Mars Underground

Mars Underground
Author: William K. Hartmann
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 454
Release: 1999-02-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780812580396

A search for a scientist who disappeared while exploring the Martian desert. He is Alwyn Stafford and as the search progresses it becomes clear he has discovered something which other people want kept hidden. A new alien civilization? A first novel by a Mars astronomer.

Mars Underground

Mars Underground
Author: William K. Hartmann
Publisher: Tor Books
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2011-04-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429975156

2032. The human race has established colonies on Mars. For years Dr. Alwyn Stafford researched its biggest mystery: Did life evolve on the Red Planet? The answer, except for simple, long-dead microorganisms, was no. Now retired, Stafford stubbornly continues his quest. Rumors say he's been going farther than ever before into the Martian deserts. Then he goes out and doesn't return. As the search for him grow, it becomes apparent that the old man found something that will forever change humanity's place in the cosmos... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Why Mars

Why Mars
Author: W. Henry Lambright
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2014-06-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1421412802

Traces NASA’s torturous journey to Mars from the fly-bys of the 1960s to landing rovers and seeking life today. Mars has captured the human imagination for decades. Since NASA’s establishment in 1958, the space agency has looked to Mars as a compelling prize, the one place, beyond the Moon, where robotic and human exploration could converge. Remarkably successful with its roaming multi-billion-dollar robot, Curiosity, NASA’s Mars program represents one of the agency’s greatest achievements. Why Mars analyzes the history of the robotic Mars exploration program from its origins to today. W. Henry Lambright examines the politics and policies behind NASA's multi-decade quest, illuminating the roles of key individuals and institutions along with their triumphs and defeats. Lambright outlines the ebbs and flows of policy evolution, focusing on critical points of change and factors that spurred strategic reorientation. He explains Mars exploration as a striking example of “big science” and describes the ways a powerful advocacy coalition—composed of NASA decision makers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mars academic science community, and many others—has influenced governmental decisions on Mars exploration, making it, at times, a national priority. The quest for Mars stretches over many years and involves billions of dollars. What does it take to mount and give coherence to a multi-mission, big science program? How do advocates and decision makers maintain goals and adapt their programs in the face of opposition and budgetary stringency? Where do they succeed in their strategies? Where do they fall short? Lambright’s insightful book suggests that from Mars exploration we can learn lessons that apply to other large-scale national endeavors in science and technology.

The Mars Diaries

The Mars Diaries
Author: David Levine
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2010-07-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0557551951

In January of 2010, six extraordinary individuals served as Crew 88 of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a simulated Mars base in the Utah desert. This is their story, in their own words and pictures.

Mars Ascending

Mars Ascending
Author: James E. Ramsey
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2002-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 059523979X

The opening chapter in a sci-fi saga set during the tumultuous early years of the taming and settlement of Mars.

Exploring Mars

Exploring Mars
Author: Scott Hubbard
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2011
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816528969

The Red Planet has been a subject of fascination for humanity for thousands of years, becoming part of our folklore and popular culture. The most Earthlike of the planets in our solar system, Mars may have harbored some form of life in the past and may still possess an ecosystem in some underground refuge. The mysteries of this fourth planet from our Sun make it of central importance to NASA and its science goals for the twenty-first century.ÊÊ In the wake of the very public failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, NASA embarked on a complete reassessment of the Mars Program. Scott Hubbard was asked to lead this restructuring in 2000, becoming known as the "Mars Czar." His team's efforts resulted in a very successful decade-long series of missions--each building on the accomplishments of those before it--that adhered to the science adage "follow the water" when debating how to proceed. Hubbard's work created the Mars Odyssey mission, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Phoenix mission, and most recently the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory.Ê Now for the first time Scott Hubbard tells the complete story of how he fashioned this program, describing both the technical and political forces involved and bringing to life the national and international cast of characters engaged in this monumental endeavor.Ê Blending the exciting stories of the missions with the thrills of scientific discovery, Exploring Mars will intrigue anyone interested in the science, the engineering, or the policy of investigating other worlds. Ê

