The Red Planet has been a beacon to every race of mankind since the dawn of history. Today Mars stands as a symbol of the high frontier - the next logical step in our exploration of the universe around us.

In 1964 the United States of America launched Mariner 4 towards Mars in the hope that a handful of pictures returned by the spacecraft might answer some age-old questions. Was there an ancient Martian civilisation? Would there be any signs of life? So began the first step in a close examination of our neighboring planet.

Between Mariner 4 and Mars Global Surveyor in 1998 the United States has sent a fleet of robots to Mars with wildly varying degrees of success. Thanks to these versatile probes we now know almost as much about Mars on a global scale as we do about our own Earth.

In Mars - The NASA Mission Reports the triumphs and tribulations of the American Mars program is gathered together in one place. Press Kits and Mission Reports from every Mars mission are collected together for the first time.

Reading these documents - presented here in chronological order - gives a fascinating insight into how our understanding of the Red planet has grown over the past four decades. These robot voyages are the advance guard, scouting out the path for the day when men will launch a manned mission to Mars.

Includes: Windows CDROM featuring:

The following complete NASA special publications: "The Difficult Road To Mars - Mars Exploration In The Soviet Union" "On Mars 1958-1978" "Mariner Mars 1964 Final Project Report" "Mariner 6 & 7 Pictures Of Mars" "The New Mars - The Discoveries Of Mariner 9" "Viking - Mission To Mars" "Viking Orbiter Views Of Mars" "EMPIRE - Background & Initial Dual-Planet Mission Studies" NASA movies in MPG video format: "Planet Mars", "19 Minutes To Earth" and "Mars - The Search Begins." Also includes animations and a 360° Quicktime Panorama from Mars Pathfinder as well as hundreds of pictures from every NASA Mars mission.

“This is a well-conceived book which those interested in planetary exploration cannot afford to miss.” Spaceflight - British Interplanetary Society
“Mars buffs may find the CD-ROM alone to be worth the cover price.” . . . Astronomy
“This is an outstanding reference at a reasonable price.” . . . SkyNews
“The book and CD-ROM have a lot to recommend them, particularly given the low price, and would form a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anybody interested in Mars exploration.” . . . The Observatory Magazine
“. . . a mine of useful information and well worth getting.” . . . Astronomy Now