Book Description
This ambitious book is a personal psycho-spiritual journey, a theorization on the meaning of the monuments of Mars, a guidebook for transcending present three-dimensional limitations, and an account of our function within the grand celestial battle between internal and external knowledge. The newly revised and expanded edition of this cult classic features photos and illustrations throughout, and adds the Lucifer Rebellion, the solar storm, and the final three breaths of the merkaba meditation. The author emphasizes the importance of meditation for promoting the understanding of and connection to the metaphysical.
Customer Reviews:
First Half = I can't put it down.......Last Half = I can't pick it up........2007-01-15
This book was very interesting to me well before I even opened the cover. As I began to read the outlandish theories in the book, my mind seemed to open and receive never before thought of possibilities. It was a whirl-wind of "what if's?" and "Could that be possible's".
As I continued along, I began to feel like I was reading the Bible. But, only in the sense that I got lost in all the cosmic events and bizarre names and connections to the main plot. This lead to a disintegration in my level of interest. I have ALWAYS been open to wacky theories and metaphysical concepts, but this book got a little carried away with itself. In a sense, it takes itself WAY too seriously. What started as a fun, possible explanation for every theory and conspiracy ever, devolved into a maniacal raving, much like one would expect from the lips of the mentally unstable. And to make matters worse, I completely lost interest.
It may seem like I'm only bashing the book. However, consider this. If you start eating a meal, a delicious meal, and half way through you realize you've had WAY too much of it, do you not later tell your friends that lunch was just OK? I'm only doing the same. The book was really interesting, but too full of itself to hold my interest.
Something in this book...may be true...?.......2006-05-01
To most people this book would come across as absurd, and to others it would become a bible. I really think though, that one should approach this middle-of-the-road style, perhaps leaning toward the former.
The cartoonish way this book is written and the outlandish claims it makes sem to discredit it at face value, but there is a small snack for thought buried somewhere inside it, and I think it's a helpful book if one is trying to gain a wide perspective about the various strains of esoterica, including the slightly paranoid, fantastic ones .
The book exagerrates details which can be picked up in more reputable titles, and as such it's not complete rubbish. When I read it, at first I was drawn deep into it's little conspiracy matrix and actually wondered why agents of the illuminati weren't swooping down upon me to confiscate it and have me curb-stomped. Then disbelief and dissapointment set in, but months later one usually finds a string of phrase or paragraph of information somewhere that validates a bit of the book, and that's where its worth lies. Again I say a bit of the book, because believed completely this series could turn one into a lunatic. My advice is to find a bookstore that carries it, and read the whole thing there, or pick it up used. Just don't shell out fifteen bucks, and don't expect miracles.
Snore.......2005-09-18
Nothing in this book is true but it is a comprehensive new age/rebirthing/early 90's generic unified theory of kookiness. The reason this book seems original is because Bob did combine a lot of strange information here, but didn't add much to the mix. Is NASA hiding things on Mars? I think so. Is there a devious secret government? Yes, but you'll find a lot more accurate info elsewhere on these subjects. I recommend Bob's companion volume Something in This Book is True instead of this because it has a much more personal touch and at least Something true.
IT'S HARDLY RECOMMENDED TO ME!!.......2005-09-15
But I really would like to read it in Spanish, I heard that it's a great book, there somethings that I read and I understand, But it will be better if I can find it in Spanish
Open your mind.......2004-11-27
I'd like to thank Bob for being the first person to get me motivated to attempt to understand the mysteries of the universe. This book is riddled with paradox, truths and untruths. I cannot tell you which bits are what, simply because your interpretation is different to mine. I believe this is what Bob was trying to do with this book.
If you are to take this book and analyze it, you will more than likely find it a travesty to literature. Bobs ideas and views have no backing what-so-ever. He references things that a few other people are accredited to; the book doesn't really flow. Or even have an easily visible purpose.
Open your mind. Take this book as it feels. "Nothing in this book is true". Can you imagine yourself living in a multiple dimensional reality? Alien existence? Just because we can't prove these facts as `truth', doesn't mean that they are impossible. I urge you to disprove alien life.
The topics that Bob raises, for me, sparked something inside of me. I feel more alive now than ever. I'm reading so much about everything. I want more. Before reading this book I read pretty much nothing. Read it to be inspired, get yourself contemplating possibilities, if nothing else.
Book Description
Mars, like planet Earth, is a complex and vast world with a long history. The authors of this book give a new insight of Mars by adopting an original outline based on history rather than on subtopic (atmosphere, surface, interior). They focus on the past and present evolution of Mars and also incorporate all the recent results from the space missions of Mars Express, Spirit and Opportunity.
This book goes to the heart of current planetological research, and illustrates it with many beautiful images. The authors describe the magnificent scenery on Mars including Olympus Mons, more than 20,000 metres high and the solar system’s biggest volcano. At Mars’ poles, glaciers, formed from thousands of fine strata, are evidence of past climatic fluctuations. Drs Forget and Costard and Professor Lognonné introduce a new world and reveal the workings of the planet Mars. They answer the questions: How was Mars formed? Why has its evolution followed a different path to that of Earth? What do its river beds, volcanoes and glaciers tell us about its past? Could life have existed there? Does it exist there now? What processes ‘drive’ Mars today?
