Red Planet: A Fresh Look at Extraordinary Mars

by Giles Sparrow

Mars has always dominated our imagination—and now we are discovering more and more about the reality of the Red Planet. Lush and authoritative, this fascinating guide brings Mars to vivid life through incredible images (some never before published) taken from the Mars rovers, manned spaceflights, the International Space Station, and the Hubble telescope. Red Planet examines the scale of Mars, what we understand about its inhospitable climate, and how our newfound knowledge will inform humanity's attempts, finally, to build long-term colonies there.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

Reviews

[Melissa Embry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief history of humanity's fascination with Mars, from ancient times until the 21st century. The photos taken from orbiters and rovers such as Curiosity and its kin amazing. Science author Giles Sparrow's prose commentary is accessible even to lay readers and includes intriguing possibilities for closer exploration and eventual human habitation of the red planet. One quibble -- the text is often printed in white on black pages which provide stunning backgrounds to the photos but can be difficult to read. Well worth the effort!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! It summarizes what we know about Mars from ancient times up until 2015. There is a good mix of photos and narrative. The pages are photo paper, and I'm pretty sure that every page except the table of contents and index have photos on them. The science is summarized in a friendly way.

In short - this book is awesome.