Mars Rover Drivers Inspired by Ray Bradbury

By Nancy Atkinson - June 08, 2012 03:31 AM UTC | Planetary Science

Two of the drivers of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Ashley Stroupe and Scott Maxwell, were fortunate to host a very special visitor to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory a couple of years ago. Science fiction author Ray Bradbury came, and even though he was wheel-chair-bound, he received the grand tour, and the two rover drivers showed him huge panoramic images taken by the rovers and even let Bradbury drive a 3-D computer model of the rovers. Stroupe tells the story of Bradbury's visit in the video above, and Maxwell told his version of the story in a

blog post back in 2009

, which was re-published on the

Planetary Blog

. Of Bradbury seeing the panoramas, Maxwell wrote, "These just happen to be perfect for Bradbury: color panoramic images of Mars, taken from a human's perspective, but mounted close to a wheelchair-bound man's height. It must have seemed to him that he was, for the first time, really there. On the edge of a crater. On top of a mountain. On the plains, looking at the crashed remnants of the spaceship we rode there. On Mars."

It's a heartwarming story of inspiration and the legacy left by Bradbury, who passed away this week. "Long before we knew how to do it, Bradbury was taking us there in our minds," Stroupe says.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com