The Design and Engineering of Curiosity : How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job Dedication Foreword Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1: Mars Science Laboratory Chapter 2: Getting to Mars Chapter 3: Mars Operations Chapter 4: How the Rover Works Chapter 5: SA SPaH: Acquisition Processing and Handling Chapter 6: The Mast Engineering Cameras Navigation and Hazard Avoidance Chapter 7: Curiositys Science Cameras Chapter 8: Curiositys Environmental Sensing Instruments Chapter 9: Curiositys Chemistry Instruments Epilogue: Back on Earth Appendix About the Author Index. This book describes the most complex machine ever sent to another planet: Curiosity. It is a one ton robot with two brains seventeen cameras six wheels nuclear power and a laser beam on its head. No one human understands how all of its systems and instruments work. This essential reference to the Curiosity mission explains the engineering behind every system on the rover from its rocket powered jetpack to its radioisotope thermoelectric generator to its fiendishly complex sample handling system. Its lavishly illustrated text explains how all the instruments work its cameras spectrometers sample cooking oven and weather station and describes the instruments abilities and limitations. It tells you how the systems have functioned on Mars and how scientists and engineers have worked around problems developed on a faraway planet: holey wheels and broken focus lasers. And it explains the grueling mission operations schedule that keeps the rover working day in and day out. .