"DESTINATION MARS" new from Prometheus Books...


After writing two books about the Apollo program, it is time to move beyond cis-lunar space and visit other worlds. "Destination Mars" is the complete story of humanity's missions to the red planet. From that stunning moment in 1965 when Mariner 4 swept away the fanciful Martian empire of men like Percival Lowell, to that amazing first landing on Mars by Viking 1, to the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory, this book explores the missions to the fourth planet in a fast-paced, energetic style. My goal was to make the book read like a novel while remaining a factual retelling of this sweeping story.

This blog will combine snippets from the book with original (and often little-known) tales from the annals of the exploration of Mars, while including occasional guest-posts and random diversions.

Reviews:

"Destination Mars brings to life an extraordinary part of human exploration—the preliminary reconnaissance of the planet of dreams over the last fifty years. Enlivened by interviews with many of the participants, you will feel as if you are exploring the planet with them." --Steven J. Dick, former NASA Chief Historian

"Mars has long held a special fascination for Americans, perhaps it might even be a planet that harbors life. Rod Pyle has written a fine account of this fascination; outlining the history of the robotic space probes sent to the red planet and the knowledge gained through these expeditions." --Roger D. Launius, PhD, senior curator, Division of Space History, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday, April 13, 2012

Brag Board


OK, this is not specifically a Mars post... but I just had to crow. I got a review (short though it may be) in NATURE, the prestigious UK journal. Color me happy!

Destination Mars: New Explorations of the Red Planet
Rod Pyle Prometheus 280 pp. $19 (2012)
The seductive fascination of the red planet never palls, and science writer and documentary maker Rod Pyle stokes our hunger. For the Mars obsessed, the real thrills will be in his detailed descriptions of upcoming missions, the pseudo-Martian research conducted in Earth’s most hostile environments, and interviews with explorers such as Steven Squyres, principal investigator of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover. Pyle’s look at the planet and our perceptions and probings of it also covers Mars’s geography, geology and hydrology, and its cultural history on Earth.