Book ID: CBB001510006

Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars (2015)

unapi

Vertesi, Janet Amelia (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2015
Physical Details: xi + 318 pp.; ill.; index; bibl.
Language: English

In the years since the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and Opportunity first began transmitting images from the surface of Mars, we have become familiar with the harsh, rocky, rusty-red Martian landscape. But those images are much less straightforward than they may seem to a layperson: each one is the result of a complicated set of decisions and processes involving the large team behind the Rovers. With Seeing Like a Rover, Janet Vertesi takes us behind the scenes to reveal the work that goes into creating our knowledge of Mars. Every photograph that the Rovers take, she shows, must be processed, manipulated, and interpreted—and all that comes after team members negotiate with each other about what they should even be taking photographs of in the first place. Vertesi’s account of the inspiringly successful Rover project reveals science in action, a world where digital processing uncovers scientific truths, where images are used to craft consensus, and where team members develop an uncanny intimacy with the sensory apparatus of a robot that is millions of miles away. Ultimately, Vertesi shows, every image taken by the Mars Rovers is not merely a picture of Mars—it’s a portrait of the whole Rover team, as well.

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Reviewed By

Review José Saraiva (2016) Review of "Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars". HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology (pp. 129-131). unapi

Review Alina Marktanner (2015) Review of "Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 265-266). unapi

Review Robert W. Smith (2016) Review of "Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 322-323). unapi

Review Maria Lane (January 2017) Review of "Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars". Technology and Culture (pp. 298-299). unapi

Essay Review Evan Hepler-Smith (2017) Grasping the Technical Image. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (pp. 117-125). unapi

Review Zara Mirmalek (2016) Review of "Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 675-676). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001510006/

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Authors & Contributors
Vertesi, Janet Amelia
Mirmalek, Zara Lenora
Ness, Norman F.
Roberto Battiston
Christopher McKevitt
Siebeneichner, Tilmann
Concepts
Space research and exploration
Space travel; space flight
Mars
Technology and politics
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Data collection; methods
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
Places
Soviet Union
United States
Europe
Institutions
Mars Exploration Rover Mission (U.S.)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Place
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
Hubble Space Telescope
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