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John Noble Wilford

Mars Beckons: The Mysteries, the Challenges, the Expectations of Our Next Great Adventure in Paperback – December 3, 1991

by John Noble Wilford (Author)

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The astronomer Percival Lowell envisioned a world threaded by canals and peopled by ancient, intelligent beings. The Viking spacecraft showed us a seemingly sterile planet with a salmon-pink sky and sub-Antarctic temperatures. In this swiftly paced and authoritative book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer traverses the vast physical and cognitive distances between Earth and Mars—and between Lowell’s Mars and Viking’s—while offering an informed vision of the future of Martian exploration. Mars Beckons is a fascinating synthesis of myth, history, politics, and high technology, written with the momentum of a grand adventure story.

“Absorbing, fast, paced and neatly balanced . . . It is a testimony to Wilford that he can cover so much ground. . . . He proves that science writing can be done excellently.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Highly readable . . . well-crafted . . . an important book in the ongoing debate about space.”—Newsday

“An excellent book . . . Wilford offers us a compelling vision of our past, present and future with Mars.”—Wall Street Journal

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

December 3, 1991
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0679735313
ISBN-13

978-0679735311
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wilford chronicles unmanned satellite mapping of Mars's surface and technological hurdles that must be overcome before humans may visit it. " This is popular science at its best, and will appeal to those interested in the exploration of our solar system," said PW. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

John Noble Wilford is a science correspondent for The New York Times. His professional career began in 1956 at the Wall Street Journal, where he was a general assignment reporter and a medical reporter. In 1962, he joined Time to work as a contributing science editor, then moved in 1965 to The New York Times to be a science reporter. In 1969 he wrote the New York Times front-page article about man's first walk on the moon. His was the only byline on the front page, beneath the headline "Men Walk On Moon" and under the subheading "A Powdery Surface is Closely Explored." In 2008 Wilford received the University of Tennessee's Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award. He lives in New York.

Product details

Publisher : Vintage; First Paperback Printing edition (December 3, 1991)
Language : English
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0679735313
ISBN-13 : 978-0679735311
Item Weight : 8.5 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,350,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #958 in Mars
- #15,357 in Astronomy (Books)
- #34,602 in Evolution (Books)

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Janet S.

This book is a lot of fun

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

The information is super for Martian fans!

Helpful

R. Smith

In 2010 this is still a relevant book

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2010

The hard part of doing research on science and technology is that books tend to go way out of date quickly so you don't know if even a used copy is worth it. As I write this is it the tail end of September 2010 and yes, this book is still worth the money.

It was released in 1990 so the rule of thumb is that the work was done starting around 1988. Throughout the book there are mentions of activities up through 1988 so the thumbrule fits. This was before the rovers landed and even before their missions had been set in stone and apparently even prior to their assembly, so you will not find information about them (or obviously the Pheonix lander).

However, you will find significant and important information about the politics of Mars mission planning (and Space planning in general). Important and still relevant because Space work, alas, takes far too long to happen and so you will find useful information about missions that took flight years after the writing.

As for the readability, the book appears targetted at the general reader, meaning it is fully understandable without a handbook of acronyms and is perfect for not only those who have other books under their belts but also as a first book on the Space Industry in general and Mars missions in particular.

I dont think that the above paragraph should turn away folks, like me, who have read a lot of related material. Yes, about the whole the first half is based on the legends and spirit of Lowell and how the canals and chances of intelligent life were both ridiculed and taken as a new gospel and influenced most all later missions and goals. But, even that is re-readable.

The author has a very easy going style that makes fast work of it all and also, due to its release date, slips in a very solid amount of quotes and information form people in the industry in the 80s; things that have been condensed in later works and so might be losing their context. For example, Carl Sagan was alive and kicking when this book came out and there are a number of quotes and bits from him that I'd not seen in later works and seeing them here put some meat on their drying bones... even if you are not a Sagan fan, as I am not, there are things here that make his attitude more understandable and even make him more upbeat for regular people. (It was a small eye opener but worth the used-book cost by itself).

Round about the middle of the book the meat I was looking for kicked in. This is where you start getting contemporary information about the Soviet Phobos missions and the genesis of the current Russian space industry. It puts a lot into perspective, even today. I think I found this information most useful of all, probably because it was written as detante was fading into glastnost you get a real you-are-there impression and, again, see more clearly things that now are yellowed and faded into readers digest versions. As noted, because Space tech changes soooooooooooooo slowly having this perspective is fully useful, if not more useful than you would have thought, even now.

Yes, you will cringe a bit at the mentions of potential missions loosely planned for 1998 and even 2008 but take the bullet and note that they are not stated as hard and fast targets. With today's hindsight on historical events the plans and general timelines still do fit. These passages are good learning materials on the politics and business of Space.

So, not a hard hard technical tome and not a kiddie book. A the used prices it is worth it. It is a relatively fast read (I did it in four nights) and the style is paced well so even if you "know it all" those parts move along well so that you won't find yourself robotically skimming and missing anything.

Hope that helps.

6 people found this helpful