A Passion for Mars

Since the 1950s, Mars has been the obsession of a select group of space scientists who have used their time and their influence - sometimes at the expense of their careers - to push for further exploration of our potentially habitable neighbour. It is largely thanks to the efforts of these men and women that we know as much as we do about the Red Planet.Chaikin's band of Earthbound space explorers includes Bruce Murray, the first geologist to apply his expertise to another planet; rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who designed spacecraft to take humans to Mars; astronomer Carl Sagan, who popularized scientific agruments supporting the existence of life on other worlds; the 'Mars Underground' of the 1980s, a rogue group of graduate students who created detailed plans for Mars expeditions at a time when everyone else seemed to have given up; Jerry Soffen, an intense biologist who grapples for signs of life in meteorites from Mars and Mike Malin, the brilliant designer of the camera that sent back controversial images suggesting that water flows on the planet's surface.Chaikin's book is illustrated with rare and unusual images that evoke the obsessions and achievements of the Mars explorers, including photographs of the planet and the spacecraft that have travelled there, as well as popular art about Mars and interplanetary space travel.

ISBN 0810972743   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9780810972742 (What's this?)   Pages 216 Publisher Abrams   Volumes 1 Imprint Harry N. Abrams, Inc.   Weight (grammes) 1120 Format Hardback   Published in New York Publication date 01 Oct 2008   Height (mm) 241 Writer of foreword James Cameron   Width (mm) 178 Library of Congress 2007049007   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY 523.43   Academic level General

		Foreword by James Cameron		7
1		Siren Song		11
2		Flight Plan		31
3		The "Oh, My God" Moment		55
4		The Explorer		75
5		The Art of the Possible		111
6		The Underground		123
7		The Science Without a Subject		155
8		Not Your Mother's Mars		181
9		The Curse of the Red Planet		211
10		Spirit and Opportunity		227
11		Tomorrowland		267
		Index		274
		Credits and Acknowledgments		278

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