The five parts of the book trace the history of Mars. Part 1 examines its formation from the ashes of dead stars, more than 4·5 billion years ago. Part 2 travels through its early and turbulent youth and gradual, 3·5-billion-year long metamorphosis. Part 3 traces the creation of great planetary structures while Part 4 explores this active planet as it is today, with its dust storms, water features and atmosphere, and shows that Mars is subject to continual climatic change. Finally in Part 5, the story of the recent exploration of Mars and current research in laboratories and space agencies in preparation for the missions of the next twenty years is recounted.
Book Description
The Wheels of Apollo and the Quest for Mars fills a need for a complete history of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17, drawing on many photographs never before published. It will also tell the story of the successful robotic rovers used on Mars, and will conclude with a description of the new designs of rovers planned for The New Vision for Exploration now underway at NASA.
In the Introduction, Anthony Young discusses the influence of art and images in both books and magazines that sparked interest in manned space travel. The Cold War launched the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions are provided in overview as a prelude to following chapters.
Chapter One explains the early concepts of a lunar rover even before the start of Apollo. Following Apollo 11, requests to Industry for proposals are made, and Boeing wins the contract to design and build the Lunar Roving Vehicle. The book covers the complete program from Boeing’s perspective as well as the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Chapter Two details the testing undertaken by the astronauts with the 1-G trainer in desert environments as well as simulators, as well as at Kennedy Space Center in full EVA suits. Chapters Three, Four and Five cover Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17 respectively, when the lunar geology field trips were conducted, and the successful use of the LRV on the moon. Chapter Six describes the engineering of the Martian robotic rovers Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity. Chapter Seven covers the future use or manned and unmanned rovers in NASA’s New Vision for Exploration.
Amazon.com
Mars holds a special fascination for us, because it is the most Earth-like planet we've yet encountered. As we continue to explore the red planet, geological evidence mounts that long ago water flowed freely across its surface, begging the question: If there was water, was there life? Graham Hancock thinks so. In fact, Hancock, a former journalist and the author of several books, including Fingerprints of the Gods, believes that certain formations on the Martian surface are the remnants of an ancient civilization--one strikingly similar to ancient Egypt--that was destroyed by a cataclysmic deep impact. Further, Hancock claims that NASA's reluctance to give credence to "The Face," "The Pyramids," and other things people see in images of the Martian surface is evidence that the U.S. space agency is motivated by cold war paranoia and mistrust. Hancock seems to be more fair-minded than many NASA critics, stating that, "what we see is a mindset, here, not a conspiracy." And indeed, one is hard-pressed to imagine why NASA isn't agreeing wholeheartedly with Hancock, since his ultimate point is that we should be paying more attention to our planetary neighbors and the skies above, lest we suffer the same fate as the Martians. Hancock raises many intriguing questions in this synthesis of unorthodox Mars theory, but those looking for applications of Ockham's razor had best search elsewhere--Hancock's theories require a leap of faith as surely as NASA's do. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
An asteroid transformed Mars from a lush planet with rivers and oceans into a bleak and icy hell. Is Earth condemned to the same fate, or can we protect ourselves and our planet from extinction?
In his most riveting and revealing book yet, Graham Hancock examines the evidence that the barren Red Planet was once home to a lush environment of flowing rivers, lakes, and oceans. Could Mars have sustained life and civilization?
Megaliths found on the parched shores of Cydonia, a former Martian ocean, mirror the geometrical conventions of the pyramids at Egypt's Giza necropolis. Especially startling is a Sphinx-like structure depicting a face with distinguishable diadem, teeth, mouth and an Egyptian-style headdress. Might there be a connection between the structures of Egypt and those of Mars? Why does NASA continue to dismiss these remarkable anomalies as "a trick of light"? Hancock points to the intriguing possibility that ancient Martian civilization is communicating with us through the remarkable structures it left behind.
In exploring the possible traces left by the Martian civilization and the cosmic cataclysm that may have ended it,
The Mars Mystery is both an illumination of our ancient past and a warning--that we still have time to heed--about our ultimate fate.
Customer Reviews:
surprisingly enlightening!.......2007-05-20
You could read the title as "A warning from history that could save life on earth" or you could read the book and justify that it should have read "A rambling from conspirators that could ignite paranoia on earth."
Joke beside, this was actually very enlightening. I just thought it's be some crackpot ideas about Mars. I was 95% sold on the idea when they got into the mathmatics, which match those of ancient earth monuments. Reading that part alone sent me into shivers with a wide-eyed gaze. The second part which grabbed me was the section on camets and astroids. The truth is straight told and this alone will leave you wide-eyed. Getting into the speculation will just send your eyes drooping from their sockets.
