Tribute by Jack Skillingstead - A Short Story Review

A mission to Mars goes badly.  NASA is defunded.  Corporations are nearly the only players left in space.

But what of science?  What of exploration?

How can these higher pursuits be served when the profit motive is the only thing left in space?

It's an interesting story, especially for those voices who do not see the value of a government funded space agency. 

I found this last story of the collection very thought provoking.  The missions to Mars are terrific storytelling but the bigger questions of corporate priorities in space lingered in my mind.

There is room enough in outer space for all the players, if you ask me.




Jack Skillingstead's web site - https://www.jackskillingstead.com/

Jack Skillingstead

Mars Rover Curiosity by Rob Manning and William L. Simon - Book Review #285

An Inside Account from

Curiosity's Chief Engineer

I love these kinds of behind-the-scenes books.

It is staggering to consider the amount of work and struggle that goes on to get a planetary mission approved, designed, funded, delayed, built, tested, re-tested, mated to a rocket, launched, testing while in flight, the Seven Minutes of Terror (see the video below), landing and testing on the ground before the rover moves at all.

This is the story of how the Mars Curiosity Rover came to be and how it made it to Mars.

If your one of those people who likes to learn how things are made, or you watch the DVD extras on the production of your favourite movie then this is a book you'll enjoy.

It was well written and engaging throughout.

The NADS Mars Science Laboratory website - https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/

Rob Manning

William L Simon

In Panic Town, On The Backward Moon by Michael F Flynn

Talk about the look and feel of a space western.

The story starts in a saloon, where a stranger walks in, and leaves something valuable with the owner of the establishment. 

This is the kind of SF I love; high tech, set in the future but still populated by recognizable people.

The object stored in the saloon's safe was stolen and the person who stole it has made enemies all over Mars.  Now he is dead and the object is gone.

In my mind's eye I could see all the dust, grit and roughness of life on Mars.

Flynn was able to create a giant backdrop in few pages.  Once I was done reading the setting lived on in my head.  The world he created was so rich, I felt as though I had read a novel.

Terrific stuff.

Return To Mars by Ben Bova - Book Report #201

As a sequel this worked very well indeed.

We are back on Mars ready to explore new regions and to go back to a tantalizing feature that was only glimpsed on the last mission.

I felt that Bova did a much better job at characterization than in his previous effort.  Some of the emotional sides of the story were still a bit clunky but much less so than before.

This time, instead of being threatened by some disease the treat comes from within the program.  There will come a time when decisions will have to be made on how much of Mars will need to be preserved and how much will be exploited.

The needs of science versus the need to make money (to fund missions for science) come to a head and I was quite pleased with the twist from one of the antagonists.

The ultimate resolution to the conflict was, once again, solved in an interesting and surprising way.

I liked this one even better than the last.

Ben Bova's website - http://benbova.com/

Ben Bova

Mission to Mars by Buzz Aldrin - Book Report #198

Buzz Aldrin, of Apollo 11, has been an advocate for continued and ambitious exploration of space ever since he returned to Earth.

Here he makes the case for Mars and describes a method to accomplish the permanent settlement of the planet.

I have always been a fan of space exploration.  My greatest disappointment was how it was put on the back burner and the American capability has atrophied to the point that they no longer have a domestic ability to put humans in orbit.

There are many mission plans to take humans to the red planet but this one has an elegant transportation system of continual cycling to and from Mars that I find compelling.

Part of the genius of the Aldrin cycler is how it puts hardware into space that offers free return trips back and forth between Earth and Mars in perpetuity.

Political will is necessary to make any push into space, the battle is to find that will and leverage it.

I found the book well written and inspiring.

Buzz Aldrin - https://buzzaldrin.com/

Buzz Aldrin

 

Mars by Ben Bova - Book Report #178

The first team of humans arrive at Mars and start to explore the planet.

Things do not go as planned, of course, and the crew suffers some damage after a meteor shower.

I liked the characters who spanned all the way back to Earth.  Everybody had their own motivations which added to the tension of the story.  Some of them were just silly but I don't think it took away from the story very much.

Something begins to impact the health of the entire ground crew and the mission is threatened because of it.  I found this part of the story very clever and thought it plausible today.

There was a tantalising discovery on one excursion that was left unexplored.  It was a nice cliffhanger for the next book.

All in all I found myself transported by the story.

Given today's activity in space I feel more confident than ever that I will live to see humans return to the moon and I hope to see them on Mars too.

Bova's website is here - http://benbova.com/

Red Rover by Roger Wiens - Book Report #161

13/15/2016

This a a fascinating story of how one particular science package, ChemCam, came to be built and installed on the Mars Curiosity rover.

What you will come away with is the incredible journey an instrument takes from concept, approval, build, installation and operation.  I was impressed at the dedication and effort that goes into such a project.  For years prior to launch there is a constant struggle for funding and crating the best possible science instrument that can be made.

Don't think for one minute that instruments are built from off the shelf components.  Everything is on the bleeding edge of engineering.  There is nothing about Curiosity that is ordinary.

When you consider the efforts of the ChemCam team is repeated by every other team that has an instrument on the rover AND the team that built the rover itself AND all the components it took to get it to Mars, I was left wondering how anything actually gets built, flown and operated at all.

Usually the public is let in on the launch and landing days, but there is about a decade of work that has happened before the rocket is launched.

Roger Wiens

 

Landing on Mars.

It's funny; knowing we've landed on the moon and dropped rovers on Mars, I thought it wouldn't be that difficult to land humans.


After reading The Mars Dilemma from the October/November 2014 issue of Air & Space Smithsonian magazine, I was surprised to learn how little we know about landing humans there.  The two factors coming into play are: the thinness of the atmosphere and how massive a manned vehicle would need to be.

The article was written by co-authors Robert Manning ad William L. Simon who also wrote the book Mars Rover Curiosity, something I must read soon.

I found this article particularly insightful especially after reading The Martian by Andy Weir.  You can find my review of Weir's book is HERE.

The article in question can be found here :
http://www.airspacemag.com/space/mars-dilemma-180952797/?all

Air & Space Smithsonian magazine is something I'm subscribed too and enjoy the mix of aviation history and new space exploration news.  Their website is here:
http://www.airspacemag.com/

Book Report #126 - The Martian by Andy Weir

Book 50 of 52
Page count 369

This is my kind of science fiction.  It's known as Hard Sci Fi in that it is rooted in current science.  What I loved about this story is that it was firmly rooted in today's engineering.  Yes, the nuts and bolts of it all.

If you remember the movie Apollo 13, then you remember the scenes where the crew and engineers on the ground, would come up with all kinds of unique, ad hoc solutions to problems.  Well, this book is a lot like that, but on Mars.

Astronaut Mark Watney's crew leaves him behind during a mission-ending dust storm.  He was hit with some flying equipment and and blown down wind.  All his environmental suit instruments indicated that he had died and his crew mates were forced to evacuated the surface without him.

What follows is a story of survival filled with problems, interesting solutions, setbacks and dark humor.

I loved this book.

Andy Weir's website is here:   http://www.andyweirauthor.com/

Andy Weir

Mars Baby!

Congratulations to NASA and the Mars Curiosity team for a beautiful landing!!