Interplanetary Robots

December 15, 2018
Pyle, author of a handful of books about space exploration (including Destination Moon, 2005), zeroes in on an aspect of the American space program that sometimes gets overlooked: the unmanned missions into the solar system. It was an unmanned spacecraft, Sputnik, that jump-started the U.S.' space program, and it is unmanned probes that are bringing back some of today's most startling images of the other planets (and their moons) in our neighborhood. In a writing style that is about as far from boring science textbook as you can imagine, Pyle takes us through the history of unmanned space exploration, and it's a surprisingly action-packed story. The space race really was a race, back in the day?beating the Soviets was not so much a goal as a political imperative. That aspect is long gone, but, even now, when a probe is approaching its destination, there are still moments of nail-biting suspense. A captivating history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)