So, the mathmatics and the comets were the best parts of the book. The rest was just filler - getting from one point to another.
The Mars Mystery.......2007-03-09
This book is right on the subject for me. Could this be true???? I think so
Mars: A Part of the Human saga?.......2006-04-13
This is among the earlier of Graham Hancock's remarkable series of books on unknown Human History. It concerns a possible connection in the ancient human past between Earth and Mars, which the writer postulates hosted a Human civilisation before it got destroyed in a cataclysm caused by a cometary or asteriod impact. Either there was a sister civilisation on Earth, or the remnants from the Martian one escaped and came here to start afresh, and thus Ancient Egypt was where they "unloaded" their legacy. He dated Ancient Egypt's legacy as belonging far back in the hidden mists of millenia untold, linking it to this Martian civilisation, instead of its "official" starting date of circa 3100 BCE. The "story" therefore is remarkable and astounding. But Hancock, in this book, also deliberately deconstructs his previous, equally remarkable and plausible ice-age theory for the destruction of such an ancient technological global, antediluvian civilisation for which he cites the theories of Charles Hapgood and others, and for which overwhelming evidence otherwise exists, transcending interdisciplinary boundaries. This theory was based on the Earth's cyclical axial precession as well as the related possibility of its crust shifting catastrophically, and was at the core of his "debut" book, "Fingerprints of the Gods". His new asteroid-impact theory is as equally as forceful as the axis-shift one he replaces, and such abrupt changes of view could cause doubt in the minds of his readers, even those with superior intellects and education who could reconcile both these aspects of view. He does touch upon this disparity of his on P.254 of the book, but cursorily and briefly.
He treats the example of the present day scarred and desolate planet Mars as a warning for what could happen to our present "high" civilisation now populating Earth. Elsewhere, he also speculates on a conspiracy by the powers-that-be to conceal what happened to Mars - and therefore Mankind's actual history - so as to be able to control their societies, which might otherwise become restive and panick stricken in the face of such knowledge and eventualities. After all, the elites are mature and powerful enough to be able to contemplate awful disasters coolly and in the face - which an ordinary Tom, Dick and Harry can't otherwise even think of, let alone bear! In the last chapter of this book titled "Dark Star", he writes mournfully to the effect that just as humanity seems to be lifting itself to superior levels of cultural, technological and spiritual expression, along comes a global cataclysm forcing them back to square one: to begin as mountain shepherds and hunters all over again, carrying with them the tales of lost Golden Ages of science and culture. This forces him to contemplate mournfully, along Gnostic lines, as to whether God is indeed all-good and love as the "classic" scriptures would have one believe - or whether "He" is a Duality: Evil as well as Good. He then supplies the answers, and so do his other excellent books which I recommend to Amazon readers, "The Lords of Poverty" and "Journey Through Pakistan". The influence of devilish forces aside, it seems we ourselves become The Devil when our lofty achievements get overtaken and harnessed to base desires and consumeristic greed, leading inevitably to some kind of disaster... That is evident right now, in this most critical time recorded Human history has ever known.
Good. Not Great. Just good........2005-09-23
I enjoyed this book. I had some problems with some of the odd logic he used in some areas, but I'd still favor this book as a good read. His "Sign and the Seal" book was far better.
WELL-REASONED ACCOUNT OF "THE FLAYED PLANET".......2005-08-29
This may be the most speculative of all Hancock's books, but he gives you plenty to think about. I wondered if this book would just be another rehashing of Richard Hoagland's ideas about the artificiality of the "monuments" of the Cydonia region of Mars, but instead it's pure Graham Hancock. He connects some dots from his previous books, looking again at the significance of the layout of the Giza plateau in Egypt as well as Teotihaucan in Mexico and speculating about whether the ancients have left us a message. It's a dire warning that our planet may be in for a pounding by explosive projectiles from space - the same dangerous objects that may have destroyed the planet Mars.
Hancock provides plenty of background on the swarm of comets and asteroids that are on Earth-crossing orbits and how they got there. It seems as our galaxy makes its great circle over millions of years it periodically encounters the galactic arm which is full of debris. Some of this debris remains with our solar system, but on unstable orbits. Comets, it turns out, can begin as huge objects many miles across. They generally break up at some point into smaller more numerous objects and work their way from the far end of our solar system to closer to the sun - and, of course, passing by Earth. And yes, comets CAN hit planets as we learned with the explosive impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on the planet Jupiter in 1994. One of the impact craters it left is larger than Earth!
Hancock explores the photos we have of Mars that show it must have had liquid water in its past. He gives us a complete summary of the structures found at Cydonia, including the famous face. Despite NASA's release of a picture that made the face look like a bunch of random scratches, the speculation of artificiality is very much alive. NASA was deceptive in releasing a "raw" photo, something they normally do not do. It is obvious they wanted to put an end to the public's fascination with the face. Even cleaned up, the photo shows an irregular structure that only looks a bit like a face. But the whole concept of Cydonia as a place with constructed monuments never rested solely on the face. There is the matter of the geometry of the area, which seems to have encoded a lot of the same numbers as the pyramids of Giza and other ancient Earth monuments.
