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March 27th, 2022
NASA Missions to Mars: A Visual History of Our Quest to Explore the Red Planet by Piers Bizony; The Quarto Group/Motorbooks (April 2022); 198 Pages; Hardcover: $50.00
This large-format book is strikingly illustrated and offers the reader a wonderful resource in detailing NASA’s exploration of the Red Planet.
Space historian Piers Bizony has put together an extraordinary volume of humankind’s outreach to and fascination with Mars. “This book is a family-friendly, nonacademic, almost purely visual celebration of what we have achieved in terms of Martian exploration and what we might yet achieve in years to come,” the author explains.
The book is divided into four sweeping and eye-catching sections: Red Planet Visions – Aliens, empires and invasions; First Contact – Discovering Mars as it really is; Robot Explorers – Searching for life, past or present; and Human Martians – Strategies to settle a new world.
In a foreword to the book, Andrew Chaikin contributes a special essay underscoring his passion for the Red Planet; he served as an “interplanetary intern” at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1976 and took part in the first successful mission to land on Mars – NASA’s Project Viking.
The reader will find mission histories, and achievements of the early rovers Sojourner, Opportunity, and Spirit, as well as excellent updates on the Curiosity and Perseverance machines, both now busily wheeling about on Mars.
This book is a treasure trove of imagery from NASA archives, including photos that document the testing phases in readying hardware for launch to the faraway world. There’s also coverage of spacecraft dispatched to Mars by other nations, such as China’s successful landing of its Zhurong rover.
The striking images of Mars from orbit and surface photos serve as prelude to the book’s final section that offers a look at future plans for human exploration and habitation of the planet.
For more information about the book, go to:
https://www.quarto.com/books/9780760373149/nasa-missions-to-mars
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