Working on Mars - Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers

Beginning in 2004, a team of geologists and other planetary scientists did field science in a dark room in Pasadena, exploring Mars from NASA¿s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by means of the remotely operated Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). The MER creates a virtual experience of being on Mars. In this book, William Clancey examines how the MER has changed the nature of planetary field science. Drawing on his extensive observations of scientists in the field and at the JPL, Clancey investigates how the design of the rover mission enables field science on Mars, explaining how the scientists and rover engineers manipulate the vehicle and why the programmable tools and analytic instruments work so well for them. He shows how the scientists felt not as if they were issuing commands to a machine but rather as if they were working on the red planet, riding together in the rover on a voyage of discovery.