In true Hancock fashion, the author provides us with penty of food for thought. He carefully labels his ideas as speculation, not fact, but he conjectures that the damage to Mars could have been recent, not millions of years ago, and it could have coincided with the great flood stories of Earth and an apparent disaster or series of disasters in the time frame of 9000 to 12,000 years ago. These may have involved a scattering of comets and other space objects that are still a danger to Earth; that previous cycles of these swarms from space wiped out the dinosaurs and caused other mass extinctions on Earth.
Hancock goes on to speculate that disasters on earth may not be purely geological events, but may have to do with man's treatment of his fellow man and his respect (or lack of it) for his world. He laments that the nations of Earth are doing almost nothing to search the solar system for the danger that may be awaiting our home. Is it just hubris that makes up think we are the culmination of all previous generations of humankind? Or are we dead wrong, and is human civilization destined to experience cycles of destruction? Will our Mother Earth become a dead place like Mars? As always, Graham Hancock provides entertaining reading whether you buy into it or not.
Book Description
In this riveting book, acclaimed journalist Kathy Sawyer reveals the deepest mysteries of space and some of the most disturbing truths on Earth. The Rock from Mars is the story of how two planets and the spheres of politics and science all collided at the end of the twentieth century.
It began sixteen million years ago. An asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth’s gravity onto an icy wilderness near the southern pole. There, in 1984, a geologist named Roberta Score spotted it, launching it on a roundabout path to fame and controversy.
In its new home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years, a victim of mistaken identity. Then, in 1993, the geochemist Donald “Duck” Mittlefehldt, unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, specialist Chris Romanek detected signs of once-living organisms on the meteorite. And the obscure rock became a rock star.
But how did nine respected investigators come to make such startling claims about the rock that they triggered one of the most venomous scientific battles in modern memory? The narrative traces the steps that led to this risky move and follows the rippling impact on the scientists’ lives, the future of space exploration, the search for life on Mars, and the struggle to understand the origins of life on Earth.
From the second the story broke in Science magazine in 1996, it spawned waves of excitement, envy, competitive zeal, and calculation. In academia, in government agencies, in laboratories around the world, and even in the Oval Office–where an inquisitive President Clinton had received the news in secret–players of all kinds plotted their next moves. Among them: David McKay, the dynamic geologist associated with the first moon landing, who labored to achieve at long last a second success; Bill Schopf of UCLA, a researcher determined to remain at the top of his field and the first to challenge McKay’s claims; Dan Goldin, the boss of NASA; and Dick Morris, the controversial presidential adviser who wanted to use the story for Clinton’s reelection and unfortunately made sure it ended up in the diary of a $200-an-hour call girl.
Impeccably researched and thrillingly involving, Kathy Sawyer’s The Rock from Mars is an exemplary work of modern nonfiction, a vivid account of the all-too-human high-stakes drive to learn our true place in the cosmic scheme.
Customer Reviews:
Rock from Mars Review.......2007-01-20
This is a great book if you like exploring where science originates and how personal battles control the dominant paradigm. Sawyer traces the journey of ALH84001 from its discovery in the Antartic ice by Robbie Score to its place of fame as the first possible clue to possible bacterial life on Mars. Sawyer also includes the massive controversy at stake, the secrecy of the research, and the rush accompanied with going public with their findings. In addition, she explores the backlash against the claims of the McKay group claims and their attempts to explore every possible avenue of contamination. Bringing together scientists across the board from glacial geologists to chemical specialists, ALH84001 allows almost everyone in the scientific community to evaluate the possibility that Mars might have seeded Earth with microbacteria or vice versa and, thanks to Sawyer, you can too.
Human Reaction In the Face of a Possible Paradigm Shift.......2006-07-13
This book is a page-turner! The possibility of having discovered traces of ancient Martian life, no matter how primitive, has sent ripples throughout the (mainly scientific) world. This book gives an excellent overview of the entire story - from the 1984 discovery of this Martian rock in the Antarctic to the present time. As expected, there was much debate about whether the rock did indeed show signs of primitive, ancient Martian life. Consequently, two main camps formed: those trying to prove that the rock did show such signs of Martian life and those proposing alternative explanations for the rock's interesting features. I think that the author has done an excellent job in presenting the story without taking sides in the occasionally heated debates that took place over the years. There are no good guys and no bad guys here, just people trying to understand what had been found in the face of a possible paradigm shift. This book can be enjoyed by anyone because of its clear prose and engaging writing style. Nevertheless, because of its subject matter, it will likely be more popular among science buffs.
