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Andrew Mishkin

Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission Hardcover – December 2, 2003

by Andrew Mishkin (Author)

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Andrew Mishkin, a senior systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a leader of NASA's robotic program, brings us this insider's look at the Mars Pathfinder probe that electrified the world's imagination.

One hundred twenty-two million miles away from her controllers, a sophisticated robot smaller than a microwave oven did what had never been done before-explored the rocky, red terrain of Mars. Then, six-wheeled Sojourner beamed spectacular pictures of her one-of-a-kind mission back to Earth. And millions of people were captivated.

Now, with the touch of an expert thriller writer, Sojourner operations team leader Andrew Mishkin tells the inside, human story of the Mars Pathfinder mission's feverish efforts to build a self-guided, offroading robot to explore the surface of the Red Planet. With witty, compelling anecdotes, he describes the clash of temperamental geniuses, the invention of a new work ethic, the turf wars, the chewing-gum solutions to high-tech problems, the controlled chaos behind the strangely beautiful creation of an artificial intelligence-and the exhilaration of inaugurating the next great age of space exploration

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Berkley
Publication date

December 2, 2003
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0425191990
ISBN-13

978-0425191996
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Millions of viewers watched in fascination in July 1997 as the Mars "rover" Sojourner (named after Sojourner Truth) maneuvered around the Red Planet's surface like an interplanetary dune buggy, sending back pictures of rocks and boulders that were given whimsical names by mission scientists (e.g., Yogi, Scooby-Doo). Mishkin, senior systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the rover was developed, chronicles the years of trial and error to create a vehicle that would be the right size for the Pathfinder lander and could withstand the temperature extremes on the Martian surface while maneuvering around rocks without getting stuck or driving over the edge of an abyss. It takes 40 minutes for a signal to travel from Mars to Earth and back, so JPL scientists had to make the rover's navigational systems as self-sufficient as possible. The author details how software and hardware teams often clashed over the best ways to solve the problems they encountered during development. Mishkin himself discovered a potentially fatal error shortly before launch: a wrong parameter in the computer clock would have woken Sojourner in the middle of the night instead of in the morning, but the robot needed sunlight to function. Mishkin's detailed history undoubtedly will interest engineers and dedicated science techies, but readers looking for an account of Sojourner's accomplishments on Mars will be disappointed-the rover's 80 days of exploration are given one quick chapter. Nevertheless, Mishkin has written a valuable chronicle of one of NASA's only mission in the past decade to have captured the public's imagination. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Andrew Mishkin has been a key player in NASA's robotic program for the past 15 years. He joined the Sojourner rover team at its formation, eventually leading the rover operations team and commanding the rover during its exploration of Mars. In 1997 he received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley; 1st edition (December 2, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0425191990
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0425191996
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,403,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #378 in Mars
- #1,300 in Astronautics & Space Flight
- #2,627 in Aeronautics & Astronautics (Books)

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Frederick Sonnichsen

A Valuable Resource

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2004

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Like other books concerning the space program (e.g."Moon Hunters") this book is an interesting historical document concerning some of JPL's remarkable accomplishments. In addition however, the author provides valuable technical insights into the unique thinking, problem solving, and development obstacles which scientists and engineers encounter when exploring remote areas of our world and universe. From a project management perspective, Mishkin has demonstrated how issues over team dynamics, personality, scheduling, and budgets were successfully overcome to attain success beyond all expectations.
I think that this book would make excellent reading for scientists and engineers destined to manage major team oriented projects. This book also should prove of great interest to people working in space science, oceanographic work, or other such fields with similar problems and they will likely find several technical parallels to the mode of thinking that is applied to their own areas.
I would think that JPL would gain much in the way of public interest and support if similar books appear in the future.

