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Mars Reading List

Introduction:

Mars has fascinated people for centuries. Thus, there is a vast literature about the fourth planet that encompasses non-fiction, fiction, technical, and popular writings. Here I have listed but a tiny fraction of this literature, with the intent of providing the Educator with some references that can be used either in the classroom or to provide background in planning a unit or lecture on Mars. Most of the items listed here are either highly recommended or are at least very recent and thus provide information about Mars-as-we-know-it on the eve of the Mars Observer mission. I make no claims about the completeness of this list, particularly among the magazine articles listed.

--K. Edgett, 8 August 1993

The Solar System (books)

Beatty, J.K. and A. Chaikin, eds., The New Solar System, 3rd ed., Sky Publishing Corp. and Cambridge University Press, 1990.
- Excellent review of what we know about the Solar System, current through the Voyager encounter with Neptune in 1989, highly recommended.
Burrows, W.E., Exploring Space, Random House, New York, 1990.
- A very interesting historical and personal look at the United States' robotic exploration of the planets, highly recommended.
Couper, H. and N. Henbest, The Space Atlas, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1992.
- Many diagrams, maps, etc. in color, lots of facts, very up-to-date, and Highly Recommended for Children and Adults.
Lauber, P., Journey to the Planets, 4th ed., Crown Publishers, New York, 1993.
- For kids, up-to-date.
Simon, S., Our Solar System, Morrow Junior Books, New York, 1992.
- Written for Children (large print), Lots of color photographs of places in our solar system, up-to-date.

Mars (non-fiction books)

Burgess, E., To the Red Planet, Columbia University Press, 1978.
Carr, M.H., The Surface of Mars, Yale University Press, 1981.
- Still the VERY BEST introduction to the planet Mars.
Cooper, H., The Search for Life on Mars, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980.
Ezell, E. and L. Ezell, On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet 1958 - 1978, NASA SP-4212, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1984.
Hartmann, W.K. and O. Raper, The New Mars, The Discoveries of Mariner 9, NASA SP-337, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1974.
Kieffer, H.H. et al., eds., Mars, Univ. of Arizona Press, Tuscon, 1992.
- The most recent compilation of all that we know about Mars. This book is written by the Mars scientists and is semi-technical but highly recommended.
Ley, W. and W. von Braun, The Exploration of Mars, Viking Press, New York, 1956.
- An important "classic," von Braun was the chief rocket scientist behind our Apollo Moon Project. Contains incredible (and famous) artwork by Chesley Bonestell.
Rovin, J., Mars!, Corwin Books, Los Angeles, 1978.
- Looks at the history of humanity's fascination with Mars, from early astronomers to science fiction novels and films, to the search for life by the Viking landers.
Viking Lander Imaging Team, The Martian Landscape, NASA SP-425, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1978.
Viking Orbiter Imaging Team, Viking Orbiter Views of Mars, NASA SP-441, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1980.
Wilford, J.N., Mars Beckons, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990.

Mars (Articles)

Characteristics of Mars:

Carroll, M., "The changing face of Mars," Astronomy, March 1987.
Edgett, K., P. Geissler, and K. Herkenhoff, "The sands of Mars," Astronomy, June 1993.
Haberle, R., "The climate of Mars," Scientific American, May 1986.
Kargel, J.S. and R. G. Strom, "The ice ages of Mars," Astronomy, December 1992.
Squyres, S., "Searching for the waters of Mars," Astronomy, August 1989.

Life on Mars:

Carroll, M., "Digging deeper for life on Mars," Astronomy, April 1988.
Chaikin, A., "The case for life on Mars," Air and Space (Smithsonian Institution), February-March 1991.
DiGregorio, "Is Mars alive?" Final Frontier, May-June 1993.
McKay, C.P., "Did Mars once have Martians?" Astronomy, September 1993.

Viking:

Anonymous, "Mars: 5 Years After Viking," Astronomy, July 1981.
Gore, R., "Sifting for life in the sands of Mars," National Geographic, January 1977.