Tales of the Rock Star.......2006-05-12
We are fascinated by the possibility that there may be some sort of life elsewhere than on the Earth. The possibility that there is no life elsewhere is equally interesting, but it doesn't, for instance, make interesting science fiction movies. Life outside of Earth has most often been imagined on Mars, which for all its differences from our planet is the one that is most similar to our own. Thus, when on 7 August 1996 researchers announced that they had found evidence that might show fossilized life on Mars, it was not just a scientific announcement, but one which that non-scientist President Clinton had to take part in making. _The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets_ (Random House) by Kathy Sawyer tells how the announcement came about, the science behind it, and the personalities (and the infighting) that made it happen and have kept research in the arena to the current day at various cutting edges at the limits of our understanding. Sawyer, a science reporter for the _Washington Post_, has made this story not only interesting but exciting, a refreshing view of how big science is done these days.
The story began sixteen million years ago with an asteroid slamming into Mars. This sent up debris, and some of the debris became asteroids in their own right, and came down on Earth. This particular rock came down 13,000 years ago, and remained in the ice of Antarctica until it was discovered in 1984. The special nature of the rock, wasn't understood until 1993, when geochemists started examining it, and found that it was 4.5 billion years old; it was the oldest known rock from any planet including our own. More important, they found carbonates and iron crystals that were similar to such chemicals produced by organisms on Earth. Sawyer carefully explains the process of examining the rock; acid, electron scanning microscopes, ultraviolet lasers and more are brought upon it. There is lots of evidence that was turned up, and whatever the aftermath of the research, the team of David McKay, a famously careful and conservative researcher, did such a thorough job that the evidence was never in question. It was the interpretation of the evidence that proved to be troubling. Many scientists were upset that the researchers were taking undue advantage of a hot story and making it seem that their interpretation was factual rather than tentative. NASA was criticized from the start for hyping the research and using it for political reasons. In the ten years since the announcement, the controversy has become less prominent, but among scientists who are looking into the subject, there are still opposing camps on the matter, and vehement disagreements, and hurt feelings.
As Sawyer winds up the story, there is no overall agreement on just what McKay's team turned up. There have been different ways of looking at the rock since then, none of them making a conclusive case. This is not a bad thing. Because of the controversy, new techniques have been brought into play and new discoveries have been made. For instance, what was learned about possible earthly contamination of the rock will be used when bits of Mars are brought back by robot spacecraft sometime in the future. Because of the controversy, there has been increased interest and better explanations for the origins of life on Earth in the most unlikely and unwelcoming of environments. With its depiction of all-too-human scientists attempting objectivity when contemplating the great mystery of life elsewhere, Sawyer's account is an appealing picture of a good example of how science works.
Science vs Politics. (Guess who wins?).......2006-04-01
Kathy Sawyer does an absolutely first-rate job of describing what is really a very intricate subject--what is life, and how do we know? The first half of the book describes the discovery of a meteor lying on the snow in Antarctica--which turns out of have been ejected from the planet Mars! The initial investigation of these rocks is cursory and tells little that is new. The rock molders in a museum repository for years--until it is examined again. Suddenly, in a leap of inspiration, one scientist notices tiny features that look strikingly like fossilized microbes--the first signs of extraterrestrial Life!
President Clinton announces the discovery, and the second half of the book describes the intense politicking that goes on as scientists jockey furiously for air time to claim credit for or denounce the sensational discovery. Few books give a clearer picture of the rampant egotism that dominates science just as much as it dominates every other field of human endeavor. So much for the vaunted impartiality of the "scientific mind." (Indeed, please find me a single left-wing scientist who disagrees that humans cause global warming--or a single conservative scientist who thinks they do!)
Why not five stars for this terrific book? Well it is a fine coda to what is surely the best book on extraterrestrial life "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life in Uncommon in the Universe." That's Five Stars worth of reading. (Read it first, and then you'll really enjoy "The Rock From Mars.")
A Story of Big Science.......2006-03-16
From movies and television the public has an image of the scientist being a selfless, mild mannered, seeker of knowledge. 'Taint so.
Scientists are people just like the rest of us. They are competitive with each other and with the world at large. They establish theories and points of view that they will defend almost to the death. When an alternative view comes around there is not the dispassionate scientific openness that allows honest discussion. Instead there is a very passionate series of thoughts centered around what this will do to the grants and funding that that scientist has. With that comes money, status, grad students -- all the things that matter most to a scientist.
This is the story of a rock found in Antarctica. First it was just a rock. Then it became clear that it came from Mars. (The evidence is well developed in the book.) Then they spotted things that might indicate that there was or had been life on Mars. Then it hit the fan.
Life anywhere but Earth has all kinds of meanings (for instance to the churches - intelligent design and all that). There could be entirely new branches of biology. The story of proving that this was or was not evidence of life on Mars fills the rest of the book. It was a vicious fight. It's a supurb book.
Was there life on Mars? We really don't know. Even with all the space craft that have visited Mars, including the two rovers, we really don't know.
