Mars Owners' Workshop Manual: From 4.5 billion years ago to the present (Haynes Manuals)

In 2016 Haynes published an  "Owners' Workshop Manual"  which described the study of the Moon and how our understanding of it has changed over the centuries. With the same author, same format, and same focus, this "manual" is for all intents a companion piece. Like that book it mainly focuses on the study of Mars via telescopes, flyby spacecraft, landers, orbiters, and rovers, rather than developing Martian real estate, overthrowing your fossilized microbiotic overlords, and eventually occupying the entire planet, as you may have incorrectly assumed from the title.Seriously though, this is a pretty solid, and surprisingly readable, reference book. Keeping in mind that every subject described in this book has been previously covered by dozens of other books (some written or co-authored by Harland himself), it still manages to squeeze in a great amount of information into 188 pages without feeling sketchy or suffocatingly over-detailed. Although it starts off with a brief overview of terrestrial telescopic observations of Mars, the majority focuses on the robotic exploration of the planet from Mariner 4 to the upcoming InSight and Mars 2020 missions. Instead of being a dull recitation of spacecraft hardware and science instrument specifications, it's quite compellingly written. David Harland details the scientific and geological knowledge gained from each mission, depicting each new discovery as one more piece closer to finishing the great Martian puzzle. Of course, any good scientist will tell you that no puzzle is every truly completed!Has expected from Haynes, it's also extremely well illustrated. Almost every page has an illustration, most of them in color. These include paintings, geological maps, orbital and surface imagery, diagrams, and data derived from scientific instruments. Many of the old NASA diagrams have been cleaned up, re-annotated, and have had color added. The reproduction quality is excellent and captions are frequently lengthy, so it's definitely worth your time to study them alongside the main text. The book really only falters in the last two chapters, which cover Mars in fiction and some of the possibilities for a manned mission to the planet. Neither is particularly well fleshed out, although the second does provide some interesting ideas.Although the Haynes name hasn't translated to a first-day purchase for me in some time, I'm mostly pleased with how this one came out. I'd say it's on par with the Moon "manual" or perhaps a little better, if only for the more colorful presentation (it helps that Mars isn't gray!) and the proper stitched binding. As for David Harland, I've been reading his  The Story of Space Station Mir  and found myself hoping he'll do a "workshop manual" on the Salyut/Almaz series and Mir sometime in the near future.

The author does a thorough and excellent job of describing the history and theory of Mars exploration. He gives detailed explanations of how we have perceived Mars over the years. He then discusses all the missions to Mars and the many experiments that these missions contained. This is a thorough and comprehensive book, especially for a semi-technical individual interested in Mars.

Lots of Mars

What an excellent book on the planet Mars! It covers the history of the study of the planet from the observations of Kepler through the space age.All of the missions to Mars are also covered including the unsuccessful ones such as Beagle 2 and the Polar Lander. There are also chapters covering future missions as well as Mars in science fiction. Being a David M Harland book, it is also richly populated with photographs and charts that supplement the writing.This is an excellent book for students wishing to learn more about Mars as well as a great volume for the space enthusiast to add to their library. I recommend this book whole-heartily!

Bought for recent mission data. Mars must be the planet we know most about other than our own, and there is lots in this book.However it kind of feels abbreviated and there is definitely more that could have gone in, hence one star off

Fascinating and provocative, iterative and very well illustrated . All you want to know about the RedPlanet, and enough to make me want more. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a complete exposition of the history, observation and exploration of Mars. As an aerospace scientist, l rate it the best I have seen for the money, and highly addictive reading-- I keep going back and finding more. ONCE AGAIN, GET IT, if not for yourself ,for your children and grandchildren.

This is a fine example of a book which covers all aspects of its subject, in this case the Red Planet.Superb in written and illustrated material. I could not find any fault in its production and recommend it highly to anyone wanting to learn about this fascinating world that deserves exploration by robots and, eventually, humans.

I wanted an up-to-date account of mars exploration. This book met my expectations. Very well illustrated and a rigorous and informative text.

Good, all round info on mars.. Some new material..