The story of the two robot vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, that were sent to explore Mars, lasting far past their projected lives of 3 months and sending back invaluable images of the environmentally hostile planet.

"Engaging images accompany information about Mars rovers. The combination of high-interest subject matter and light text is intended for students in grades 2 through 7"--

Buzz Aldrin speaks out as a vital advocate for the continuing quest to push the boundaries of the universe as we know it. As a pioneering astronaut who first set foot on the moon during mankind's first landing of Apollo 11-- and as an aerospace engineer who designed an orbital rendezvous technique critical to future planetary landings -- Aldrin has a vision, and in this book he plots out the path he proposes, taking humans to Mars by 2035.

"With authoritative text and NASA photography and artworks, NASA Missions to Mars tells the story of NASA's programs to explore the Red Planet-from the first tentative flybys to the present-and offers a glimpse into the future of Mars exploration"--

Introduces the past missions to Mars, describes the characteristics of Mars and explains how scientists might explore Mars in the future.

Sixteen million years ago, an asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth's gravity onto the icy wilderness of Antarctica, where a geologist spotted it. In its new home at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years. Then, in 1993, a geochemist unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, possible signs of once-living organisms were detected,...

Describes a series of missions, beginning in 1996 and continuing into the first part of the next century, designed to bring back data about the surface features, atmosphere, and magnetic properties of Mars.

Discusses the United States space program Viking and its missions to Mars