Average customer rating:
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The Geology of Mars
Manufacturer: Princeton Univ Pr
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Book Description
Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic is the world’s largest uninhabited island, a place the size of West Virginia nine hundred miles from the North Pole. In its center is the world’s only impact crater in a polar desert, a hole twelve miles across and almost a thousand feet deep formed by an asteroidal comet hitting the Earth 38 million years ago. Every July, two dozen scientists set up camp on the rim of the Haughton Crater, a setting which duplicates as close as any place on Earth the barren Martian landscape. It’s one of a handful of analog environments for Mars — places where the harsh climate, severe geology, and unfamiliar terrain mimic conditions of the planet. Its environment is so hostile that no one has ever colonized more than small areas of its coastline for brief periods, and it's where the NASA practices people on Mars.
Driving to Mars recounts William L. Fox's three trips to Devon, working with the NASA Haughton-Mars Project. This book tells why we explore, how we see the world, and how we see ourselves in it. The flip sides of a single issue will ultimately determine whether or not we can stay alive on Earth.
Customer Reviews:
Exploration, Science, and Art: Driving to Mars.......2007-06-17
When it comes to exploration, there's nothing like being there. Yet at some point, all explorers need to tell others what they have seen - as well as find a way to understand and recall the experience themselves. Exploration is pointless if it is not shared.
The first humans to explore new places would return home with verbal descriptions of where they had been and what they had seen. These stories would fade and lose accuracy with each retelling, yet they still had the power to inform and inspire. Over time, the invention of writing and art allowed these tales to take on a greater amount of clarity.
Soon, professional illustrators and then photographers would be enlisted. Accurate as these captured impressions were - they were just that: captured impressions - by someone else. Of course, the only way to get beyond that barrier is to go to these places and see things for yourself.
Yet even when someone makes the trip, they have to take in what they see before they can appreciate where they are. Some vistas and locations are so utterly alien and novel that explorers need a context with which to integrate what they see. And of course, even the most incredible adventure will fade over time in the mind of an explorer. As such recorded impressions also serve to aid one's own memory of events in years to come.
It is the process whereby explorers put new vistas and experiences into a context they can internalize - and then how these impressions are shared with others that fascinates author William Fox. This book chronicles a writer as he sees things for the first time. Yet it is also a book on polar science, astrobiology, planetary exploration, ecology - and art history. Weaved together as part travelogue - part natural history, these books are eminently readable. This book serves as a tutorial for anyone seeking to visit and explore other worlds.
As I was reading this book, I was reminded of the way the James Michener often opened his books so as to give readers a portrait of a certain place and time. Michener also sought to show how that place came to be over a broad canvas of history - covering thousands and (sometimes) millions of years. Fox also makes sure that you know who visited these places first - and how these first feats of exploration echo forward to the present day.
You also get a sense of the future in what Fox writes. It was little surprise to see such an influence given Fox's friendship with author Kim Stanley Robinson and the referencing of his books "Red Mars" and "Antarctica". People are learning as they explore. They also seek to apply what they have learned - here and off world.
In Fox's book you find descriptions of people who are often quite ordinary - yet in many ways are extraordinary, placed in utterly alien and hostile locations. In some ways how they adapt is unusual - yet they also bring a surprising amount of their lives back in the real world with them.
Yet despite attempts not to spoil the very location they have come to study, these modern explorers transform these locations (or at least small portions) nonetheless. This is an issue that concerns Fox - and it will be an issue that will face us as we travel outward from Earth to explore and live on other worlds.
The arctic offers many locations that are analogous to what we may find on Mars - and elsewhere in the solar system. In particular, Devon Island, home to the Haughton Mars Project (HMP) is such a location. While you can fly to the hamlet of Resolute Bay in an hour - and to full-fledged civilization in a few more hours, this logistics chain can be cut at a moment's notice - and you are left with what you have on hand to survive. The veneer of connectivity to the rest of Earth is much, much thinner here. That is part of the value - and the allure.
HMP base camp is located next to the 38 million year old Haughton impact crater in a polar desert less than a thousand miles from the North Pole. Devon Island is largest uninhabitable island on Earth and is located in a region visited by many expeditions in the 19th century in search of knowledge - and the fabled Northwest Passage. Past, present, and future exploration co-exist in this place.
Visiting Devon Island evokes some truly alien impressions on all who visit. Having spent two one-month stints there myself, I speak from experience. There are places where your brain has no problem grappling with the idea that you are on Mars. It is there where I first met Fox who was researching Driving to Mars.
Driving to Mars is focused on this one location - and the natural history that makes it a good analog for Mars. You get to travel with Fox - on ATVs, modified Humvee rovers, and leap frogging in Twin Otter airplanes as he traverses the island. His travels take him to various locations where astrobiologists and geologists seek to understand this place on Earth - and yet place it into the broader context of comparative planetology. You also get to meet people who are trying to figure out how spacesuits need to be outfitted so as to allow people to truly explore the surface of Mars.
As you roam across Devon Island with Fox, you meet a variety of characters along the way (yes, I am one of them) who come from a variety of backgrounds. Everyone comes to this island every summer to not only study the place, but also learn how to conduct scientific and engineering research in a remote, hostile other worldly environment. All of these people also need to take something back from this place when they leave - their recollections being one of the most important.
