Guest: Rod Pyle. Topic: We discussed Rod's latest book, "Curiosity: An Inside Look at the Mars Rover Mission and the People Who Made It Happen." Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed author Rod Pyle back to the show to discuss his current book, "Curiosity: An Inside Look at the Mars Rover Mission and the People Who Made It Happen." Find out more about Rod and his books at his websites, www.rodpylebooks.net and www.rodpylemedia.com. During the first segment of this 1 hour 27 minute program, Rod explained his long time interest in Mars and why he decided to write this excellent book. I asked if NASA & JPL were cooperative with him in writing it and he said yes. I asked him what impressed him the most about the Curiosity project and he said the Sky Crane to which he has devoted a full chapter in his book. Rod then told us about the NASA Curiosity Mission Review Panel headed by Clive Neal at Notre Dame which suggested that mission management had enabled problems including getting a poor science return for the money and its lack of scientific focus and detail. You can read about this review panel by visiting http://astronomyaggregator.com/exploration/nasa-panel-curiosity-plannin… or simply Google Notre Dame Curiosity Mission Review Panel for additional panel commentary on Curiosity. Listeners asked Rod about HSF to Mars and if after researching the mission, did he think the money spent on the project was worth it. Rod provided some interesting budgetary comparisons and did say that he thought it was a good investment & program. He talked about the Curiosity mission goals, sedimentary rocks and Martian geology. Future missions based on Curiosity were brought up, especially Mars 2020. Another listener asked about using humans for Martian exploration instead of rovers. He cited compelling financial facts between rovers and HSF which supported the use of Rovers, at least for now. Another listener asked if he thought Curiosity was the best ever Mars mission. His response might surprise you. Prior to the break, he addressed a question about missions to the Martian moons. In the second segment, Paula asked about ongoing mission operating costs and wanted to know if they were roughly equal for all the robotic missions. Later, I asked if JPL had reviewed his manuscript. He said he sent it to them for fact checking but not content editing. He also mentioned JPL reviewed it from an ITAR compliance perspective but did not "muzzle" anything. A listener asked about the life expectancy of a rover team at JPL before moving on to another project or even leaving JPL. Questions came in about SpaceX and its Mars plans, the both the SLS and F1 engine project came up for discussion. Later, Rod said based on website hits, Pathfinder was probably the most popular of the Mars rover missions. Another listener asked Rod to compare rovers from other nations to those built by JPL and NASA. As we were ending, he was asked about the Indian MOM mission and Maven. His book "Curiosity" is packed with information such as we discussed plus much more in 32 chapters. Remember, if you buy the book on Amazon, use the OGLF Amazon Portal so that Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show. Instructions are on all website & blog archives plus both websites or just email me. Please post questions/comments on The Space Show blog above. You can reach Rod through his websites or me.
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