PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
William Sheehan retired from psychiatry in 2018 after a professional career spanning three decades. He is a leading historian of astronomy, with twenty-books to his name. Jim Bell is a professor of astronomy and planetary science in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the geology and composition of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, and he has authored seven popular science books.
As Sheehan and Bell explain in their introduction, it is the combination of their two angles of approach that allows this book to tell the whole story, and their work of collaboration and integration has given us this special achievement. Especially in this era of climate change, comparative planetology is a very important analytic tool for our civilization. And as Mars is the planet most like Earth by a long shot, studying Mars becomes useful to us, as well as beautiful. In that ongoing study, this book takes its part with distinction and flair. --Kim Stanley Robinson, award-winning author of the Mars trilogy Discovering Mars provides a breathtaking panorama of the human quest to understand our neighboring planet, starting from ancient times, through the era of planetary astronomy from Galileo through the 1950s, and through the era of space missions, all the way to the 2020s. Authors Sheehan and Bell are the perfect pair to present this journey through time and space, from Sheehan's perspective as a science historian and philosopher, and Bell's perspective as a modern-day explorer leading the camera teams on NASA's rovers. --Roger C. Wiens, Los Alamos National Laboratory A fascinating, full-spectrum survey, told by two of the elect among Mars chroniclers, of how inhabitants of the solar system's pale blue dot have peered at, flown around, probed into, ridden over, pondered, and repondered the system's bright red dot. An indispensable source for Mars enthusiasts. --Stephen J. Pyne, author of The Great Ages of Discovery. How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World This is a detailed history of exploration, to be sure. But, it's really about the passionate characters, the humans with their telescopes and robots, who have worked to know what goes on out there on this other world. As you read remember; what we've discovered there over the last couple of centuries is amazing; what we'll soon learn about Mars will be astonishing. --Bill Nye, The Planetary Society Discovering Mars details with a retrospective voice the history of humanity's obsession with The Red Planet, from the Babylonians to the modern. Sheehan and Bell expertly distill the history, science, and technology of planetary exploration into a refreshing deep dive into the realm of Mars research. It is a joy to read for both the curious observer and the planetary scientist alike. --Amy J. Williams, University of Florida, and team member on NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions How is it that in over three-hundred years since astronomers first began to study it, Mars has had such a grip on the human imagination? Is it the dream of an Earthlike world that captivated the public in the decades before the space age? Or the geologic wonderland unveiled by robotic explorers, which even now tease out its amazingly complex history? Or is it the mounting evidence that Mars may have been--and may yet be--inhabited by microbes, a 'second genesis' of life in our solar system? As conveyed in Bill Sheehan and Jim Bell's remarkable saga, it is all these things. Read and understand why we will never be done with Mars. --Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon and A Passion for Mars Bill Sheehan and Jim Bell lead an exhilarating voyage to understand Mars. The journey is as much about human imagination and eccentricity as it is about scientific data and observation, and the team of Mars historian Sheehan planetary scientist Bell expertly show the way. Never has armchair exploration been so provocative! --Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory historian