Reading this book, you get a very good sense of place - not just what it is like to be there - but also what it is like for current visitors to walk in the footsteps of explorers who came before them - and (in the case of Devon Island) the indigenous peoples who explored the area thousands of years earlier.
The core theme of this book is how people take in what they see and then how they convey the experiences to others. Having spent two months myself doing precisely that in one of the locations Fox portrays (Devon Island), I have to say that he has aptly captured what it is like to be there - and the process whereby those experiences get interpreted and distributed.
As I write this review, new pictures are arriving on Earth from Mars. One set of imagery comes from the rim of Victoria crater as the Mars rover Opportunity seeks to find a way down inside. Meanwhile overhead the newly operational Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun sending back stunning high-resolution images of Mars. The first color image to be sent back shows the stunning vista of Victoria from above - including a recognizable speck on its rim - Opportunity itself. Yet as stunning and enticing as these images are - they are being sent back to us by a robot - without a human context. It can't tell us what it is like to be there.
Right now we are exploring Mars by proxy using our amazingly resilient rovers. One day we will go there ourselves. Only then will we truly begin to know the planet in a human context. And when we do go there we will make the planet our own as we explore it, understand it, and then tell folks all about it back home. In so doing we'll always be trying to strike a balance between what it is we have come to visit, what we bring with us, what we leave behind, and what we take back with us.
If you want to understand the people who are trying to figure out how to do this - and travel to remote locations on Earth in order to do so, then I heartily recommend this book.
Book Description
Mars has long been believed to have been cold, dead and dry for aeons, but there is now striking new proof that not only was Mars a relatively warm and wet place in geologically recent times, but that even today there are vast reserves of water frozen beneath the planet’s surface. As well as casting fascinating new insights into Mars’ past, this discovery is also forcing a complete rethink about the mechanisms of global planetary change and the possibility that there is microbial life on Mars.
David Harland considers the issue of life on Mars in parallel with the origin of life on Earth. At the time the Viking instruments were designed, it was thought that all terrestrial life ultimately derived its energy from sunlight, and that the earliest form of life was the cyanobacteria with chlorophyll for photosynthesis. It was assumed the same would be the case on Mars and that microbial life would be on or near the surface that the Vikings had sampled.
No sooner were the results from the Viking instruments in, than it was discovered that there was an even older type of microbial life on Earth when, in 1977 ‘black smokers’ were found in volcanically active parts of the ocean floor, at depths of several kilometres. Removed from sunlight, these archaea (literally, ‘the old ones’) live off the minerals released by the hydrothermal activity. Subsequently our view of life was further revised when ‘extremophiles’ were discovered thriving in acidic, salty, alkaline, very hot, very cold and radiation soaked environments previously considered lethal. Although the Vikings had found no sign of organics, and the surface was extremely hostile, suggesting that life had never gained a foothold, the discovery of microbes living far beneath the surface of the Earth raised the possibility of life below the surface of Mars, where there may be water-ice and/or hydrothermal activity. Perhaps, because the microbes were beyond the reach of the Vikings’ instruments, the negative result was premature.
Following the negative tests for biological activity by the Vikings, NASA – in the belief that Mars was once warm and wet, as the erosional features on the surface suggest – decided to ‘chase the water’ in the hope of establishing that conditions on Mars were once suitable for life, although this would not prove that life had developed. The targets selected (from many) were what seemed to be an outflow channel, a dry lake and a patch of minerals emplaced by hydrothermal activity. In 1997 Mars Pathfinder landed in an outflow channel where it released the small Sojourner rover to perform chemical analyses of nearby rocks. NASA followed up in 2004 with the much larger Mars Exploration Rovers, which were equipped to act as mobile field geologists. One was landed in what seemed to be a dried up lake bed inside a crater, and the other set down in an area that a remote-sensing orbital survey had identified as haematite, a likely indicator of hydrothermal activity. Both of these missions have yielded evidence that conditions were once conducive to the development of life.
In parallel with these NASA projects, the European Space Agency developed the Mars Express remote-sensing orbiter, which has detected traces of methane that may have been released by microbes. If microbial life is found on Mars, will it be based on DNA? Will this indicate that life developed independently? Or that it has characteristics in common with the most ancient forms of terrestrial life? If life is found on two planets in the same planetary system, this would favour the panspermia hypothesis. And if martian life is radically different, then in light of the discovery of planetary systems around other stars, this would, as remarked by Philip Morrison of MIT, "transform life from the status of a miracle to that of a statistic". These are all questions that the exploration of Mars for life are aimed to answer.
