Interplanetary Robots

""Interplanetary Robots by Rod Pyle is, quite simply, the best chronicle I’ve ever read about our golden age of planetary exploration. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the many missions, flown or not, designed to explore our solar system. Brilliant, thorough, and crack-me-up funny!”
 
—Pascal Lee, planetary scientist, Mars Institute, SETI Institute, and NASA Ames Research Center

“A breathtaking account of humanity’s robotic exploration of the solar system. Compelling and well-written, this book immerses the reader in the political and scientific realities that challenged each interplanetary mission over the past sixty years. Rod Pyle’s conversational style and insider perspective enable the reader to personally experience the scientific and historical discoveries, something few books of this genre are able to offer.”
 
—Louis A. Del Monte, bestselling author of Genius Weapons, Nanoweapons, and The Artificial Intelligence Revolution

“A fun, eminently readable romp discussing the past, present, and future of interplanetary robotic spaceflight—Pyle makes a dense, multi-textured subject relatable to all readers with his (pardon the pun) down-to-Earth storytelling style.”
 
—Emily Carney, author, and founder of the online group Space Hipsters
 
“In this optimistic, exciting book, master space storyteller Pyle turns to the ultimate in robotics: machines small enough to fit in a suburban driveway (or even a suburban living room), flung into the hostile abyss by dangerous rockets, maintaining radio contact with their human creators for years but almost never coming back, transforming our knowledge of our solar system. From his home base near NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pyle surveys sixty years of progress and, in the ‘Flash Forward’ chapters, glimpses the future.”

—Steve Fentress, director, Strasenburgh Planetarium, Rochester, NY

“Pyle has done it again! What he accomplished for human spaceflight with Amazing Stories of the Space Age he repeats in this consistently fascinating review of robotic space exploration. The thrilling successes throughout our solar neighborhood are here, but so are the almost equally interesting schemes that literally never left the ground. I learned something new from almost every page, while being entertained by Rod’s signature humor and unique observations along the way. His own interactions with some of our robot emissaries make this an even more personal and enjoyable read.”
 
—Mat Kaplan, host of the Planetary Society’s Planetary Radio
 
“If machines ever replace us, they’ll want to keep Pyle on hand to do what he does for our interplanetary robots—personalize their stories, spotlight what’s important, and explain why with wit and wonder. This book is a first-class seat on all of these unmanned spacecraft.”
 
—Dr. E. C. Krupp, director, Griffith Observatory