Publisher's Synopsis
The author, who has degrees in physics from Durham University in the UK, has, until his retirement from NASA in 2011, participated in the exploration of the planets since the 1960s (part of a 'brain drain' that led a number of Brits to join the US space program) - first as a member of the technical staff of a Bell Laboratories company (Bellcomm) tasked to support NASA and, later, as a member of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There he was a science team member of the first Mars orbiter mission, Mariner 9, of the Viking Mars orbiter & lander missions and, briefly, of the Voyager mission to the outermost planets. At NASA HQ he served as Deputy Director and then Director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Program in the late 1970s & 1980s and from the 1990s was Director of the Center for Mars Exploration that he established at NASA Ames Research Center. There, in the early 1990s he was co-lead of the NASA-wide study team tasked to create the first Design Reference Mission for the exploration of Mars by astronauts (still kept up to date by NASA). He is the recipient of NASA's medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, Exceptional Service and Outstanding Leadership. Asteroid 4209 Briggs is a carbonaceous asteroid discovered by Eleanor Helin. He lives in Bath back in the UK where he is a member of the William Herschel Society.
