1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910300538803321

Autore

Lakdawalla Emily

Titolo

The Design and Engineering of Curiosity : How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job / / by Emily Lakdawalla

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2018

ISBN

3-319-68146-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XIV, 394 p. 225 illus., 209 illus. in color.)

Collana

Space Exploration

Disciplina

520

500.5

Soggetti

Space sciences

Astronomy

Aerospace engineering

Astronautics

Planetary science

Exobiology

Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics)

Popular Science in Astronomy

Aerospace Technology and Astronautics

Planetology

Astrobiology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Dedication -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Mars Science Laboratory -- Chapter 2: Getting to Mars -- Chapter 3: Mars Operations -- Chapter 4: How the Rover Works -- Chapter 5: SA/SPaH: Acquisition, Processing, and Handling -- Chapter 6: The Mast, Engineering Cameras, Navigation, and Hazard Avoidance -- Chapter 7: Curiosity's Science Cameras -- Chapter 8: Curiosity's Environmental Sensing Instruments -- Chapter 9: Curiosity's Chemistry Instruments -- Epilogue: Back on Earth -- Appendix -- About the Author -- Index.



Sommario/riassunto

This book describes the most complex machine ever sent to another planet: Curiosity. It is a one-ton robot with two brains, seventeen cameras, six wheels, nuclear power, and a laser beam on its head. No one human understands how all of its systems and instruments work. This essential reference to the Curiosity mission explains the engineering behind every system on the rover, from its rocket-powered jetpack to its radioisotope thermoelectric generator to its fiendishly complex sample handling system. Its lavishly illustrated text explains how all the instruments work -- its cameras, spectrometers, sample-cooking oven, and weather station -- and describes the instruments' abilities and limitations. It tells you how the systems have functioned on Mars, and how scientists and engineers have worked around problems developed on a faraway planet: holey wheels and broken focus lasers. And it explains the grueling mission operations schedule that keeps the rover working day in and day out. .