The Ethics of the Colonization of Mars

The Ethics of the Colonization of Mars
Author: Sifwat Ali
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2011-08-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1463429126

In order to start a discussion on any new idea, or even a proposal, a baseline must be established. It is a bit like going to a psychiatrist and asking for a diagnosis on a human subject. The psychiatrist must conduct a series of tests to determine the subjects baseline condition to see how the neurons are firing. In this chapter we will attempt to baseline our knowledge of the day and see what inspires the biological life to explore, to plan to go, and to aspire to move to a different planet. Let us think of a giant spaceship named paradise. In this spaceship, there is a group of beings including man that has disobeyed the commander. The commander must evict this group from the paradise per the rules of the spaceship. So the commander looks for a suitable planet. Let us call this planet the Earth. The spaceship hovers over the Earth. The commander lays down the law to this group and says: get down. He then foretells them more bad news that some of you will be the enemies of the other (i.e. you will shed each others blood). At the end of the verdict he gives them a little good news: and for you, this Earth is the destination and has in it all the provisions that you will need to survive, for a time. Well! That time is up; the time has come for the biological life on Earth to start a journey in the cosmos on its own strength, and the first steps have already been taken. 1.1 The Urge to Explore The urge to explore and to multiply takes a Monarch Butterfly from Canada across the United States to Mexico, some two thousand miles. Its wings barely span a few inches and the body weighs not even a quarter of an ounce and yet it fearlessly soars across the Great Lakes and into the Great Plains facing every predator and hostile elements that are unthinkable from its point of view. The pilgrimage happens every year and the Day of Judgment arrives for a generation of the monarchs with the same frequency. There is grace and beauty in this exploration. It has in it a goal; it has in it full success; and it has new life. It has in it the beautiful death of the old and after the burial, the beginning of a new sacred mission of the next generation. Then there is a species of fish collectively known as Salmon. They lay their eggs in freshwater streams typically at high latitudes. The eggs hatch and evolve in various forms staying from one to three years in their fresh water stream. Ah, it is estimated that only 10% of all salmon eggs survive to this stage. Then they move to an area of the water, in the direction of the ocean, which is more brackish than fresh allowing the body chemistry to change, to live in salt water. In science this process is called Osmoregulation. They then proceed to the open ocean and live there for as long as four years. They endure a dangerous predatory world and under heavy ocean pressures explore a new world. Close to the end, they mature sexually and when that happens they march to a sacred pilgrimage with the only sense of the regeneration of life and return to the fresh waters they came from. Some of these fresh water streams are as far away as a thousand miles both from the Pacific and in the Atlantic Oceans. Swimming a thousand miles against the currents under water is like flying a hundred thousand miles in the air. In moving back to the birth place, they journey upstream, continuously struggling, but never losing the urge to arrive at the spawning site, even as they sense (?) other members being devoured by a host of predators. After spawning, after completing their sacred journey, they gracefully die and the next generation takes over. Let us now move to another part of the Planet Earth, deep down, in the Mariana Trench, roughly thirty six thousand feet deep in the Pacific Ocean; in fact so deep that if Mount Everest were to be submerged totally in it, all of roughly twenty-nine thousand feet, we will still have seven thousand feet of water left above it. At the bottom of the trench the pressure is roughly 15000 psi; and that is over one thousand times that of the normal atmospheric pressure. The Miracle of Life still exists without light and without the warmth of the Sun. The organism and life sustains itself from the warmth derived out of the core of the Earth. There are single-celled organisms that are thought to resemble some of the world's earliest life forms. They may be single-celled called foraminifera but there are an estimated 4,000 species living. They inhabit a wide range of marine environments, mostly on the ocean bottom. The discovery at this depth of these foraminifera living in dirt surprised even the scientists from Japans Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (who led the exploration).

The Case For Mars

The Case For Mars
Author: Robert Zubrin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2012-12-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1471109887

Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream; the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with illustrations, photographs, and engaging anecdotes. The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars; a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.