The Scientific Exploration of Mars

by Fredric W. Taylor

What do we know about Mars? What remains to be understood? Is there evidence of life there? Will humans ever travel there? The dream of exploring Mars has been around since the early days of human civilization and still forms part of our vision of the future for the human race. Today, we send unmanned spacecraft to explore this neighboring world to examine its climate, search for evidence of past or present life, and learn how conditions there relate to those on Earth. Plans are now being prepared for a manned mission to Mars, set against an uncertain background of political, practical, technical and financial considerations. This unique book provides a complete description of the past, present and future of Mars exploration. Written by a scientist intimately involved with missions to Mars, it provides a personal first-hand account. It will appeal to anyone interested in this fascinating planet.

362 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Tanwen Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written book about all aspects of the exploration of Mars. One of the things I really liked about this book was that the main text was written for a certain level of scientific knowledge, but then there were multiple side bars and footnotes which explained the required terms as they came up. Unfortunately, these seemed to disappear when I got to the place I really needed them: the geological section, which is why this only gets 4 stars, not 5.

It was written in 2009 (i.e. before Curiosity landed), so some discernment is needed when looking at some of the findings, but as a primer for the exploration of Mars, and our current understanding it's brilliant.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is very interesting with it's black-and-white pictures and it's incredible amount of detail on Mars. It is partly outdated because it was wrote in 2010. I hope they add an updated version of this book because there are new things they found on Mars with the lander that landed on Mars in 2012(Curiosity).

i. The book starts by talking about the interesting questions and discoveries of stuff on Mar, like "is there water on Mars?" Later it talks about if humans can really live on Mars and the probes exploring Mars. It later showed some panoramas of Mars that are real. Lastly it made a scenario of what happens when we humans land on Mars. The end.

ii. I picked up the book because it showed a picture of the mars lander Opportunity before it got dropped off by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. the second reason I had was that I am looking forward to one of the space agencies landing the first human on Mars.

iii. I always finished books, it's my habit with the exceptions of novels, fiction books and sometimes Atlases I cannot finish halfway.

iv. I would recommend it to Andy, Matthew or Sandy.

Not sure that they will read it...

[Tom Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great resource on all things Mars. Probably 2/3rds of the book is dedicated to prior missions with the last third being about the future. I slogged through the past and devoured the future.