With a focus of the Perseverance rover mission, here is the
"Quintessential account of one of humanity's most intriguing quests"
(Pail Halpern, Medium), "A remarkable, timely, and up-to-date account
of Mars exploration" (Leonard David, "Space Insider," Space.com).
From The War of the Worlds to The Martian and to the amazing
photographs sent back by the robotic rovers Curiosity and Opportunity,
Mars has excited our imaginations as the most likely other habitat for
life in the solar system. Now the Red Planet is coming under scrutiny as
never before. As new missions are scheduled to launch this year from the
United States and China, and with the European Space Agency's ExoMars
mission now scheduled for 2022, this book recounts in full the greatest
scientific detective story ever.
For the first time in forty years, the missions heading to Mars will
look for signs of ancient life on the world next door. It is the latest
chapter in an age-old quest that encompasses myth, false starts, red
herrings, and bizarre coincidences--as well as triumphs and
heartbreaking failures. This book, by two journalists with deep
experience covering space exploration, is the definitive story of how
life's discovery has eluded us to date, and how it will be found
somewhere and sometime this century. The Search for Life on Mars is
based on more than a hundred interviews with experts at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and elsewhere, who share their insights and
stories. While it looks back to the early Mars missions such as Viking
1 and 2, the book's focus is on the experiments and revelations from
the most recent ones--including Curiosity, which continues to explore
potentially habitable sites where water was once present, and the Mars
Insight lander, which has recorded more than 450 marsquakes since its
deployment in late 2018--as well as on the Perseverance and ExoMars
rover missions ahead.
And the book looks forward to the newest, most exciting frontier of all:
the day, not too far away, when humans will land, make the Red Planet
their home, and look for life directly.
