| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £5.95
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in My Life on Mars: (The Beagle 2 Diaries) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £5.95, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details
|
Product Description
This autobiographical book by the leader of the Beagle 2 project tells the complete story about the British space which was sent to Mars in 2003 to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet. Beagle 2 captivated the public and stories about it appeared in the media all over the World particularly in the United States.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book offers a fascinating account from behind the scenes of the Beagle 2 Mars lander mission, backed up with Pillinger's own life story and details of his previous work on lunar and Martian meteorite samples.
The Beagle 2 mission, although ultimately unsuccessful, captured the hearts of the British people in 2003 and certainly succeeded in inspiring many ordinary folk to take an interest in space exploration and science. Rarely has science been made so accessible to the general public, and Pillinger's approach of attempting to share every step of the process (warts and all) with the non-scientific community should be praised.
Professor Pillinger was personally criticised for his management style in a post mission report, but in this passionate account he explains how the mission suffered from funding constraints and a lack of co-operation from various quarters, at times bordering on malicious obstruction. The book is as much a dramatic thriller as it is an enthralling narrative of Pillinger's career.
My Life on Mars provides a gripping insight to the intense political wrangling which took place in the shadows of a groundbreaking scientific and engineering endeavour. It certainly leaves you with an enormous sense of disappointment that such an audacious project could be hamstrung by the interference of the bureaucrats and nay-sayers.
Highly recommended for all those with a sense of adventure, and out of this world ambition!
The Beagle 2 mission, although ultimately unsuccessful, captured the hearts of the British people in 2003 and certainly succeeded in inspiring many ordinary folk to take an interest in space exploration and science. Rarely has science been made so accessible to the general public, and Pillinger's approach of attempting to share every step of the process (warts and all) with the non-scientific community should be praised.
Professor Pillinger was personally criticised for his management style in a post mission report, but in this passionate account he explains how the mission suffered from funding constraints and a lack of co-operation from various quarters, at times bordering on malicious obstruction. The book is as much a dramatic thriller as it is an enthralling narrative of Pillinger's career.
My Life on Mars provides a gripping insight to the intense political wrangling which took place in the shadows of a groundbreaking scientific and engineering endeavour. It certainly leaves you with an enormous sense of disappointment that such an audacious project could be hamstrung by the interference of the bureaucrats and nay-sayers.
Highly recommended for all those with a sense of adventure, and out of this world ambition!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Many people will remember the drama that unfolded during Christmas 2003 when it seemed as if the whole country had its eyes fixed on the planet Mars and the fate of a small space probe designed by Professor Colin Pillinger and his talented team. The history of Beagle 2 is well known but not perhaps the inside story as relayed here for the first time by the architect of the British led effort. As the Professor himself rightly says in his book: "If you tried to publish this story as science fiction you would probably be laughed at and told "it's too far-fetched." And in many ways the book reads almost like a novel and a very gripping one at that, complete with an array of heroes and some perhaps not so chivalrous characters. The book places the Beagle mission in the context of Pillinger's life as a whole, for this is very much an autobiography.
No matter the ultimate fate of the tiny lander, Beagle 2 is clearly a success story, if only for the way it inspired a nation to think again of spaceflight in a way it hadn't since the heady days of the Apollo missions. Even in an age when space is now "Big Business" controlled almost entirely by large corporations and national interests, Beagle 2 - famously designed on the back of a beer mat and built in a garage - showed there is still room for a smaller more idealistic endeavour.
There is something wonderfully "Wellsian" about the little lander that took on the might of NASA and which generated a story that might well have come from the pen of H.G. himself: the long journey across the "gulf of space" attached to the Mars Express mother-ship, followed by an unknown fate after the craft deployed in Mars orbit. The uncertainty surrounding subsequent events and the whereabouts of the spacecraft set the scene for an enduring mystery: did it land, did it crash, did it skip off the thin Martian atmosphere out into space?
If nothing else Beagle 2 proves that the motto of the British interplanetary Society is as true today as it was in the 1930s: a spacecraft can still go from "Imagination to Reality" and have a huge impact on public consciousness.
