In the course of our enduring quest for knowledge about ourselves and our universe, we havent found answers to one of our most fundamental questions: Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ten years and billions of dollars in the making, the Mars rover Curiosity is poised to answer this all-important question.
Here, Rob Manning, the projects chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often frustrated experts.
Mannings fascinating personal accountwhich includes information from his exclusive interviews with leading Curiosity scientistsis packed with tales of revolutionary feats of science, technology, and engineering. Listeners experience firsthand the disappointment at encountering persistent technical problems, the agony of near defeat, the sense of victory at finding innovative solutions to these problems, the sheer terror of staking careers and reputations on a lander that couldnt be tested on Earth, and the rush of triumph at its successful touchdown on Mars on August 5, 2012. This is the story of persistence, dedication, and unrelenting curiosity.
Spaceflight is one of the greatest human achievements of the twentieth century. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957; less than twelve years later, the American Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. Michael Neufeld explains th...
A brand-new special edition recording of the first audiobook in the worldwide bestselling trilogy from Suzanne Collins!
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying d...
The summer of 1969 saw astronauts land on the moon for the first time and hippie hordes descend on Woodstock for a legendary music festival. For Neil M. Maher, the conjunction of these two era-defining events is not entirely coincidental.
With its ...
As Apollo 11's Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer's software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control....
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. Th...
NOW THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONESNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadFrom a master of contemporary fantasy comes the first novel of a landmark series unlike any you’ve eve...
In this one-of-a-kind memoir, Jack Clemons—a former lead engineer in support of NASA—takes listeners behind the scenes and into the inner workings of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs during their most exciting years. Discover the pe...
"FASCINATING . . . MEMORABLE . . . REVEALING . . . PERHAPS THE BEST OF CARL SAGAN'S BOOKS." --The Washington Post Book World (front page review)In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and ...
On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation's eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in...
