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.

Author: Fredric W. Taylor
Hardcover: 362 pages
Company: Cambridge University Press (2010-01-12)
ISBN: 0521829569
List Price: $48.00
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Twenty years after the Viking missions of the ’70s, we are finally going back to Mars. No fewer than ten missions are planned for the period between 1996 and 2003, and it is likely that human explorers will follow soon after--perhaps by the middle of the twenty-first century. When they do, they will owe much to the Mars of romance, to the early pioneers whose discoveries and disappointments are brought to life in The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery. In this timely and vividly written account, William Sheehan traces human fascination with Mars back to the naked-eye observers of the planet. He recalls the early telescopic observers who first made out enigmatic markings and polar caps on its surface. Through lively historical anecdotes, he describes in detail the debate over the so-called canals of Mars, which encouraged speculation that the planet might be inhabited. Finally, Sheehan describes more recent theories about the planet, leading up to the present, when unmanned spacecraft have enabled us to make giant strides in exploration. Well documented and sparked with human interest, this book will be a useful companion and guide in interpreting the barrage of headlines about Mars that is sure to come over the next few years. Amateurs will appreciate the contributions that have been made to Martian studies by people like themselves, and professionals will find much original material that has never before been published. The American Mars Global Surveyor is scheduled for launch in November 1996, and soon after the American Mars Pathfinder will make its way toward the red planet. A Russian mission consisting of an orbiter and two landers will be launched in October 1997. These space travelers will write a whole new chapter in the dramatic story of Mars, a planet whose exploration has only just begun. Astronomy Book Club main selection and selections of Book-of-the-Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club.

Author: William Sheehan
Paperback: 270 pages
Company: University of Arizona Press (1996-09-01)
ISBN: 0816516413
List Price: $19.95
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Seymour Simon has written more than 150 award-winning science books about animals, anatomy, astronomy, earth science, and vehicles!

Named after the Roman god of war, Mars has fascinated people for thousands of years. Did you know that . . .

A Martian year is 687 Earth days, almost twice as long as a year on Earth.

Mars’s biggest valley, Valles Marineris, is four times as deep as the Grand Canyon!

Scientists think that Mars, now rocky and barren, once had an ocean, rivers, and a thicker atmosphere.

The first robot ever to explore the surface of Mars is only about the size of a child’s toy wagon.

Author: Seymour Simon
Paperback: 32 pages
Company: HarperCollins (2004-03-16) (2004-03-16)
ISBN: 0060546387
List Price: $6.99
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This book gives a new insight of Mars by adopting an original outline based on history rather than on subtopic (atmosphere, surface, interior). It focuses on the past and present evolution of Mars and also incorporates all the recent results from the space missions of Mars Express, Spirit and Opportunity. This book goes to the heart of current planetological research, and illustrates it with many beautiful images. The authors describe the magnificent scenery on Mars. The authors introduce a new world and reveal the workings of the planet Mars, and they describe current research to prepare for future missions to Mars.

Author: François Forget, François Costard, Philippe Lognonné
Paperback: 241 pages
Company: Praxis (2007-12-12) (2010-02-06)
ISBN: 0387489258
List Price: $39.95
Amazon Price: $24.55
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Readers can follow the course of NASAs Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission as twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity explore the Red Planet. Learn how scientists determined that there was once water on Mars and how the Earthbound NASA team resolved problems with the rovers from afar in order to prolong the mission, which continues today. The author provides insight into scientists quest to discover whether life may have or still might exist on Mars. Back matter includes glossary, source notes, and resources.

Author: Alexandra Siy
Paperback: 57 pages
Company: Charlesbridge Publishing (2011-07)
ISBN: 157091463X
List Price: $9.95
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The first photographic tour of the surface of another planet has now been accomplished. Those who thrilled to the lunar beauty of Full Moon and the IMAX smash Roving Mars will marvel at this awesome, vivid, beautiful portrait of what it is like to take a stroll on Mars.

The most fantastic of all journeys—the Spirit and Opportunity mobile robot missions to the surface of Mars—produced over 150,000 astonishing photographs. While the images were made available on low-resolution computer screens as they were sent back across millions of space miles, no one until now has done the painstaking work of editing, cropping, and processing these massive (often larger than 100 megabytes) images.

The person to do it is Jim Bell, the scientist and photographer who led the photography team on this historic expedition. With his unique perspective, these photographs take us from the brave launches of these robots, to the alien landscape they discovered and the mysteries of the planet that they have helped to solve.

Over 150 lavish full-color-process prints bring the colors and textures of Mars to vivid life on the page. Four of the most impressive pictures are presented in their entirety as gatefold images— which extend over three feet in width—providing a view of the surface of another planet unprecedented in its detail and clarity. Postcards from Mars is the perfect gift to give readers who have their feet on the ground and their eyes on the heavens.

Author: Jim Bell
Paperback: 208 pages Bargain Price
Company: Plume (2010-10-13)
List Price: $30.00
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It was in this book (published on 07/23/97) that Dr. Gilbert V. Levin first announced his conclusion that his 1976 Viking Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment flown on NASA's Viking mission to Mars found living microorganisms in the soil. Shortly afterward Levin presented his results in a scientific paper to the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering in San Diego.

