Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet Book

From the charismatic scientist and leader of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the search for life on Mars.

Steve Squyres is the face and voice of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. Squyres dreamed up the mission in 1987, saw it through from conception in 1995 to a successful landing in 2004, and serves as the principal scientist of its $400 million payload. He has gained a rare inside look at what it took for rovers Spirit and Opportunity to land on the red planet in January 2004 -- and knows firsthand their findings.

Combining the journey of a young scientist with the history of NASA's Mars space program, Roving Mars offers a dramatic account of one of the most amazing adventures of our time. In an incredibly conversational and compelling voice, Squyres manages to go into detail about how the MER mission was born, covering the politics, mistakes, and confusion that ensued. He doesn't shy away from the technical aspects of the mission, but presents them in a way that is accessible to the most un-scientifically minded among us. Squyres leads us through the exhausting and exhilarating race to get the rovers to the launchpad in time -- and finally, the amazing story of Spirit's and Opportunity's journeys to Mars and what is found there.

Steve Squyres is the scientist and principal investigator behind the Mars Exploration Program. He has appeared in the national media worldwide on behalf of the program. Squyres has participated in a number of planetary spaceflight missions. From 1978 to 1981, he was an associate of the Voyager imaging science team, participating in analysis of imaging data from the encounters with Jupiter and Saturn. He was a radar investigator on the Magellan mission to Venus, a member of the Mars Observer gamma-ray spectrometer flight investigation team, and a co-investigator on the Russian Mars 1996 mission. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Men's Journal

Squyres's rugged desire gilds his every page.