The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity

The spectacularly successful, scientifically groundbreaking 2004 Mars Exploration Rover Mission provided compelling evidence for the possibility of water on Mars. It was a public relations triumph as well, due in no small part to the appeal of the two "little" rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, vehicles that embody much of what we find appealing in space explorers: extraordinary toughness and diligent attention to demanding scientific tasks. Those characteristics, too, are displayed by the mission’s principal scientist, Steve Squyres, whose reflections frame Rusch’s excellent history of events. The comprehensive text chronicles the almost-decade-long series of rejections of Squyres’s scientific proposals for Martian exploration through the demanding timeline to design, test, build, and launch the project, the initial thrill of success, and the years of subsequent data collection. Rusch’s account skillfully captures the exciting quest for knowledge that drives Squyres and his team through the leaps and setbacks of scientific exploration. Equally compelling are the images of Mars (mainly from the rovers, but also some from past missions) as well as photographs of Squyres and his colleagues hard at work. Some of the landscapes are superimposed with photos of rovers to give a sense of what they might look like on the surface (only a few camera images from near the landers are real); the photos also convey what a significant engineering accomplishment it was to get the rovers there and keep them functioning for so long. danielle j. ford