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Mars: Photographs from the NASA Archives
Since Galileo first observed Mars in 1610, the Red Planet has been an endless source of fascination, inspiring human imagination and scientific inquiry. Explore its polar ice caps, windswept dunes, and more unique landscapes through the eyes of NASA’s orbiters, probes, and rovers, from the first flyby in 1965 to today’s Perseverance mission.
Early astronomers, drawn to Mars's fiery glow in the night sky, named the planet after their god of war. In the centuries since, Mars has captivated humankind as a source of endless speculation and a beacon of hope for its potential habitability. Through six decades of NASA’s pioneering research missions, the mysteries of the red planet have been gradually uncovered, revealing a world not so unlike our own that likely once supported life.
See the earliest close-up images of Mars taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965—the first ever captured of another planet—along with historical illustrations from an era when curiosity outpaced scientific progress. Science and art collide as NASA’s later orbiter missions capture aerial views of ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, dust storms, vast canyons, and towering volcanoes in an endlessly varied landscape. As they traverse Mars’s rugged surface, NASA’s rovers have operated as mechanical extensions of humankind for the past 25 years, drilling holes, searching for traces of water, and marveling at mountain ranges and panoramic sunsets.
Through hundreds of cutting-edge photographs from NASA's extensive archives, we join their scientists in the ongoing quest to better understand Mars. Essays by NASA’s former Chief Scientist James L. Green and JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning provide an in-depth look at the history of Martian exploration and the challenges of preparing for these groundbreaking missions. Captions by planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla skillfully illuminate each image's content and technical context, and a foreword by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni and an introduction by curator Margaret A. Weitekamp reflect on Mars’s significance in our cultural imagination.
From a distant enigma to a tangible frontier whose every grain of sand we can now observe, this volume celebrates the extraordinary progress NASA has made, bringing us closer than ever to understanding our neighboring world.
Early astronomers, drawn to Mars's fiery glow in the night sky, named the planet after their god of war. In the centuries since, Mars has captivated humankind as a source of endless speculation and a beacon of hope for its potential habitability. Through six decades of NASA’s pioneering research missions, the mysteries of the red planet have been gradually uncovered, revealing a world not so unlike our own that likely once supported life.
See the earliest close-up images of Mars taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965—the first ever captured of another planet—along with historical illustrations from an era when curiosity outpaced scientific progress. Science and art collide as NASA’s later orbiter missions capture aerial views of ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, dust storms, vast canyons, and towering volcanoes in an endlessly varied landscape. As they traverse Mars’s rugged surface, NASA’s rovers have operated as mechanical extensions of humankind for the past 25 years, drilling holes, searching for traces of water, and marveling at mountain ranges and panoramic sunsets.
Through hundreds of cutting-edge photographs from NASA's extensive archives, we join their scientists in the ongoing quest to better understand Mars. Essays by NASA’s former Chief Scientist James L. Green and JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning provide an in-depth look at the history of Martian exploration and the challenges of preparing for these groundbreaking missions. Captions by planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla skillfully illuminate each image's content and technical context, and a foreword by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni and an introduction by curator Margaret A. Weitekamp reflect on Mars’s significance in our cultural imagination.
From a distant enigma to a tangible frontier whose every grain of sand we can now observe, this volume celebrates the extraordinary progress NASA has made, bringing us closer than ever to understanding our neighboring world.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
339 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2025
About the author
Nikki Giovanni
167 books1,428 followersYolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution". During the 1970s, she began writing children's literature, and co-founded a publishing company, NikTom Ltd, to provide an outlet for other African-American women writers. Over subsequent decades, her works discussed social issues, human relationships, and hip hop. Poems such as "Knoxville, Tennessee" and "Nikki-Rosa" have been frequently re-published in anthologies and other collections.
Giovanni received numerous awards and holds 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She was also given the key to over two dozen cities. Giovanni was honored with the NAACP Image Award seven times. One of her more unique honors was having a South America bat species, Micronycteris giovanniae, named after her in 2007.
Giovanni was proud of her Appalachian roots and worked to change the way the world views Appalachians and Affrilachians.
Giovanni taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State, and was a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech until September 1, 2022. After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, she delivered a chant-poem at a memorial for the shooting victims.
Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution". During the 1970s, she began writing children's literature, and co-founded a publishing company, NikTom Ltd, to provide an outlet for other African-American women writers. Over subsequent decades, her works discussed social issues, human relationships, and hip hop. Poems such as "Knoxville, Tennessee" and "Nikki-Rosa" have been frequently re-published in anthologies and other collections.
Giovanni received numerous awards and holds 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She was also given the key to over two dozen cities. Giovanni was honored with the NAACP Image Award seven times. One of her more unique honors was having a South America bat species, Micronycteris giovanniae, named after her in 2007.
Giovanni was proud of her Appalachian roots and worked to change the way the world views Appalachians and Affrilachians.
Giovanni taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State, and was a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech until September 1, 2022. After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, she delivered a chant-poem at a memorial for the shooting victims.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 13, 2025
Mars: Photographs from the NASA Archives is a well-curated and excellently presented collection of images from and imagery inspired by our closest neighbouring planet in the solar system.
