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For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet

Matthew Shindell
University of Chicago Press, 2023, 226 pages

For the Love of Mars surveys Mars’ place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement. Author Matthew Shindell, National Air and Space Museum curator, describes how historical figures across eras and around the world have made sense of Mars, including Mayan and Babylonian astrologers, figures of the Scientific Revolution who struggled to comprehend it as a world, Victorian astronomers who sought signs of intelligent life, and twentieth- and twenty-first-century scientists who have established a technological presence on its surface. The reader will encounter writers and artists from each of these periods who take readers and viewers along on imagined journeys to Mars. By focusing on the diverse human stories behind the telescopes and the robots we know and love, the author shows how the exploration of Mars has evolved in ways that have also expanded knowledge about other facets of the universe.

Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet

William Sheehan and Jim Bell
University of Arizona Press, 2021, 715 pages

Historian William Sheehan and astronomer and planetary scientist Jim Bell combine their talents to tell a unique story of what has been learned by studying Mars through evolving technologies. Beginning with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s, space-based instruments and monitoring systems have flooded scientists with data on Mars’s meteorology and geology and have even sought evidence of possible existence of lifeforms on or beneath the surface. This knowledge has transformed our perception of Mars. Discovering Mars vividly conveys the way our understanding of this other planet has grown from the earliest times to the present.

NASA Missions to Mars: A Visual History of Our Quest to Explore the Red Planet

Piers Bizony
Motorbooks, 2022, 198 pages

Gorgeously illustrated with NASA photography, this large-format book examines everything from the first tentative steps toward the fourth planet to the 2021 landing of rover Perseverance and beyond. This awe-inspiring book features an engaging and complete history of Mars exploration, a treasure trove of imagery from the NASA archives, a glimpse of future plans for Mars exploration and habitation, and coverage of orbiters sent to Mars by not only NASA but by space agencies from Russia, India, Japan, Europe, China, and the UAE. NASA Missions to Mars is a complete illustrated history of Mars exploration and a necessary volume for the bookshelf of any space enthusiast.

Volatiles in the Martian Crust

Justin Filiberto and Susanne P. Schwenzer, editors
Elsevier, 2019, 407 pages

This book is a vital reference for Mars missions, including the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission and NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, looking for evidence of life on Mars and the potential for habitability and human exploration of the martian crust. Mars science is rapidly evolving with new data being returned from the planet daily. This book presents chapters written by experts who currently focus on the topic, providing readers with a fresh and accurate view.

Dynamic Mars: Recent and Current Landscape Evolution of the Red Planet

Richard J. Soare, Susan J. Conway, and Stephen M. Clifford, editors
Elsevier, 2018, 446 pages

Dynamic Mars: Recent and Current Landscape Evolution of the Red Planet presents observations, interpretations, and explanations of geological change at the surface or near-surface of Mars. Highly illustrated and punctuated by data from recent Mars missions, this book is a valuable resource for all levels of research in the geological history of Mars, as well as of the three other terrestrial planets.

From Habitability to Life on Mars

Nathalie A. Cabrol and Edmond A. Grin, editors
Elsevier, 2018, 370 pages

From Habitability to Life on Mars explores the current state of knowledge and questions on the past habitability of Mars and the role that rapid environmental changes may have played in the ability of prebiotic chemistry to transition to life.

Mars: The Pristine Beauty of the Red Planet

Alfred S. McEwen, Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, and Ari Espinoza
University of Arizona Press, 2017, 435 pages

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. The images it has captured has shown us Mars in astonishing detail. This book features a never-before-published collection of HiRISE images with explanatory captions and is a unique volume produced from an active NASA mission.

Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet

Leonard David
National Geographic, 2016, 287 pages

This book presents the gravity-defying world of outer space with stunning photography, amazing visuals, and strong science. This companion book to the National Geographic Channel series dramatizes the next 25 years as humans land on and learn to live on Mars. This book is filled with vivid photographs taken on Earth, in space, and on Mars, as well as maps and commentary from the world’s top planetary scientists This book will take you millions of miles away — and decades into the future — to our next home in the solar system.

Mars via the Moon: The Next Giant Leap

Erik Seedhouse
Springer, 2016, 170 pages

The time has come for commercial enterprise to lead the way back to the lunar surface. Embarking on such a venture requires little in the way of new technologies. What we do need is a place to test the technologies and deep space experience that will enable us to build a pathway that will lead us to Mars. That place is the Moon, and this book explains why.

The Martian

Andy Weir
Crown Publishing, 2014, 369 pages

The Martian tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, a crew member on the third manned mission to Mars. After an epic dust storm threatens the crew’s ascent, they are forced to abort the mission. Watney is unintentionally abandoned and assumed to be dead. Drawing on his ingenuity, engineering skills, and a relentless refusal to quit, he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. (This novel was made into a feature film in 2016, and the DVD of that film is also in the LPI library collection.)

Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission

Marc Kaufman
National Geographic, 2014, 301 pages

This book was written in consultation with NASA scientists and explains everything, detail by detail and moment by moment, about the Curiosity mission. Mars Up Close combines inside stories, fascinating facts, up-to-date maps, accessible science, eye-popping pictures, and visions of a future that is not that far away.

This Is Mars

Alfred S. McEwen, Francis Rocard, and Xavier Barral
Aperture, 2013, 269 pages

This Is Mars offers a previously unseen vision of the Red Planet. Located somewhere between art and science, the book brings together for the first time a series of panoramic images recently sent back by the U.S. observation satellite Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Since its arrival in orbit in 2006, MRO and its HiRISE telescope have been mapping Mars’ surface in a series of exceptionally detailed images that reveal all the beauty of this legendary planet. This book takes the reader on a fantastic voyage — plummeting into the breathtaking depths of the Valles Marineris canyons, floating over the black dunes of Noachis Terra, and soaring to the highest peak in our solar system, the Olympus Mons volcano.

The Martian Surface: Composition, Mineralogy, and Physical Properties

Jim Bell, editor
Cambridge University Press, 2008, 636 pages

New observations from Earth-based telescopes and Mars-based orbiters, landers, and rovers have dramatically advanced our understanding of the past environments on Mars. These include the first global-scale infrared and reflectance spectroscopic maps of the surface, leading to the discovery of key minerals indicative of specific past climate conditions, the discovery of large reservoirs of subsurface water ice, and the detailed in situ roving investigations of three new landing sites. This is a resource for researchers and students in planetary science and related fields.

Mars: An Introduction to Its Interior, Surface and Atmosphere

Nadine G. Barlow
Cambridge University Press, 2008, 264 pages

This textbook covers our understanding of Mars’ formation, geology, atmosphere, surface properties, and potential for life, encompassing the fields of geology, chemistry, atmospheric sciences, geophysics, and astronomy. Each chapter introduces the necessary background information to help the non-specialist understand the topics. This book is essential reading for graduate courses and an important reference for researchers.

Mars 3-D: A Rover’s-Eye View of the Red Planet

Jim Bell
Sterling Publishing, 2008, 148 pages

Thanks to 120 stunning 3-D and color images shot by the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, we can observe the surface of Mars up close through super-realistic images. These pictures pop off the page in this book, allowing us to see for ourselves the rocks, craters, valleys, and other geologic configurations that define the martian terrain. The text is accessible and reveals the thrill of each discovery, along with the perils and near misses. The book features a fold-out flap with an embedded 3-D viewer.