Books by Rod Pyle

Interplanetary Robots

True Stories of Space Exploration

2019 Tigard 629.4354

• https://www.pylebooks.com/

• Editor-in-chief Ad Astra Magazine

Mostly about probes from JPL, with a focus on the Curiosity lander, and press coverage from JPL.

• p32 Early plans, Air Force detonate a-bomb above Moon.
• p48 CIA examines Luna 3 probe duplicate overnight during tur of the US

• p51-56 Ranger, p56-59 1966-7 Lunar orbiters 1-5, 99% map of moon, 1500 tape reels at National Archives enhanced digital images

• p61-63 Lunar Flashlight look for water

• p65-77 1965 July 15 - Mariner 4 Mars flyby

• p83-88 Surveyor 6 on Moon

• p89-92 1970 Lunokhod 1 and 1973 Lunokhod 2

• p105-118 mismanaged Voyager Mars, grew huge, cancelled
• p119-142 Viking

• p143-145 MOXIE Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment on 2020 rover, electrolyze CO2 to CO and O2, 10 to 22 grams per hour, 300W

• p147-167, Mariner 2, Venera 7-14, hypothetical Apollo-derived flyby, hypothetical AREE lander

• p171-171 1966 JPL Gary Flandro grand tour

• p183-220 Voyagers 1 and 2 Project Manager John Casani, JPL Chief Engineer

• p221-223 Project Longshot hypothetical fission/fusion to orbit Alpha Centauri B after 100 years
• p225-233 Soviet Mars 2 orbiter, lander failures, hypothetical Mars 5M sample-return lander

• p235-237 Chapter 28 - Flux pinning rendezvous for Mars samples ... seems silly

• p239-241 Centaur Hydrogen-cryofueled upper stage in Shuttle bay, John Young called it the "Death Star"
• p242 Solid Inertial Upper Stage IUS.
• p242-245 Re-plannings of Galileo and two cross country trips wore out lubricant on retaining pins, antenna deployment failed
• p252-265 Low gain antenna and reprogramming, imaged Gaspra asteroid, Shoemaker-Levy 9, Jupiter Red Spot, Europa

• p267 Inflatable Antennas JPL, hypothetical

• p276 Cassini rto Saturn

• p291-293 Huygens drop probe to Titan, p299-302 X37-B to Titan?

• p303-313 Mars 2020

• p317 ESA ExoMars

• p321 Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART