Quest For Mars Continues

Today in 1971 the Mariner 9 became the first space vehicle to orbit another planet–Mars.   With India’s recent pursuit of its own  mission to the red planet, the allure of Mars remains a fixed point on humanity’s collective horizon.  As you might imagine, plenty of ink has been spilled over Mars exploration.  We’ll take a moment on this auspicious day in the history of space exploration to highlight a few items from our own collection.

 Red Rover : Inside The Story Of Robotic Space Exploration, From Genesis To The Mars Rover Curiosity by Roger Wiens.  As the chance for a manned mission to Mars within the next decade or more grows less and less likely, this book focuses on the history and future of the next best option, robotic proxies.  Equipped with state of the art tech that delivers the next best thing to actually being there, robotic…