For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON—On the morning of July 4, 1997, an alien object tumbled from the salmon sky and bounced a dozen times or so before coming to rest on the surface of Mars. A world away scientists held their breath for radio confirmation that Pathfinder had survived the hazardous landing after a seven-month voyage across the gulf of space.

Earth was entranced as cameras aboard the lander and its tiny rover relayed clear and detailed images of a distant world. During the first 30 days, the Pathfinder Web site would log 566 million hits, making the mission one of the most watched events in history.

Pathfinder images, several in 3-D, are now published in a new book from the National Geographic Society: MARS: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet (August; U.S. $40). Pull-out glasses allow readers to experience in 3-D what it is like to stand on the dusty, boulder-strewn planet.

With text by Paul Raeburn, award-winning science editor at Business Week, and a foreword and commentary by Matt Golombek, chief scientist on the Pathfinder mission, MARS examines the planet’s exploration and interprets the geology seen in the startling images transmitted across the vastness of space. And it discloses for the first time the behind-the-scenes crises that nearly scuttled the Pathfinder mission.

MARS traces Earth’s long preoccupation with its sister world, from the days of the first skywatchers who pondered the mysteries of the red sphere to the dramatic race between America and the Soviet Union to be the first to explore the planet. The book also looks at theories of how human explorers may set foot on Mars within 20 years.

A theme throughout MARS is whether there is life on the planet that has remarkable similarities to Earth. Raeburn traces the centuries-long debate on Martian life among scientists and romantics, examining the theories advanced with each new discovery of evidence, including the chunks of the red planet that have found their way to Earth as meteorites.

“By studying our neighboring planet, we can address one of the most fundamental scientific questions—are we alone in the universe,” writes Golombek in MARS. “Will life form anywhere that liquid water is stable, or does it require something else as well? If life did start on Mars, what happened to it? Trying to answer questions such as these, we continue the profound drama of attempting to understand the solar system and our place in it.”

MARS also looks at the red planet of human imagination. It recounts how a radio drama of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” sparked panic as listeners mistook it for real warnings of arrival of monsters from Mars. A decade earlier, in 1924, radio stations stopped broadcasting so government experts could listen for signals as Mars passed particularly close to Earth.

MARS: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet will be in bookstores nationwide from early August.

Flashes from Mars
MARS: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet

• Mars is the fourth and outermost terrestrial (rocky) planet of the solar system. The giant planets further from the sun than Mars are made of gas.
• In many respects Mars is the most Earthlike planet in our solar system. The tilt of its axis is nearly the same as the Earth’s, which produces seasons on Mars like Earth’s. Its north and south polar caps shrink in summer and grow in winter, similar to Earth’s. A day on Mars (called a sol) lasts 24 hours, 37 minutes—nearly the same length as Earth’s.
• Because of the relative positions of the Earth and Mars, the opportunity to launch a spacecraft to Mars occurs only once every 26 months, near the time when Earth passes between Mars and the sun and the planets are relatively close together.
• Scientists have learned a lot about Mars by studying 12 extraordinary rocks, known as the SNC meteorites, that most scientists are confident have come from the red planet. Of these 12, four were observed to fall from the sky, so we know they are not from Earth.
• The largest valley system on Mars is Valles Marineris, a canyon system more than 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) long and up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, six times deeper than the Grand Canyon. The largest volcano and mountain in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons rises nearly 17 miles (27.4 kilometers) above the surrounding plains—almost three times as high as Mount Everest.
• The first spacecraft to reach Mars was Mariner 4, arriving on July 15, 1965, more than seven months after it left Earth. From the first close-up pictures of Mars sent back to Earth it was immediately clear that the planet was pocked with craters; it resembled the moon far more than it resembled Earth. There were no Martians, no canals, no water, no surface characteristics that even faintly resembled Earth’s.
• Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. About 17-by-13 miles (27.3-by-20.9 kilometers) in diameter, Phobos is small enough for a reasonably fit hiker to circumnavigate in a few days. Deimos, the outer moon, is even smaller. Both moons are irregularly shaped, like potatoes, and are crater-pocked.
• Viking 1 and Viking 2 both succeeded in placing landers on Mars in the mid-1970s. They were tasked with looking for signs of life. However, none could be found.
• To save costs, Pathfinder was not fitted with retro-rockets to guide it to a soft landing. It was wrapped in air bags and designed to bounce like a giant beach ball along the Martian surface until it came to rest. Engineers shrank the rover from 50 pounds (22.7 kilograms) to about 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms), equipping it with tiny instruments.
• Launches to Mars are planned by NASA every 26 months well into the next decade. The agency is preparing for a mission in 2005 to bring rocks back from Mars. NASA has also begun preparing for the ultimate voyage to Mars—a manned mission, perhaps as early as 2015.

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