Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World (Google eBook)

Oliver Morton

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Oct 4, 2002 - Science - 304 pages

Who are the extraordinary individuals that will take us on the next great space race, the next great human endeavor, our exploration and colonization of the planet Mars? And more importantly, how are they doing it? Acclaimed science writer Oliver Morton explores the peculiar and fascinating world of the new generation of explorers: geologists, scientists, astrophysicists and dreamers. Morton shows us the complex and beguiling role that mapping will play in our understanding of the red planet, and more deeply, what it means for humans to envision such heroic landscapes. Charting a path from the 19th century visionaries to the spy-satellite pioneers to the science fiction writers and the arctic explorers -- till now, to the people are taking us there -- Morton unveils the central place that Mars has occupied in the human imagination, and what it will mean to realize these dreams.

A pioneering work of journalism and drama, Mapping Mars gives us our first exciting glimpses of the world to come and the curious, bizarre, and amazing people who will take us there.

What people are saying

Review: Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World

User Review  - Henry - Goodreads

There is a rash of stuff about Mars on the shelves right now. If you choose just one, make it this, perhaps the most informed and best written document of the history of our quest to understand the ...

Review: Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World

User Review  - Booknerd Fraser - Goodreads

Good, but the author jumps around a lot. And it's really not primarily concerned with mapping.

Contents

• Histories: 71
• Water: 151
• Places: 219
• Change: 283
• Acknowledgments: 329
• Reference Notes and Further Reading: 333
• Bibliography: 339
• Index: 347

About the author

Oliver Morton is a contributing editor at Wired, as well as a contributor for The New Yorker, Science, and The American Scholar. A former science editor at The Economist, he holds a degree in history and philosophy of science from Cambridge University, and lives with his wife in Greenwich, England.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World
• Author: Oliver Morton
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002
• ISBN: 0312707932, 9780312707934
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Science / Physics / Astrophysics