name now, as to the origins of the Mare basins and the various rills and grabens), and that "The Moon is not covered with a thick layer of dust, so is not Goldish" (referencing Tommy Gold's panicked theory that, despite the success of unmanned landers, anywhere a LM might try to land, it would sink into at least 10 meters of fluffy dust).

If I mis-remembered the Green theories, I apologize.  It's been 10 years since I read the book.  Certain specific things do stick with you, and the Greenish/Goldish lines are examples of those.

[Star One]

Thanks for the suggestions especially on the Cassini & Galileo missions.

[slavvy]

"Venus Revealed" by David Grinspoon, principal scientist on the 1989 Magellan mission to Venus.

[llanitedave]

Steve Squyres account - again, PI telling the tale on MERs

http://www.amazon.com/Roving-Mars-Spirit-Opportunity-Exploration/dp/1401308511

As for Jims comment - people that get stuff done in highly political and bureaucratic environment often are somewhat abrasive. They aren't necessarily great writers either. This does not take away from the insider view of how things actually get made, if you manage to slog through.

I found Roving Mars to be a book I couldn't put down.  Very well written, over and above the fascinating subject matter.

[vjkane]

Steve Squyres account - again, PI telling the tale on MERs

I found Roving Mars to be a book I couldn't put down.  Very well written, over and above the fascinating subject matter.

Squyres' book is also a case study in all the shit that happens during the design of any complex product.  I worked on a high technology project that had a ~$600M budget (hmm, that's close to what the MER mission development cost as I remember), and I could so recognize the kinds of problems that occurred.   Research and development rarely is a linear process unless you are making just a minor change to an existing spacecraft/product.  And then managers so cut the budget ("it's only a minor enhancement") that the teams almost always still have challenges.

I heartily recommend this book.  Probably one of the very best for an insider's view of developing a mission.

[woods170]

Given that the title of this thread concerns planetary/science missions, I'll extend the booklist into the latter:

- The very first light, by John C. Mather and John Boslough, about the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission.
- Ripples in the Cosmos, by Micheal Rowan-Robinson. This details the impact on cosmology by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and COBE missions. Details some of the struggles in getting both IRAS and COBE off the ground.

[Nirgal]

The best books I have ever read about planetary (Mars) mission design are :

- Red Rover from Roger Wiens (PI of ChemCam).
- Martian Summer from Andrew Kessler.

Both are sometimes very frightening.

- Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars is also a must, and I am pretty sure that Seeing Like a Rover (from Janet Vertesi) will be a nice addition to Steve Squyres Roving Mars.

Oh, and there is also My Life on Mars (The Beagle 2 Diaries) from Colin Pillinger if you want to get an European point of view. It is the story of a battle of epic proportions, and he almost succeeded !

[zubenelgenubi]

Steve Squyres account - again, PI telling the tale on MERs

http://www.amazon.com/Roving-Mars-Spirit-Opportunity-Exploration/dp/1401308511
<snip>

straying a <bit> off-topic: I truly enjoyed the 2006 IMAX film based on his book, also entitled Roving Mars.

[notsorandom]

Squyres is a good author, Roving Mars was a great read. However he was in a very unfortunate situation for an author. The story didn't have an ending!

[llanitedave]

Squyres is a good author, Roving Mars was a great read. However he was in a very unfortunate situation for an author. The story didn't have an ending!

Could have been worse!

[Dalhousie]

"Managing Martians" by Donna Shirley (Sojourner rover)

[NovaSilisko]

Got my hands on both Roving Mars and Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission. Probably will start on them by January (I have quite a backlog of books at this point  )

[zubenelgenubi]

"Managing Martians" by Donna Shirley (Sojourner rover)

The Albert Einstein Planetarium, National Air and Space Museum, was the venue for an event celebrating Donna Shirley and her book.  I believe the event was in 1998, after the book's publication.

Dan Goldin and Hilary Clinton addressed the guests, as well as the author, IIRC.

Sky-Skan produced a 360 degree slide panorama of the Pathfinder/Sojourner landing site for use during this event.  The audience was suitably impressed.

[Kaputnik]

Just bumping this because I've recently re-read 'Roving Mars' and found it absolutely absorbing.

Any similar books available today, maybe updates from the remainder of the MER missions, or Curiosity and Perseverance?

[Blackstar]

There's a recent book about OSIRIS-REx. There's also Alan Stern's book about New Horizons.

[ccdengr]

"Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer" by Rob Manning.

"Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity" by Roger Wiens