The latest science news and current events.
The top science news articles and current events news this week.
Science Resources
Science RSS News Feeds
Earth, Life and Space Science RSS News Feeds.
|
 |
 |
 |
Buy A Traveler's Guide to Mars by William K. Hartmann available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | A Traveler's Guide to Mars
by William K. Hartmann
| | List Price: | $18.95 | | Price: | $14.21 | | You Save: | $4.74 (25%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 499641 | | Studio: | Workman Publishing Company | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 450 | | Publication Date: | August 21, 2003 | | Publisher: | Workman Publishing Company |
| |
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In this extraordinary Baedeker—accessible, up-to-date, and prodigiously illustrated with photographs from Mariner 9, Viking, Pathfinder, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the ongoing mars Global Surveyor spacecraft—visitors will encounter: - Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, rising three times as high as Mount Everest and covering an area the size of Missouri
- Tharsis Planitia, the "high plains of Mars," with plains rising 29,000 feet—wide enough to cover Europe.
- Valles Marineris, an equatorial canyon so vast that America's Grand Canyon would be a mere tributary.
Plus: the "face" on Mars, the White Rock, the "Canals" of Xanthe—and the first possible evidence of an ancient Martian life-form.
|
Amazon.com
A Traveler's Guide to Mars revitalizes the Red Planet, leaving readers with the urge to don a spacesuit and take a long trip. With the look and heft of a guide to someplace you might actually go, the book presents Mars as a place of canyons and volcanoes, mesas, and barren plains, not that dissimilar from parts of Earth. Author William K. Hartmann, who participated in the Mars Global Surveyor mission, uses all the photos and data collected by scientists in decades of research to give a thorough, yet not boring, overview of the planet. The most exciting stuff is about water--whether it ever flowed on Mars, where it went, why it's hard to find. Beyond that, there are the rocks, dust, and weather to talk about, and Mars has lots of all three. Sidebars, maps, and chronologies help keep the regions and geology of Mars organized. Hartmann never forgets he's writing for the lay reader, and his style is personable and clear. When answering claims of NASA cover-ups, ancient civilizations, and hidden structures on Mars, he calmly lays out the facts and pictures, urging readers to simply examine the evidence. Hartmann offers a tourist's-eye view of one of our most intriguing planetary neighbors and does more to polish NASA's tarnished image than a thousand press releases. --Therese Littleton |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 14 reviews)
|
Going to Mars...take this book! 
This is a fun and exciting trek around the Red Planet. I absolutely love the "hike" format, and this book is probably the next best thing to actually being there on Martian soil. Tidbits like what to wear on Mars and how to tell time definitely give the book a light-hearted personality. Another great feature is the author's own "personal experiences" / Mars exploration observation sections entitled "My Martian Chronicles." Thanks to the author, a great guide, I felt so involved in my "trip" that I wanted to buy a souvenir T-shirt! LOL I love the Classic Martian Map and Topographic Map foldouts at the front of the book. I especially like the easy-to-read large font of the text. I didn't have to squint while reading the book, which is a good thing.
March 07, 2008 | |
Nice pictures 
In this book, we see Mars treated almost as if it was a tourist region. The author has divided Mars into areas of interest. He then discussed separately each area. Just like Earth, Mars has many different regions and scenery.
Although I am keen on space, somehow this book did little for me. After awhile I found it too much and lost interest in the details of each region. What I would have preferred on Mars is fewer notes and more pictures.
The other point is the book is full of interesting pictures unfortunately to appreciate them you need a large size book then this one.
Having said that if your interested in Mars geography though you will find this author knows his information, it is current and he explains his points well.
August 31, 2007 | |
A fascinating look at the Red Planet
A Traveler's Guide to Mars is well written and quite fascinating for anyone with an interest in the planetary geology of Mars.
Hartmann breaks down the history of Mars into three geologic eras (Noachian, Hesperain, and Amazonian) based on the amount of cratering on the Martian surface. From there, he explores each one of these regions in detail.
From the majestic Mons Olympus volcano and 2500 mile long Valles Marineris Canyon to the probable glacial "melting mountains" of Promethei Terra and controversial ancient ocean shorelines of Vastitas Borealis , Hartmann provides the reader with a sweeping scope of Martian history, replete with stunning aerial photography and images, that is simply quite amazing. He even discusses the "microbial fossil" Martian meteorites as well as the notorious "Face on Mars" in the Cydonia highlands.
Take a trip to Mars ... you won't be disappointed
December 11, 2006 | |
May I Kindly Say This Book Kicks Some Serious Butt?
This is a really cool book! I didn't know we had the so-called red planet (a better name is the butterscotch planet) mapped out to the extent that we do. I've always loved geography and to take a tour of the features of another world is thrilling. If you like astronomy, geography, or have an optimist's bent on human destiny being among the stars, read this great book!
November 08, 2005 | |
Very informative
Have you ever wanted to go beyond the headlines concerning discoveries about Mars and get a thorough overview so that you can put things into perspective? This book is more than a collection of pretty pictures from a far away place. It gives a good introductory account of what we think we know about the planet, and why.
William Hartmann has been involved in uncovering knowledge about objects in the Solar system since the time that mankind first developed the ability to go beyond the Earth's atmosphere for an unobstructed view. He is in an authoritative position for attaching meaning to the images, and yet the explanations he gives are very much 'down to Earth', so to speak.
Data from space probes (starting with the Mariner series) have literally redrawn the map of the surface of Mars. The time varying dark regions were found to be not seas, or canals, or vegetation, but rather wind blown sand. New names were needed in 1972 to identify actual terrain features. The contrast between old and new can be see by comparing the two foldout maps inside the front cover.
Does Mars have a global magnetic field? No. But it used to! Metal particles in rocks older than 3,000,000 years ago are polarized. Particles in younger rocks are not polarized. The core of Mars was likely molten for the first 1,500,00 years and then cooled. Lack of a magnetic field has resulted in more Solar radiation reaching the surface, and may have played a role in carrying away the atmosphere.
Is there life on Mars? Was there life on Mars? That's still an open question. It's clear that there is evidence of large quantities of liquid water on the planet in its early years. That at least opens the possibility that Mars harbored life at that time. What we are finding today is that life survives in very hostile environments here on Earth, and microbes survived on a Moon probe visited years later by an Apollo crew, so who can say at this point?
Of all the places in the Solar system besides Earth, Mars is the one which has the most resources that would support manned exploration and colonization. There is still water on Mars, although in frozen form. The atmosphere contains CO2, from which oxygen can be extracted for propellant and for breathing. The presence of an atmosphere itself if of interest for aerobraking and radiation shielding. The fact of a day/night cycle very close to 24 hours is conducive to agriculture.
Robert Zubrin and others have been advocating for years that travel to Mars is worthwhile and affordable, and NASA now has a congressionally supported presidential mandate to proceed in that direction. The concept that one day a reader of William Hartmann's Traveler's Guide will in fact make the trip is no longer so far fetched.
This is a good read for anyone interested in Mars as a destination, or who would just like to know a bit more about that pink speck in the night sky. It also provides food for thought concerning climate change on our own planet. We didn't destroy the atmosphere on Mars, but maybe we can learn how to avoid Mars' fate here on Earth.
November 04, 2005 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| |
|
|
|
|
