Exploring Mars Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery

224 Pages·2011·1.758 MB·English

by  Scott Hubbard

exploring mars

Exploring Mars
Chronicles from
a Decade of Discovery
Scott Hubbard
Foreword by Bill Nye
tucson
© 2011 The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved
www.uapress.arizona.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hubbard, Scott, 1948–
Exploring Mars : chronicles from a decade of discovery / Scott Hubbard.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8165-2896-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mars (Planet)—Exploration. 2. Space flight to Mars—History. I. Title.
QB643.H83 2012
523.43072'3—dc23 2011036184
Manufactured in the United States of America on acid- free, archival- quality paper
containing a minimum of 30% post- consumer waste and processed chlorine free.
17 16 15 14 13 12 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Susan

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Plates xi
Foreword by Bill Nye xiii
Abbreviations xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
1 Mars Is Hard 1
2 Getting Started 13
3 Inside the Beltway 39
4 Follow the Water 52
5 To Land or Not to Land? 68
6 The Rover Becomes Rovers 82
7 Hands across the Water 90
8 Getting the Word Out 98
9 All Things to All People 122
10 Return to Flight: A Mars Odyssey 147
11 The Queue 161
12 Zeroing In 180
Appendix: Timeline of the New Mars Program 187
Index 189

Figures
1 Path a spacecraft must travel from Earth to Mars. 2
2 How a cosmic ray interacts with Mars soil to create “fingerprint”
identification of many elements. 43
3 Map of Odyssey’s detection of very large amounts of water ice on
Mars. 44
4 Weiler presents Hubbard with an award after the successful launch
of Odyssey. 47
5 Schematic of program systems engineering. 62
6 Schematic showing how water served as the common thread for the
new Mars Program. 63
7 “Seek/In Situ/Sample” emerged as a logical sequence of reconnais-
sance, ground truth, and (eventually) sample return. 65
8 The “ladder to Mars” alternates orbital reconnaissance with landed
missions. 66
9 An ebullient Dan Goldin learning that Odyssey was safely in orbit
around Mars. 71
10 Model of the 25- pound Pathfinder rover engaged in a chase with the
384- pound MER rover. 77
11 Handwritten summary of the three mission options for the 2003
launch opportunity. 78
12 Satirical look at the trials and tribulations of the NASA HQ program
director. 123