Mars Observer:

Ainsworth, D., "Mars Observer: Return to the Red Planet," Astronomy, September 1992.
Albee, A., editor, Mars Observer Special Issue, Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 97, n. E5, May 25, 1992.
- Technical review of the mission and descriptions of all the instruments. Can be found in university/college libraries.
McKenna, J.T., "U.S. Probe begins journey to Mars," Aviation Week & Space Technology, October 5, 1992.

USSR & Russia Missions to Mars:

Cooper, H.S.F., Jr., "Annals of Space: The Planetary Community, I- Phobos," The New Yorker, June 11, 1990.
- Inside look at the people and politics behind the USSR Phobos missions, 1988-89.
Klaes, L., "The rocky Soviet road to Mars," Spaceflight (British Interplanetary Society Magazine), August 1990.

Future Mars Exploration:

Sagan, C., "Why send humans to Mars?" Issues in Science and Technology, v. 7, n. 3, pp. 80-85, 1991.
- Discusses the reasons for human flights to Mars in the post-Cold War era.
Turner, F., "Life on Mars: Cultivating a planet-- and ourselves," Harpers Magazine, August 1989.
- Explores the philosphical and moral reasons for terraforming Mars, and in turn to learn how to terraform, or rather, clean up, the Earth's environment.

Mars and Arizona:

Boice, H.E. Jr., "Lowell Observatory at 95," Arizona Highways, May 1989.
Edgett, K.S., "Mars Observing in Arizona: Geologists continue a 100-year tradition," Arizona Geology, v. 23, n. 1, pp. 10-11, Spring 1993.

General Interest (not Mars)

Sagan, C., "Why we need to understand science," Parade Magazine, September 10, 1989.
Sagan, C., "Exploring other worlds and protecting this one: The connection," The Planetary Report, published by the Planetary Society, Pasadena, CA, January-February 1990.

Mars (Fiction)

"Undisputed Classics"

Bradbury, Ray, The Martian Chronicles (1950)

Burroughs, Edgar Rice (Famous Mars Series)

	(1)	A Princess of Mars 	(1912)
	(2)	The Gods of Mars 	(1913)
	(3)	The Warlord of Mars	(1913-1914)
	(4)	Thuvia, Maid of Mars	(1916)
	(5)	The Chessmen of Mars	(1922)
	(6)	The Master Mind of Mars	(192?)
	(7)	A Fighting Man of Mars	(1930)
	(8)	Swords of Mars		(1934-1935)
	(9)	Synthetic Men of Mars 	(1939)
	(10)	Llana of Gathol 	(1941)
	(11)	John Carter of Mars 	(1941-1943)

Clarke, Arthur C., The Sands of Mars (1952)
Heinlein, Robert A., Red Planet (1949)
Heinlein, Robert A., Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
- Note that Red Planet is written for a juvenile audience, while Stranger... is written for adults.
Weinbaum, Stanley G., "A Martian Odyssey,"(short story, 1934)
Wells, H.G., War of the Worlds (1895)

Recent (as of August 1993) Novels on Mars Colonization

Bova, Ben, Mars, Bantam, New York, 1992.
Robinson, Kim Stanley, Red Mars, Bantam, New York, 1993.
Sykes, S.C., Red Genesis, Bantam, New York, 1991.

For Young (& Old!) Readers

Disch, Thomas M., The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, Doubleday, New York, 1988.

Alternative or Far-Future "Mars"

McDonald, Ian, Desolation Road, Bantam, New York, 1988.
- If you like Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, you'll like the style of this book, too.
Turtledove, Harry, A World of Difference, Ballantine, New York, 1990.
- Imagine that our fourth planet was named Minerva, and when the Viking landed there in 1976, it was destroyed by the planet's inhabitants...

Hypertext version: 6 February 1994

TES 1993-1994 Curriculum Guide / K.S. Edgett / edgett@elvis.mars.asu.edu