wunschsusi

A good book from a long time ago (in Mars exploration). The future schedule of Mars exploration has been proven quite optimistic, while the future rovers described in the last part of the book look very unlike Spirit and Opportunity. But the narrative is quite interesting. The book takes a historical perspective, addressing early ideas about Mars rovers, and how the miniaturization of computing technology made a small rover like Sojourner possible. It discusses training of drivers in simulated situations on Earth. It tells the story of the Pathfinder mission's trip to Mars, the landing, and Sojourner and Pathfinder's activities once there. In a way, Sojourner's findings are the least interesting part, since so much more information has been discovered since. The illustrations are erratically captioned but nonetheless interesting.… (mere)