News from Mars

News from Mars
Author: Joshua Nall
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0822986612

Mass media in the late nineteenth century was full of news from Mars. In the wake of Giovanni Schiaparelli’s 1877 discovery of enigmatic dark, straight lines on the red planet, astronomers and the public at large vigorously debated the possibility that it might be inhabited. As rivalling scientific practitioners looked to marshal allies and sway public opinion—through newspapers, periodicals, popular books, exhibitions, and encyclopaedias—they exposed disagreements over how the discipline of astronomy should be organized and how it should establish acceptable conventions of discourse. News from Mars provides a new account of this extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel. As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a “new astronomy” dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who disseminated it.

Mars

Mars
Author: Ben Bova
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2010-02-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0795308809

Considered one of Ben Bova’s most famous Grand Tour novels: “A gripping, realistic tale of man’s first expedition to the red planet. Don’t miss it” (Terry Brooks, New York Times–bestselling author of The Shannara Chronicles). Jamie Waterman is a young Navaho geologist who is picked for the ground team of the first manned expedition to Mars. He will be joining an international team of astronauts and scientists. But once the crew land on the red planet, they soon discover they must battle not only the alien land on which they have invaded but earthbound bureaucrats as well. When they come face to face with a chasm ten times as deep and large as the Grand Canyon, all twenty-five astronauts must face the most shocking discovery of all . . . “The science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.” —Ray Bradbury, author of Farenheit 451 “A splendid book . . . Of his many books, Mars must be the most important.” —Arthur C. Clarke, author of Islands in the Sky

Welcome to Mars

Welcome to Mars
Author: Buzz Aldrin
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2015
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1426322062

The Apollo 11 astronaut invites young people to evaluate Mars as a potential planet for human colonization, and describes what Mars residents might experience while traveling to and living on the Red Planet.

Discovering Mars

Discovering Mars
Author: William Sheehan
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2021-11-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816544247

For millenia humans have considered Mars the most fascinating planet in our solar system. We’ve watched this Earth-like world first with the naked eye, then using telescopes, and, most recently, through robotic orbiters and landers and rovers on the surface. Historian William Sheehan and astronomer and planetary scientist Jim Bell combine their talents to tell a unique story of what we’ve learned by studying Mars through evolving technologies. What the eye sees as a mysterious red dot wandering through the sky becomes a blurry mirage of apparent seas, continents, and canals as viewed through Earth-based telescopes. Beginning with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s, space-based instruments and monitoring systems have flooded scientists with data on Mars’s meteorology and geology, and have even sought evidence of possible existence of life-forms on or beneath the surface. This knowledge has transformed our perception of the Red Planet and has provided clues for better understanding our own blue world. Discovering Mars vividly conveys the way our understanding of this other planet has grown from earliest times to the present. The story is epic in scope—an Iliad or Odyssey for our time, at least so far largely without the folly, greed, lust, and tragedy of those ancient stories. Instead, the narrative of our quest for the Red Planet has showcased some of our species’ most hopeful attributes: curiosity, cooperation, exploration, and the restless drive to understand our place in the larger universe. Sheehan and Bell have written an ambitious first draft of that narrative even as the latest chapters continue to be added both by researchers on Earth and our robotic emissaries on and around Mars, including the latest: the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter drone, which set down in Mars’s Jezero Crater in February 2021.

Mars

Mars
Author: Alfred S. McEwen
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2017-05-16
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0816532567

The most outstanding and uniquely curated selection of Mars orbital images ever assembled in one volume. With explanatory captions in twenty-four languages and a gallery of more than 200 images, this distinctive volume brings a timely and clear look at the work of an active NASA mission.

The Sirens of Mars

The Sirens of Mars
Author: Sarah Stewart Johnson
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1101904828

“Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own coming-of-age story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human curiosity, passion, and perseverance.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams WINNER OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA AWARD FOR SCIENCE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Times (UK) • Library Journal “Lovely . . . Johnson’s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multihued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars.”—Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

Humans to Mars

Humans to Mars
Author: David S. F. Portree
Publisher:
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2001
Genre: Space flight to Mars
ISBN:

Exploring Mars

Exploring Mars
Author: Scott Hubbard
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2011
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816528969

The Red Planet has been a subject of fascination for humanity for thousands of years, becoming part of our folklore and popular culture. The most Earthlike of the planets in our solar system, Mars may have harbored some form of life in the past and may still possess an ecosystem in some underground refuge. The mysteries of this fourth planet from our Sun make it of central importance to NASA and its science goals for the twenty-first century.ÊÊ In the wake of the very public failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, NASA embarked on a complete reassessment of the Mars Program. Scott Hubbard was asked to lead this restructuring in 2000, becoming known as the "Mars Czar." His team's efforts resulted in a very successful decade-long series of missions--each building on the accomplishments of those before it--that adhered to the science adage "follow the water" when debating how to proceed. Hubbard's work created the Mars Odyssey mission, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Phoenix mission, and most recently the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory.Ê Now for the first time Scott Hubbard tells the complete story of how he fashioned this program, describing both the technical and political forces involved and bringing to life the national and international cast of characters engaged in this monumental endeavor.Ê Blending the exciting stories of the missions with the thrills of scientific discovery, Exploring Mars will intrigue anyone interested in the science, the engineering, or the policy of investigating other worlds. Ê

MARS CITY STATES New Societies for a New World

MARS CITY STATES New Societies for a New World
Author: Frank Crossman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2021-04-21
Genre:
ISBN: 9781736386002

MARS CITY STATES New Societies for a New World People will soon be able to go to the Red Planet. But that very possibility opens a still more interesting - indeed truly grand - question: What will we create on Mars? It was to answer this question that the Mars Society sponsored its Mars City State Design Competition in early 2020. The challenge: Design a city state for 1 million people on Mars. The prizes: $10,000 and a grand trophy for the best design, with lesser prizes and trophies on down to Fifth. The designs had to take into account all aspects of the city: its technical basis, its economic foundation, its social and political system, and its architectural aesthetics. If a city is to succeed and grow, it will need to be a place that people will want to move to. How can we create such cities on Mars? The response to the challenge was fantastic, with 176 teams from all over the world entering the fray. All twenty of the semifinalist, finalist, and top five winning designs are presented in this volume. The range of creative ideas is extraordinary, collectively representing an intellectual banquet, a feast for thought, that will be of enduring value for all those who will help initiate human civilization on Mars, and innumerable new worlds beyond.