Mars the Living Planet opens with the telling of how curious people became interested in the planet Mars as a world which might harbor some form of life. The book also traces the history of how the science of astronomy and microbiology eventually merged to become the new science known as astrobiology (first called exobiology in the 1960's). The story quickly moves forward to tell the real life story of astrobiologist Dr. Gilbert V. Levin. Levin was the second astrobiologist hand selected by NASA's first Administrator Keith Glennan in 1959 to develop a microbial detection instrument that could look for traces of life on Mars. Levin then went on to work as an scientific investigator on NASA's Mariner 9 Orbiter mission and later with Viking - the first spacecraft ever sent to look for life on another planet. Mars The living Planet details the exciting events that unfolded during the Viking program from the pre-mission testing and on the surface of Mars.

Recently a new scientific paper was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research with the title "Reanalysis of the Viking results suggests perchlorate and organics at mid-latitudes on Mars" by Rafael Navarro-González and a number of co-authors demonstrates that the Viking gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) used to invalidate Levin's biology results might have actually found a surprisingly significant amount of organic material in Martian soil at both the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landing sites on Mars. This now reopens the door to the results obtained by Levin's Viking Labeled Release experiments on Mars - a door that has been largely closed for 34 years due to the misinterpretation of the Viking GCMS.  A number of newspapers broke the story September 3rd 2010 about the Navarro-González findings including the New York Times and Washington Post.


Mars The Living Planet - now available on KINDLE.

Author: Barry E. DiGregorio
Hardcover: 392 pages Bargain Price
Company: Frog Books (1997-07-23) (1997-07-23)
List Price: $25.00
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Was Mercury bigger in the past?
How did Venus change the way people saw the world?
What is happening to Mount Everest, the highest place on Earth?
Does Mars have seasons?
Is there a surface to the planet Jupiter?
Who discovered Saturn’s rings?
What is strange about the way Uranus spins?
What is the coldest place in our solar system? (Hint: It isn’t the planet,)

Learn the answer to these questions and many more fun facts in this group of eight 15-Minute Books. The planets of our solar system have many strange and wonderful things about them. Surprise your friends, and even your parents with these fun facts.

This compilation includes the following 15-minute books:
14 Fun Facts About Mercury
14 Fun Facts About Venus
14 Fun Facts About Earth
14 Fun Facts About Mars
14 Fun Facts About Jupiter
14 Fun Facts About Saturn
14 Fun Facts About Uranus
14 Fun Facts About Neptune

LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices to read, from classic stories, to mysteries, to books of knowledge. Open the world of reading to a child by having them read for 15 minutes a day.


Author: Caitlind Alexander, Jeannie Meekins
Kindle Edition: 126 pages Kindle eBook
Company: LearningIsland.com (2011-10-05) (2011-10-05)
List Price: $4.99
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Thinking about moving to mars?

Well, why not? Mars, after all, is the planet that holds the greatest promise for human colonization. But why speculate about the possibilities when you can get the real scientific scoop from someone who’s been happily living and working there for years? Straight from the not-so-distant future, this intrepid pioneer’s tips for physical, financial, and social survival on the Red Planet cover:

• How to get to Mars (Cycling spacecraft offer cheap rides, but the smell is not for everyone.)
• Choosing a spacesuit (The old-fashioned but reliable pneumatic Neil Armstrong style versus the sleek new—but anatomically unforgiving—elastic “skinsuit.”)
• Selecting a habitat (Just like on Earth: location, location, location.)
• Finding a job that pays well and doesn’t kill you (This is not a metaphor on Mars.)
• How to meet the opposite sex (Master more than forty Mars-centric pickup lines.)

With more than twenty original illustrations by Michael Carroll, Robert Murray, and other renowned space artists, How to Live on Mars seamlessly blends humor and real science, and is a practical and exhilarating guide to life on our first extraterrestrial home.

Author: Robert Zubrin
Paperback: 224 pages
Company: Three Rivers Press (2008-12-02) (2008-12-02)
ISBN: 0307407187
List Price: $13.95
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Since the beginning of human history, Mars has been an alluring dream—the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. But all that changed when leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct. When it was first published in 1996, The Case for Mars became an instant classic, lauded widely for its game-changing perspective by those who would see the American space program rise to the challenge of Mars; Carl Sagan called Zubrin the man who, “nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue.” Now, fifteen years later, Zubrin brings readers up to date in this revised and updated anniversary edition filled with spectacular illustrations, extraordinary photographs, and one-of-a-kind anecdotes.

Unlike the dead world of the Moon, the Martian landscape is filled with possibility, but humans must be able to survive there. In the grand tradition of successful explorers, Zubrin calls for a travel-light and live-off-the-land approach to Martian settlement. He explains how scientists can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars; produce fuel and oxygen on the planet’s surface with its own natural resources; build bases and settlements; and one day terraform—or alter the atmosphere of the planet in order to pave the way for sustainable life. As the landmark mission of the Mars Science Laboratory begins, Zubrin lays out a comprehensive plan to build life on a new world.

Author: Robert Zubrin
Paperback: 416 pages
Company: Free Press (2011-06-28) (2011-06-28)
ISBN: 145160811X
List Price: $16.99
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