Mars - The NASA Mission Reports - edited by Robert Godwin

From The Space Library

The Red Planet has been a beacon to every race of mankind since the dawn of history. Today Mars stands as a symbol of the high frontier - the next logical step in our exploration of the universe around us. In 1964 the United States of America launched Mariner 4 towards Mars in the hope that a handful of pictures returned by the spacecraft might answer some age-old questions. Was there an ancient Martian civilisation? Would there be any signs of life? So began the first step in a close examination of our neighboring planet. Between Mariner 4 and Mars Global Surveyor in 1998 the United States has sent a fleet of robots to Mars with wildly varying degrees of success. Thanks to these versatile probes we now know almost as much about Mars on a global scale as we do about our own Earth. In Mars - The NASA Mission Reports the triumphs and tribulations of the American Mars program is gathered together in one place. Press Kits and Mission Reports from every Mars mission are collected together for the first time. Reading these documents - presented here in chronological order - gives a fascinating insight into how our understanding of the Red planet has grown over the past four decades. These robot voyages are the advance guard, scouting out the path for the day when men will launch a manned mission to Mars.

Buy This Book Click here