| Title | : | A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0810972743 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780810972742 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2008 |
They include celebrated figures: astronomer Carl Sagan, who champions the idea of life on Mars-; rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, drawing up plans for human Mars expeditions; and science-fiction author Ray Bradbury, standard-bearer for Mars’s crucial place in human destiny. Readers also meet the rogue grad students known as the “Mars Underground,” keepers of the flame when Mars falls off NASA’s radar; biologist Jerry Soffen, looking for signs of life in a Martian meteorite; geologist Mike Malin, who defies skeptics to reveal a Mars no one imagines; and many others, including Chaikin himself, who served on the first Viking Mars landing and covered Mars exploration as a science journalist.
Based on extensive interviews, illustrated with compelling images, and animated by the author’s own passion, Chaikin’s account will resonate with anyone who has ever dreamed of a journey to Mars.
A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet Reviews
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I've read only one other book about space exploration - a detailed history of the pre-space-age thinkers and astronomers who dreamed of space travel and the Soviet and American space programs and missions which followed them. This book deals specifically with the exploration of the planet Mars - the early observations by the astronomers Schiaparelli and Lowell and a brief history of NASA Apollo moonshot. The bulk of the book then deals with attempts to land unmanned craft on Mars, a history of observing Mars, and finally a history of the Mars exploration from the Mariner and Viking missions of the 60s & 70s up to today's Mars Exploration Rovers (which are taking amazing pictures and seem to be unstoppable - lasting far longer than they were originally expected to). Here is a picture send of Mars from one of these missions:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
The book also details the scientific aspects of Martian geology and even exobiology. There is no conclusive proof of life on Mars, but water has existed there along with many suitable conditions for life. The author, Andew Chaikin, who worked on the Viking 1 mission, details the history of various NASA missions and personnel to give an engaging and illuminating history and outlook for what many believe (myself included) will be the planet in the solar system best suited for eventual terraforming and colonization, with manned missions expected mid-century. With the progress of technology, the only thing stopping us is bureaucracy and lack of resolve, and I fully expect that both states and private enterprises will open up the martian frontier and establish ongoing colonies. -
Beautiful and fascinating.
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What a beautiful Red Marble.
This book is pretty well written and explains the turning points during NASA's struggle to reach Mars, and what came after. The images are outstanding, and really give you a sense of what you're reading about. -
If you want to know why Barack Obama is making a huge mistake today (Feb. 1st, 2010) by killing the "Constellation" space exploration program that was supposed to put astronauts back on the Moon and later send them to Mars, this book will enlighten you and explain why no human being has explored Mars yet. We should go to Mars for reasons ranging from scientific to aesthetic, but also for more practical ones, like how can the Earth possibly sustain ten billion people in a peaceful way with disappearing mineral resources, a climate going astray, and no possibility to expand outwards? Mars could be the future of Earth as America became the future of Europe a few centuries back, and without the native American tragedy. Chaikin's well documented and elegantly written book is fun to read and will appeal not only to would-be Martians but also to more reasonable world citizens who wonder what happened to the ambitious US space exploration program that had started so wonderfully in the 1960s.
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More about the minds of men and women who have loved Mars throughout the years, than Mars itself. And wonderful for that reason. From Schiaparelli's canali and Lowell's canals, to the megalomania of von Braun's Marsproject, to the Mars Underground's attempts to get Mars back on NASA's radar in the 80s, its about all the people who loved the red planet so much that it took over their lives and made them do, think, and say crazy things in pursuit of the dream.
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Title says it all: this book is about people laboring for decades to explore Mars any way possible to them. Amazing what individual obsession can accomplish
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Chaikin brings his usual skills to the story of Mars. Detailed, breezy, fun.
