Mapping Mars Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World [Paperback]

How can you make sense of a world where no one has ever lived? Acclaimed science writer Oliver Morton tells the story of the heroic landscapes of Mars, now better mapped in some ways than the Earth itself.Mapping Marsintroduces the reader to the nineteenth-century visionaries and spy-satellite pioneers, the petroleum geologists and science-fiction writers, the artists and Arctic explorers who have devoted themselves to the discovery of Mars. In doing so they have given a new world to the human imagination, a setting for our next great adventure.

Astonishing...mind-expanding...universe-expanding. Los Angeles Times

Compelling...evocative...Morton's prose is like Earth: humid, rich, swirling, alive...worthwhile for any reader interested in astronomy and space exploration. The Boston Globe

There is much to recommend in this book. The author has an encyclopedic grasp of the development of major discoveries of Mars science, and he summarizes them in a very understandable way.... And, I must confess, I am frankly envious of his engaging prose. This book will delight anyone interested in the exploration of the planet next door. American Scientist

Morton captures the revolutions in thought that come from envisioning another world and comparing it with our own. The Dallas Morning News

Oliver Mortonis a contributing editor atWired, as well as a contributor forThe New Yorker, Science,andThe American Scholar. He lives with his wife in Greenwich, England.