Missions to Mars

Condition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9780008407261 Author(s): Larry Crumpler Format: Hardcover Language: English Year: 2021 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Pages: 336

Description: From a long-term planning lead for the Mars Exploration Rover Project comes this vivid insider account of some of NASAA?s most vital and exciting missions to the Red Planet, illustrated with full-colour photographsA?a wondrous chronicle of unprecedented scientific discovery and the search for evidence of life on Mars. A?There are probably just a few of moments in human history when a small group of humans stood on the margins of a vast new world, and it is no stretch of the romantic imagination that the arrival of two rovers on the surface of another planet was surely one of them.A?Human exploration of Mars is the most ambitious and exciting scientific goal of the 21st century, and few people on earth know as much about this fascinating planet as Dr Larry Crumpler. As one of the long-term planning leads for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, he helped control the daily communications between NASA and the rovers roaming the planet to gather scientific data.In this magnificent compendium, Dr. Crumpler recounts the history of the Red Planet, from the earliest days when ancient astronomers turned their eyes to the heavens to the breakthrough discoveries being unearthed by modern technology today, including some of the first images from the latest rover, Perseverance. Paired with stunning, full-colour photographs taken by rovers and NASA satellites images, this magnificent A?biographyA? of the red planet allows us to understand and experience it as never before.When the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers landed on Mars in January 2004, scientists expected them to function for 90 days. But those three months turned into fifteen years. With data gathered by the rovers, Dr Crumpler and his team were able to reconstruct the planetA?s stunning geological past, when it was once inundated with water, and perhaps could hav