Books I'm Reading: Mapping Mars

Oliver Morton's Mapping Mars (Picador, 2003), like so many books about science, is already out of date after only ten years. The rover Curiosity hadn't yet made its spectacular landing on Mars when Morton wrote his book. None of Curiosity's photos of the planet's surface had yet been created. The book is worth reading, nevertheless. Even if the author was unable to draw on the most recent waves of data from Mars, the book splendidly surveys how our conception of Mars has changed as new information about the place--perennially fascinating because it's both relatively Earth-like and almost entirely alien--has become available. The book is as much a survey of the culture of Martian science as it is a book about the planet itself: Morton writes fluently and engagingly both about Mars and about the people that have thought about the planet--astronomers and geologists mostly, but also artists and science fiction writers that have helped shaped the popular image of Mars. Recommended.

Miscellaneous: Curiosity on Mars--Congratulations to the People of NASA (August 8, 2012)

I watched the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars a couple of nights ago. The intense concentration in the control room, lubricated by a practiced familiarity with routine; the specialists delivering status reports to the coordinator; the quiet confidence (with an undercurrent of worry) were all something I'd seen before: The scene was reminiscent of the old Apollo days. I was very pleased the complicated landing sequence executed without a hitch and that the rover landed safely. Already we're seeing fascinating new pictures from the surface of Mars. I look forward to many more. Congratulations to everyone involved. Some of the pictures are even being published in 3-D. Where are my 3-D glasses? I have a pair around here somewhere....

Photo by NASA. NASA photos are in the public domain.