Life on Mars, David A. Weintraub
Life on Mars, David A. Weintraub
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Life on Mars
What to Know Before We Go

Author: David A. Weintraub

Narrator: Chris Sorensen

Unabridged: 10 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/08/2018

Synopsis

Does life exist on Mars? The question has captivated humans for centuries, but today it has taken on new urgency. NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars orbit by the 2030s. SpaceX wants to go by 2024, while Mars One wants to land a permanent settlement there in 2032. As we gear up for missions like these, we have a responsibility to think deeply about what kinds of life may already inhabit the planet-and whether we have the right to invite ourselves in.

David Weintraub tells why, of all the celestial bodies in our solar system, Mars has beckoned to us the most. He traces how our ideas about life on Mars have been refined by landers and rovers, terrestrial and Mars-orbiting telescopes, spectroscopy, and even a Martian meteorite. He explores how finding DNA-based life on the Red Planet could offer clues about our distant evolutionary past, and grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form-ourselves-into the Martian biosphere.

About David A. Weintraub

David A. Weintraub is professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal with It?, How Old Is the Universe?, and Is Pluto a Planet?: A Historical Journey through the Solar System. He lives in Nashville.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Liedzeit on December 21, 2023

Is there life on Mars? Well, maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. I sort of knew as much before reading this book. Now, I received the book as a gift. The gift-giver overestimated my interest in astronomy by some amount. I did feel compelled to read it but I was not holding my breath confronted with al......more

Goodreads review by The Inquisitive Biologist on July 23, 2020

Life on Mars is a fine piece of science history documenting our fascination with Mars and the possibility of life there. See my full review at [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Kara on August 09, 2018

Despite being, essentially, a history text, this book will be dated in about a year and a half as the author spends a lot of time at the beginning discussing various forecasted journeys to Mars, both manned and unmanned, planned for the window of 2019 – 2022. Sadly, given current affairs, I have a b......more

Goodreads review by Carmel-by-the-Sea on January 04, 2020

Jeśli Marsjanie istnieją, to kim lub czym są? Poznanie mechanizmów rządzących przyrodą pomaga ludziom wprowadzać w swoim otoczeniu porządek i przewidywalność. Naukowcy z kolei motywują się potrzebą zrozumienia (przynajmniej tak wygląda na poziomie deklaracji czy idealizacji etosu). Wszystkich nas łąc......more

Goodreads review by Amy on July 07, 2019

I thought this book would be a preview of what life on Mars would be like for astronauts who travel there in the future. Instead, it is a history of the search for life on Mars, from early observations of markings described as canals, through the search for water vapor and then to the ongoing studie......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List