7 people found this helpful

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David J. Atkinson

Inaccuracy and disparaging remarks about key contributors

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2004

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I was also present during the early days of robotics at JPL and witnessed some of the events described by Mishkin. I have worked with Andy Mishkin in the past and share his enthusiasm for our exploratiion of Mars. I must take issue, however, with his characterization of the contributions of Dr. David P. Miller and Dr. Rajiv Desai to the advent of micro-rovers at JPL. I am also saddened by his imperceptive and self-serving observations of their motives and personalities. I agree that the team of which Mishkin was a member were very worried about the micro-rover work being carried out by Miller, Desai, and others. This is because the combined technologies of behavior control and small rovers were demonstrably capable of automatically accomplishing tasks of scientific interest without the computational overhead, mass or system complexity of the "larger" robots being developed in Mishkin's organization. As such, they represented a threat to continued funding of Wilcox and others' work and leadership. Since that time, it appears there are unique mission requirements for both large-scale rovers and micro-rovers in a variety of mission scenarios. The team led by Dr. Miller and Dr. Desai was the only one at JPL (during the period 1987 to 1994) to successfully conceive, research, develop and demonstrate micro-rover systems using reactive behavioral control techniques, and was the first in the world to integrate and demonstrate such systems doing mission-relevant behaviors in a laboratory setting. Small robots in space have been a staple of many science fiction stories. They actually built the technology. Their accomplishments were documented in peer-reviewed conferences and journals, and continue to be highly praised by roboticists, space scientists and NASA. Dr. Miller was viewed by NASA HQ as the agency's expert on micro-rovers, and this was also true of senior managers at JPL. Drs. Miller and Desai were concerned first with the success of Mars exploration and not motivated AT ALL by a need to "take over" robotics being done in Mishkin's organization. They had no shortage of funding and the future looked very bright indeed. I know from personal observation that they tried very hard to work collaboratively with the other group, but were rebuffed and systematically excluded from important meetings, engineering discussions, and overall just treated unprofessionally. Nevertheless, they made heroic efforts to contribute. This came to a head in the major technology demonstration described by Mishkin, where the micro-rover unfortunately failed after just a portion of the demo. I don't know whether a failed piece of electronics was the problem, or software, or operations, or system engineering. I do know that Drs. Miller and Desai tried their very best in a hostile work environment where they were tasked to provide a highly technical, integrated product in absence of full collaboration with the rest of the engineering team. At least, Mishkin acknowledges that the demo, although limited, was enough to capture NASA's favorable attention and led directly to the formation of what would later become the Pathfinder mission. And I am pleased that he acknowledges that Dr. Miller was pivotal in convincing the NASA Mars Science Working Group and the OSSA Solar System Exploration Committee that a micro-rover oriented mission was possible and could return valuable science information. As a final note, Dr. Miller and Dr. Desai each left JPL soon after these event. They were never able to share personally in success of the Sojourner robot which their own work had inspired and enabled. I respect Andrew Mishkin and his many accomplishments at JPL. He just got this part of history wrong, which I attribute not to maliciousness but to the "group-think" of his parent organization and lack of personal knowledge of the actions taken by his managers.

20 people found this helpful

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Rick L.

Another great voyage

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2013

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Sojourner. With this book you can view yourself on the voyage to Mars.These machines that man has put together so carefully are beyond most peoples comprehension. The trick is to go along for the ride. See things through the machines eyes. Go on its travels.A new world awaits and its fantastic. I really love the technology we have and this book brings it all home. Thanks, Rick L.

One person found this helpful

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F.Oswald

Good book for any fan of science / tech / ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018

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Good book for any fan of science / tech / NASA history. I do wish it had gone into just a bit more technical detail, but that's just a personal preference & not really the writer's intent.

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Juan Diego Rodriguez Blanco

but a very nice –and sometimes personal– story about the design and construction ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2014

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A little bit technical sometimes, but a very nice –and sometimes personal– story about the design and construction of Sojourner rover. It was the first rover to move on the surface of Mars and I have very good memories of Mars Pathfinder + Sojourner rover in 1997.

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Fascinating technical detail marred by some petty personal disputes

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2015

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. On the technical side, I find myself fascinated by the depth of detail Mishkin goes into regarding the technical aspects of the lander, the rovers, the problems they encountered, and how they solved them. It's easy to get the impression from news stories that a rover like Sojourner is not that much more complicated than an R/C car, but building and programing a device that can be launched on a year-long journey, land, and explore another planet- autonomously if necessary- and deal with all possible contingencies, even if communications are lost- is a project that takes human and technical resources that can stagger the imagination. To that end, Mishkin does a first rate job of describing some of the details that can get overlooked in a popular presentation, like how to insure that the radio modems used by the lander and rover stay on frequency over a wide range of temperatures- and what to do when they don't.

But I am less impressed by the volume of personal details and characterizations found here; at times, it seems like Mishkin is settling personal vendettas, describing people in unflattering terms and assigning blame for delays and difficulties. At one point he describes a particular female member as breaking down in tears over a technical problem- was this really necessary?

Read it for the technical material and ignore the petty personal aspects and you'll get a good picture of the complexities and difficulties of launching even the smallest interplanetary vehicle.

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Makoto Ichikawa

宇宙ロボットの開発に関連する人の必読書

Reviewed in Japan on August 14, 2008

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　JPLはロボットによる宇宙探査を目的としたNASAのセンターです。Mars Pathfinder Missionと火星探査ローバーSojournerはVikingミッション以降、失敗の続いていた火星探査を再び、成功の道へ戻し、NASAでは初めてとなる「移動ロボットによる他の天体の探査」*を成功させました。本書はMars PathfinderとSojournerの開発の歴史とその探査の状況を解説するもので、このミッションに携わった著者だからこそ可能な非常に貴重な記録といえます。
　宇宙ロボットの開発に興味のある人、また、その開発に携わる人には必読書です。なお、本書を読むと、どうしても日本の宇宙ロボットの開発に携わる人的資源の薄さが・・。
　2004年のReprint版は2004年の火星ローバーのミッションについて増補されています。また、火星探査ローバーミッションの科学面を支えるSteven W. Squyresによる "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, And The Exploration Of The Red Planet"(Hyperion Books) が2005年に発行されています。

*: 移動ロボットによる世界初の探査は、ソビエト連邦が月面探査をLunokhodという大型のローバーで実現させています。

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Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission Hardcover – December 2, 2003

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