Managing Martians

Donna Shirley dreamed of going to Mars since she was a starstruck kid in Oklahoma, reading science fiction and staring up at the big Western sky. Managing Martians chronicles her life from flight-obsessed childhood to the realization of her dream as manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Exploration Program--the people who sent Pathfinder and the rover Sojourner to the red planet in 1997.

Shirley's story is extraordinary in its simplicity: she set her sights on what she wanted, and chased it fervently. Yet simple doesn't always mean easy, and Shirley owns up to getting sidetracked along the way, and having to work hard to get back to business. And what a business! Imagine having an expensive, delicate object you helped design strapped to a projectile hurtling toward a chunk of rock in space. The best parts of Shirley's story are the tense moments, when she struggled to maintain professional cool while under enormous stress. This book is part autobiography, part lesson to bureaucratic managers; Shirley has had to work with some temperamental folks in her lifetime of government work, and she's learned (the hard way) how to manage teams well. One gets the impression that she would have made an excellent military leader, or CEO. Mars buffs all over the world should be glad she stuck to the stars. --Therese Littleton