The Wheels of Apollo and the Quest for Mars fills the need for a complete history of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17. The book draws on many photographs never before published. It goes on to recount the story of the successful robotic rovers used on Mars, and concludes with a description of the new designs of rovers planned for The New Vision for Exploration now underway at NASA. The text includes extensive coverage of the background, research, design and execution of the Lunar Rover, the Mars Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity missions, and the plans for both manned and unmanned rovers in NASA's future missions. Extensively researched, the book is based on interviews with the astronauts who drove the LRV, and the engineers, past, present and future, who design and build planetary rovers.

Klappentext

This book fills a need for a complete history of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17, drawing on many photographs never before published. It also tells the story of the robotic rovers used on Mars, and concludes with a description of the new designs of rovers planned for The New Vision for Exploration now underway at NASA. The book provides extensive quotes from the astronauts who drove the LRV on the Moon from interviews conducted especially for the book. It also details new material from interviews of engineers and managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory covering the robotic rovers, Sojourner, Sprit and Opportunity.

Zusammenfassung

The Wheels of Apollo and the Quest for Mars fills a need for a complete history of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17, drawing on many photographs never before published. It also tells the story of the robotic rovers used on Mars, and concludes with a description of the new designs of rovers planned for The New Vision for Exploration now underway at NASA. The book provides extensive quotes from the astronauts who drove the LRV on the Moon from interviews conducted especially for the book. It also details new material from interviews of engineers and managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory covering the robotic rovers, Sojourner, Sprit and Opportunity. The Foreword is written by David R. Scott, Commander of Apollo 15.

Chapter 1: From Concept to Reality; Chapter 2: Lunar Roving Vehicle Subsystems; Chapter 3: Training for the Moon; Chapter 4: To the Hadley Plains; Chapter 4: Mysterious and Unknown Descartes; Chapter 5: Destiny at Taurus-Littrow; Chapter Six: The Quest for Mars-Chapter Seven: The New Vision of Exploration.

Inhalt
From concept to reality.- The Lunar Roving Vehicle subsystems.- Training for the Moon.- To the Hadley Plains.- Mysterious and unknown Descartes.- Destiny at Taurus-Littrow.- The quest for Mars.- The Vision for Space Exploration.