Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet [Hardcover]

William Sheehan (Author), Stephen James O'Meara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

No other planet has so fired the human imagination as Mars. The possibility of life on the planet was an obsession in the 19th century. It is not surprising to find that it has become so once again, because of all the planets in the solar system (apart from Earth), Mars has always been regarded as the most likely to serve as the abode of life. Now that there are hints that the planet may have held 'liquid water' (a prerequisite for life, in contrast to the frozen water of the ice caps) much more recently than anyone had supposed, excitement over Mars exploration has never been higher. In this engaging, eloquent account of our love affair with the Red Planet, William Sheehan and Stephen James O'Meara review the history of human fascination with our neighbor in the solar system, and look at the prospects for manned space-flight to Mars in this new century. The authors portray the history of Mars investigations through the eyes of the dreamers and achievers that have made the planet such an integral part of the human psyche. They reveal the discoverers' hardships, their strength in the face of criticisms, and the glories of their successes. What Everest and the moon were to the 20th century, Mars will be to the 21st. Mars is our Everest, a new frontier that will continue to spur the greatest flights of imagination and the most astounding technical feats. Projects are already underway to make these dreams a reality. This book will prepare you and fill you with enthusiasm for the adventure ahead.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors, both contributing editors to Sky & Telescope magazine, note that "On the eve of a new wave of space missions designed to search for water on Mars, it remains possible that even now `the Mars we are trying to explore does not exist,' " t hereby encapsulating what may be the book's fatal flaw. Mars chronicles humanity's long fascination with the eponymous planet, from the Australian Aborigines' Dreamtime, an element of their culture that has been passed down for more than 40,000 years through Ptolemy and Copernicus, Kepler and Brahe, to the mapping of Mars via telescope and probes, Percival Lowell's canal theories and their subsequent dismantling by fact, and the great search for water and life. The problem is, Mars can't live up to its myth. The more we learn, the more there is for us to learn; we also discover that Mars is nothing like the planet of Burroughs, Bradbury and War of the Worlds (to which the authors devote a chapter), tinging our discoveries with disappointment. Two of the many pictures the authors include reinforce this. As affecting as the shot taken from the planet's rocky surface by Sojourner is, it's difficult not to be disillusioned by the shot of Carl Sagan standing next to a lander in the desert on Earth the two landscapes are so similar. The authors try to keep hope alive by discussing the possibility of life on Mars, but simple bacteria, even if they did exist there, can't compare to little green men. So here is Mars as it is, but not as you may want it.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

No matter how much is learned about Mars, its allure persists. Already author of The Planet Mars (1996), Sheehan has had a career that attests to that persistence. This book switches focus from that of The Planet Mars, which was on descriptive fact, to look at the personalities of the great astronomers who gazed at Mars and, in particular, the aspects of or mysteries about Mars that captivated them. For centuries Mars' peculiar retrograde motion attracted interest until Kepler, jostled by the religious wars, proved it was an artifact of the heliocentric model of the solar system. During the age of telescopic development, improving optics eventuated in the popular speculative writings of Camille Flammarion and, notoriously, of Percival Lowell, for the telescope revealed enough Earth-like features of Mars to inspire hopes that there was life on it. Later, Carl Sagan carried the life-on-Mars ball, and the findings of spacecraft, beginning with the stunning revelations of Mariner 9 in 1972, have kept it in play. An informative overview of sky watchers' enduring fascination with Mars. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 106 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157392900X
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929004
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,826,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Mars we are trying to explore does not exist!", April 24, 2001

By 

Nick Hoffman (Bundoora, Vic Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet (Hardcover)

This quote by Mike Malin sets the scene for the study of the red planet, as dreamed and hoped by mankind - scientist and layman alike. Over the centuries, Mars has confounded our attempts to describe it in Earth-like terms and Sheehan and O'Meara do a grand job of describing the history of hopes, dreams, and disappointments as the reality of Mars is discovered.

The book is set on epic scale and almost any paragraph rings with grand prose. At times this can be a little overpowering, but the canvas of the Authors is, after all, the entire celestial sphere and the history of human endeavour!

For Mars nuts this is a must buy and is compelling reading. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but it is a vital step in understanding how Mars has disappointed us in the past and may do so again.

Of course, I must declare an interest. Bill Sheehan included some of my own stories about dry Mars in this compendium. I am honoured to be included as a postscript to the legends of Mars' history.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's The Red Planet's Time To Shine., September 5, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet (Hardcover)

Eurocentric in the Mediterranean (meaning "inner sea" in Greek) in the sixth century discovered the human mind. "This discovery was undoubtedly the most fateful of all history...which would one day lead on to Mars." What Mount Everest and the Moon were to the 20th centruy, Mars will be to the 21st. John Milton wrote in PARADISE LOST: "Their wandering course now high, now low' then hid, Progressive retograde or standing still." Mercury and Venus are known as the evening and morning stars.

Mars, on the other hand, uses zig-zagging movements while Jupiter and Saturn are slow creepers across the universe. Superior planets are those in orbit beyond that of Earth; the Inferior are Mercury and Venus are closer than our to the Sun. Mars prances with grandeur and grace with its red color (for fire) which makes it stand out. Mars has a rhythm, a musical harmony, to its flight across the sky.

Mars is the outermost of the inner group and has a substantial orbital distance from the Sun, taking longer than Earth to complete an orbit -- almost two years. Mars' retrograde "loop" perplexed ancient astronomers. Most of the time, it moves eastward; when Earth speeds past on its smaller, shorter orbit and overtakes Mars, it appears to move retrograde ("backwards") until a distance away and the eastward movement resumes. Earth knocks it for a loop.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program uses robots to explore the planet, dispatched to sites where water could have been eons ago. Thick deposits of salt, likely formed when water evaporated from an ancient sea have been found. There is dry ice at the poles. Mars has seen ice ages leaving icy polar caps. Volcanoes have formed deep valleys and large mountain ranges. They have their own Grand Canyon of enormous size, so vast that it takes up one-sixth of Mars' circumference. The atmosphere is thin, about one-hundredth of that on Earth.

NASA names prominent landmarks; like the United States postage stamps, the features are not named after living people. One was named after the former Columbia shuttle commander. University of Tennessee astronomers who work in conjunction with Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Lab named a mountain ridge Cumberland Ridge.

Through trials and tribulations, the scientists show strength in the face of criticism and bask in the glories of their successes in this exploration of Mars. In 1971, the spacecraft Mariner 9 started the deal. In 1993, there was a failure to reach Mars with the Observer which had a ruptured fuel line. Four years later, on July 4, 1997, the Pathfinder lander with Sojourner rover made its way to the spot where Viking I lander had explored twenty-one years earlier and sent transmissions for six years back to Earth. Then came the rover Spirit and Oportunity, robotic explorers to look for samples of rocks, soil and other materials to help us to determine if Mars had indeed been a planet such as ours in many centuries past.

A manned flight is in the not-too-distant future. In 2007, Mars will be in the Taurus border in the early morning sky, closer to Earth; the United Kingdom will have the best view that winter of 2007 and 2008 around Western Europe. In November of that year, it will be the brightest object in the late evening sky. On Christmas Eve, it will be as far north as it can be on the celestial sphere with peak brightness next to a Full Moon. What a sight! By February to mid-April, 2008, it will end its spectacular show. By the end of May, it is muted in the bright sky and, on December 5, 2008, it reaches conjunction beyond the Sun.

Come fly with me to the Heavens and observe all these happenings. It doesn't take an astronomer or a space ship to enjoy the wonders of the universe.