The Red Planet
Jan. 7th, 2019 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: 4th Rock from the Sun - The Story of Mars, by Nicky Jenner
Well, at least books are off to a good start this year. This was a Christmas present and didn't disappoint. Jenner has blended history, culture, and science, in about the right balance, so there's a bit of Greek and Roman mythology, H G Wells, Gustav Holst, a little Doctor Who (which has hardly been consistent on this matter over the years), and David Bowie, in-between Schiaparelli's infamous canali, the Space Race, more recent Martian landings, and future prospects. It's more satisfying than Gleick's Time Travel, because there is more tractable science to balance the sci-fi; and it's more satisfying than Breaking the Chains of Gravity (which is in the same Bloomsbury Sigma series as this), because it feels more robust where the other volume had a couple of howlers; my only gripe about this book is the over-use of exclamation marks. It does seem odd that Martian missions by all space agencies have only a modest success rate, particularly in comparison to long-distance probes reaching the outer Solar System; but perhaps those long-distance missions are especially risk-averse, whereas Mars missions have been a proving ground for various launching, landing and roving techniques. Whilst advanced life is all but ruled out, speculation continues on the possibility of microbial life, past or present: there seems to be some consensus that Mars was habitable in the past, but at best marginal now. Ironically (because more advanced electronics can't be baked in the way Viking missions were to sterilise them), new probes are presently forbidden from landing in the polar zones, now considered the best bet for discovering evidence of life. It doesn't seem inevitable that humans will make it safely to Mars and back - radiation and lack of gravity pose the biggest dangers on the travel, whilst temperatures, exotic soils and contamination are additional risks once arrived - but it does seem quite probable.
Well, at least books are off to a good start this year. This was a Christmas present and didn't disappoint. Jenner has blended history, culture, and science, in about the right balance, so there's a bit of Greek and Roman mythology, H G Wells, Gustav Holst, a little Doctor Who (which has hardly been consistent on this matter over the years), and David Bowie, in-between Schiaparelli's infamous canali, the Space Race, more recent Martian landings, and future prospects. It's more satisfying than Gleick's Time Travel, because there is more tractable science to balance the sci-fi; and it's more satisfying than Breaking the Chains of Gravity (which is in the same Bloomsbury Sigma series as this), because it feels more robust where the other volume had a couple of howlers; my only gripe about this book is the over-use of exclamation marks. It does seem odd that Martian missions by all space agencies have only a modest success rate, particularly in comparison to long-distance probes reaching the outer Solar System; but perhaps those long-distance missions are especially risk-averse, whereas Mars missions have been a proving ground for various launching, landing and roving techniques. Whilst advanced life is all but ruled out, speculation continues on the possibility of microbial life, past or present: there seems to be some consensus that Mars was habitable in the past, but at best marginal now. Ironically (because more advanced electronics can't be baked in the way Viking missions were to sterilise them), new probes are presently forbidden from landing in the polar zones, now considered the best bet for discovering evidence of life. It doesn't seem inevitable that humans will make it safely to Mars and back - radiation and lack of gravity pose the biggest dangers on the travel, whilst temperatures, exotic soils and contamination are additional risks once arrived - but it does seem quite probable.