Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery

by Scott Hubbard, Bill Nye (Foreword)

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.   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 .  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.  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.
 

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Space, Politics

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Richard Lambour · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short but detailed and well written book discussing how the NASA Mars Exploration Program was put together over a ~1 year period in 2000 - 2001. The author was brought into NASA HQ after two high profile Mars probe failures in 1999 both of which just disappeared within months of one another in late 1999. Some of you will remember one of them as the metric to English units screw up (Mars Climate Orbiter) and the other as the software bug that shut off the decent engines too early (Mars Polar Lander). Both losses were caused by poor system engineering practices (to try and save money) in the era of "Faster, Better, Cheaper" NASA missions. What followed the failure reviews was an intensive period of time where a new program was system engineered with the science goals of finding and "Following the Water" to find potentially life bearing parts of the planet and lay the groundwork both for future robotic and eventual human exploration.

This book discusses the process of designing, obtaining government approval and funding for the program, and the successful return to flight with the Mars Odyssey mission in 2001. While it discusses the program science objectives, it does not discuss the science results from the missions in great detail. Even so it's a fascinating look into what it takes to put together and execute planetary exploration programs. For anyone working in the spaceflight/space exploration area, it should be required reading. For those interested in planetary exploration, I'd recommend it quite highly. The program is a shining example of thoughtful planning and good execution.

[Jordan Lui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great piece of space history. This provides excellent insight into a tough period for NASA and how they turned around their Mars programs.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating book! I must have been asleep in 1999, the mars mission failures don't resonate with me as deeply as the successful missions from the 2000s. Though the I recall anecdotal tales of the botched conversion that doomed one of the missions (the conversion error heard round the world). How did NASA get back on it's feet and have a decade of success? Scott Hubbard, that's how! Here he recounts his most stressful job of being the man in charge of Mars for NASA. Tight budgets, tighter deadlines, and the whole world watching. This book isn't about what we've discovered on Mars, though that is summed up in the final chapter. It turns out to be much more. About the people behind the missions and all the work done to do science on another planet. This is a fantastic read letting the reader into the belly of NASA.

[Ken Davidian]

Great book! It's a quick read and gives a great glimpse of he workings of NASA HQ in Washington, DC. MY only complaint is that the book was too short... c'mon Scott, how about a sequel? :-D

[Preston Pendergraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great short read (12 chapters) of how NASA basically got back to Mars. There were two highly published failures in 2000, and the author was the new manager of the Mars program told to fix it. I found the book interesting and would recommend to anyone who wants to work in the civilian space industry. The author is a little repetitive in a few places. One last important note the book was written before Curiosity launched. Overall I enjoyed the book.