Customer Reviews:
Stuck in the details.......2007-08-24
The author clearly has a problem of not being able to focus on the big picture. With a name like "Water and the search for life on mars," one would expect the main theme of the book to specifically be about the characteristics of Mars that point to the possibility of life. However, this is not the case. Harland consistently gets stuck in mundane details such as how NASA actually lands its probes, the different stages of a specific landing, and what are the different gadgets on each probe and lander. Furthermore, he goes on for about 30 pages trying to lecture the reader about the biology of DNA, proteins, and amino acids. He simply tries to cover too many topics at once and this leaves the reader exhausted, confused, and frustrated.
I picked up this book because I was intrigued about why scientists actually believe there might have been life on Mars in the past or if there currently is life on the planet. Instead I found myself reading uninteresting details about how a crater is formed and why there are mechanical failures on NASA probes. Harland spends a significant amount of time discussing how NASA conducts their missions instead of actually focusing on the much more interesting topic of life on other planets.
Overall, I do not recommend this book for anyone that is specifically interested about the possibility of life on Mars. You will lose yourself in the technical details and get frustrated by the book's lack of focus.
Mars as we now know it.......2007-02-28
David Harland has done an excellent job summarizing the results of international efforts to explore Mars with telescopes and, now, robotic spacecraft. Our understanding has increased dramatically in recent years thanks to high-resolution mapping from orbiting spacecraft and, primarily, to the astonishing discoveries of the Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity. I found some of the geological discussion in the middle part of the book a bit challenging, but well worth the effort because I think I now have at least a passing appreciation for overall context of the Rover missions. The preliminaries occupy the first 130 pages of Harland's book and the real meat is in the 90 pages or so that follow, detailing the traverses and results of Spirit and Opportunity during their first 350 or so martian days on the planet. The evidence for wet periods in the history of Mars is clearly presented and of great value to a non-expert like me. My only reservation is that more attention could have been paid to cross-referencing and labeling of the maps. Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- A collection of papers on a fascinating topic
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Water on Mars and Life (Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics)
Manufacturer: Springer
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Book Description
Growing evidence, based on observations from orbiters, landers and telescopes, indicates that Mars may still have numerous hidden water reservoirs. Moreover, from the point of view of habitability, Mars is a prime target for astrobiologists in search of extant or extinct microbial life because we know that life exists in earth’s permafrost regions, such as parts of Siberia and the Antarctic, which are the closest terrestrial analogues to Mars.
Water on Mars and Life surveys recent advances made in research into water on Mars together with its astrobiological implications. This volume addresses not only scientists working in the field but also nonspecialists and students in search of a high-level but accessible introduction to this exciting field of research.
Customer Reviews:
A collection of papers on a fascinating topic.......2007-01-02
In the past month, more and more of us have begun to believe that liquid water has indeed flowed on the Martian surface at least once or twice in the past decade.
Well, what does all this mean about the past and present reservoirs of water on Mars? Could it be that Mars once supported life? Could it do so now?
While the findings from the past couple of years are too recent to be included in this book, I think this volume does put many of these questions into proper perspective.
We start with the history of water on Mars. That includes what we think we're learning from meteorites (we'd probably know much more if we had some sample return data). It also covers questions of atmospheric evolution (which certainly pertain to the question of whether subsurface water-ice-reservoirs exist at present there), analogies between conditions from which early life probably arose on Earth and conditions on ancient Mars, and hydrated minerals on Mars.
Next is a section on water reservoirs on Mars at present. This includes a discussion of the global distribution of subsurface water as measured by Mars Odyssey, an article on polar caps, a paper on ground ice in the Martian regolith, and a paper by the editor about the water cycle in the atmosphere and shallow subsurface. The conclusion here is that the seemingly tiny amount of atmospheric water (only a trillion kilograms) is still enough to account for observed Martian gullies.
The final section is about aqueous environments and the implications for life. It starts by asking about the potential for evidence of life on Mars that might be preserved in sediments and mineral precipitations associated with polar lakes, streams and springs. The next question to be addressed is whether ancient (and recent) lakes on Mars could have been possible habitats for life (or be the last oases of life there at present). After that comes a paper on impact craters, water, and microbial life. Impacts can cause water to be trapped in not only in craters but in fractures of shocked rocks.
If life did exist on Mars (or still exists there), is it in salty water? Quite possibly it is, and we can read about it in the penultimate paper on microbial life in brines, evaporites, and saline sediments. While the Viking mission experiments failed to detect any life on Mars, those missions did not, of course, examine any regions where there was liquid water.
The final paper is about the lessons for Mars exploration that we can derive from the microbiology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. As evidence gets stronger that life on Earth may have arisen in or near such vents, the question of whether such vents also existed on Mars becomes more interesting.
I recommend this book.
Books:
- Our Changing Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science and Global Environmental Change (3rd Edition)
- Our Changing Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science and Global Environmental Change (3rd Edition)
- Our Changing Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science and Global Environmental Change (3rd Edition)
- Parks and Plates: The Geology of Our National Parks, Monuments, and Seashores
- Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters
- Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before
- Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates: California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin
- Principles of Geotechnical Engineering
- Principles of Sequence Stratigraphy (Developments in Sedimentology)
- Principles of Soil Physics (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)
Books Index
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