With a Foreword by BIS founding member Sir Patrick Moore this is an essential read and an ideal present for the festive season. As Sir Patrick states: "This is the most enjoyable autobiography that I have read for many years. Read it for yourself, and I have no doubt that you will agree."
I envy the Professor: not only is he a visionary scientist but he is also a first class writer!
I hope there will be a Beagle 3 and a Beagle 4. The Society, and every forward thinking person in the country, would support such an enterprise. Go for it, Professor!
No matter the ultimate fate of the tiny lander, Beagle 2 is clearly a success story, if only for the way it inspired a nation to think again of spaceflight in a way it hadn't since the heady days of the Apollo missions. Even in an age when space is now "Big Business" controlled almost entirely by large corporations and national interests, Beagle 2 - famously designed on the back of a beer mat and built in a garage - showed there is still room for a smaller more idealistic endeavour.
There is something wonderfully "Wellsian" about the little lander that took on the might of NASA and which generated a story that might well have come from the pen of H.G. himself: the long journey across the "gulf of space" attached to the Mars Express mother-ship, followed by an unknown fate after the craft deployed in Mars orbit. The uncertainty surrounding subsequent events and the whereabouts of the spacecraft set the scene for an enduring mystery: did it land, did it crash, did it skip off the thin Martian atmosphere out into space?
If nothing else Beagle 2 proves that the motto of the British interplanetary Society is as true today as it was in the 1930s: a spacecraft can still go from "Imagination to Reality" and have a huge impact on public consciousness.
With a Foreword by BIS founding member Sir Patrick Moore this is an essential read and an ideal present for the festive season. As Sir Patrick states: "This is the most enjoyable autobiography that I have read for many years. Read it for yourself, and I have no doubt that you will agree."
I envy the Professor: not only is he a visionary scientist but he is also a first class writer!
I hope there will be a Beagle 3 and a Beagle 4. The Society, and every forward thinking person in the country, would support such an enterprise. Go for it, Professor!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Professor Pillinger takes us into his arms as he cradles us through the murky back stabbing ball breaking process of putting a space probe together without any proper funding, without any proper support (from the people who should have been giving it) and with a continual stream of office politics which he, and his team, could sorely do without. But with a style unique to himself he loads the shotgun with a cast of unlikely characters and blasts them onto the canvas that is the history of the Beagle2 mission to Mars.
The book starts slow, I have to say that, some readers will be unhappy with an entire entry chapter being all about Colins deep dark ancestral roots, however, the book soon settles into its stride and delivers one of the best reads on the topic of British Industry and the Space age combined.
And anyone who is about to take on a task, or role, with ESA should really read this book before hand, it starkly points out how "the other side" (who happen to be on "our" side) keep trying to knock the whole mission for six.
I also take note that despite damning (and I believe accurate) appraisals of many characters in the ESA Mars Mission role at the time of Beagle2 some of those same characters, those same s**t stirrers, those same back stabbers and nay sayers are still working for ESA... It's good to see the UK's 235 million quid 2011 contribution is being used to pay for such high *cough* quality staff.
The book starts slow, I have to say that, some readers will be unhappy with an entire entry chapter being all about Colins deep dark ancestral roots, however, the book soon settles into its stride and delivers one of the best reads on the topic of British Industry and the Space age combined.
And anyone who is about to take on a task, or role, with ESA should really read this book before hand, it starkly points out how "the other side" (who happen to be on "our" side) keep trying to knock the whole mission for six.
I also take note that despite damning (and I believe accurate) appraisals of many characters in the ESA Mars Mission role at the time of Beagle2 some of those same characters, those same s**t stirrers, those same back stabbers and nay sayers are still working for ESA... It's good to see the UK's 235 million quid 2011 contribution is being used to pay for such high *cough* quality staff.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Engineering
- Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Science
- Books > Science & Nature > Astronomy & Cosmology > Astronomy
- Books > Science & Nature > Astronomy & Cosmology > Solar System
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Aeronautics & Aerospace
- Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Applied Physics > Astrophysics
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Astronomy & Cosmology > Solar System
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