Presented in a roughly chronological order after the original scene-setting chapters, the reader is taken from orbit around to the surface of the red planet as photographical technology improves from grainy, black-and-white images to crisp, high-definition colour profiles of specific features. By the end a planet is revealed with landscapes similar to our own but under an alien sky. The final chapters that deal with contemporary efforts at study, navigation, and even habitation however feel dated even at the time of release. This would perhaps be unavoidable with such a constantly moving industry, but one name in particular involved in efforts towards Mars sticks out like a sore thumb from events of this year. Those do not detract overall from the overall contents of the book, especially when so much is presented from historic missions that truly expanded humanity’s knowledge of Mars. The gallery of mission patches that appears as a coda a testament to the sheer number and variety of projects throughout the years.
The text that accompanies the pictures can at times leave something to be desired. The longer captions can get very dry, and especially when the text precedes and image overleaf there is a real desire for the writer to get on with it so that the reader can view images to which words cannot do justice. There is no denying that the overall presentation of the work is excellent, and for anyone picking it up off a coffee table who might be more selective in their reading it is not as though there are pages and pages of text between the images. Or anyone re-reading for that matter. The different contributors also at least bring some variety to the text. Emily Lakdawalla, James L. Green, Margaret Weitekamp, Nikki Giovanni, and Rob Manning all make very different contributions. Some do captions, others do more text heavy chapters looking at the cultural significance of Mars, whilst Giovanni provides the poem that opens the tome.
Those cultural chapters near the beginning provide a more entertaining text than the later captions, and, like Giovanni’s poem, serve to whet the appetite for the Mars that most readers will be familiar with from popular culture. What this book lays out is for how long and how pervasive human interest in the red planet has been throughout history. That the book is multilingual is another benefit, since the chapter text might be the same, but the photos are all different and direct captions are always provided in English. It means that the book isn’t bogged down too much in text for the sake of text instead expanding its reach globally whilst also increasing the number of photos collected. The presentation is also neatly laid out into sections starting with telescopic images, probe flybys, landings, and speculative missions all having devoted chapters. It creates a sense of progression as humanity gets closer and closer to the red planet with the suggestion that the ultimate step will be boots on the ground.
A nice accumulation of images and ideas that humanity has collected through years of fascination with the planet next door, Mars: Photographs from the NASA Archives can sit proudly atop a coffee table.
Presented in a roughly chronological order after the original scene-setting chapters, the reader is taken from orbit around to the surface of the red planet as photographical technology improves from grainy, black-and-white images to crisp, high-definition colour profiles of specific features. By the end a planet is revealed with landscapes similar to our own but under an alien sky. The final chapters that deal with contemporary efforts at study, navigation, and even habitation however feel dated even at the time of release. This would perhaps be unavoidable with such a constantly moving industry, but one name in particular involved in efforts towards Mars sticks out like a sore thumb from events of this year. Those do not detract overall from the overall contents of the book, especially when so much is presented from historic missions that truly expanded humanity’s knowledge of Mars. The gallery of mission patches that appears as a coda a testament to the sheer number and variety of projects throughout the years.
The text that accompanies the pictures can at times leave something to be desired. The longer captions can get very dry, and especially when the text precedes and image overleaf there is a real desire for the writer to get on with it so that the reader can view images to which words cannot do justice. There is no denying that the overall presentation of the work is excellent, and for anyone picking it up off a coffee table who might be more selective in their reading it is not as though there are pages and pages of text between the images. Or anyone re-reading for that matter. The different contributors also at least bring some variety to the text. Emily Lakdawalla, James L. Green, Margaret Weitekamp, Nikki Giovanni, and Rob Manning all make very different contributions. Some do captions, others do more text heavy chapters looking at the cultural significance of Mars, whilst Giovanni provides the poem that opens the tome.
Those cultural chapters near the beginning provide a more entertaining text than the later captions, and, like Giovanni’s poem, serve to whet the appetite for the Mars that most readers will be familiar with from popular culture. What this book lays out is for how long and how pervasive human interest in the red planet has been throughout history. That the book is multilingual is another benefit, since the chapter text might be the same, but the photos are all different and direct captions are always provided in English. It means that the book isn’t bogged down too much in text for the sake of text instead expanding its reach globally whilst also increasing the number of photos collected. The presentation is also neatly laid out into sections starting with telescopic images, probe flybys, landings, and speculative missions all having devoted chapters. It creates a sense of progression as humanity gets closer and closer to the red planet with the suggestion that the ultimate step will be boots on the ground.
A nice accumulation of images and ideas that humanity has collected through years of fascination with the planet next door, Mars: Photographs from the NASA Archives can sit proudly atop a coffee table.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2026
A fascinating look at the planet Mars with descriptions in English, Spanish, and German. High quality photos and paper.
June 13, 2025
This is The Planetary Society May’s Book Pick: Mars. Photographs from the NASA Archives
This stunning coffee table book captures 60 years of Mars exploration through NASA’s lens. From Mariner 4’s first close-ups in 1965 to rover selfies and sweeping shots of canyons, volcanoes, and ancient riverbeds, it shows how Mars has evolved from a distant mystery to a world we’ve come to know.
I will attend the Society’s LIVE ZOOM Q&A with former NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green, planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla, and NASA JPL Emeritus Chief Engineer Rob Manning on June 25th at 9:30 PM about this book.
This stunning coffee table book captures 60 years of Mars exploration through NASA’s lens. From Mariner 4’s first close-ups in 1965 to rover selfies and sweeping shots of canyons, volcanoes, and ancient riverbeds, it shows how Mars has evolved from a distant mystery to a world we’ve come to know.
I will attend the Society’s LIVE ZOOM Q&A with former NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green, planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla, and NASA JPL Emeritus Chief Engineer Rob Manning on June 25th at 9:30 PM about this book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews