"National Geographic and science journalist Marc Kaufman combine inside stories, fascinating facts, and eye-popping pictures, some never before seen, of the red planet and NASA's groundbreaking Curiosity mission. Renowned author Kaufman spent two years embedded with the engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cheering on the rover's spine-tingling landing, learning the backstory of anticipated findings, and witnessing the inescapable...

In Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer, Rob Manning, the project's chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often...

"Mars is one of our closest neighbors, and a NASA robot named Curiosity is in charge of exploring the surface. Take a journey across a new planet along with Curiosity." -- back cover.

Mars has a visitor. It likes to roam, observe, measure, and collect. It explores the red landscape - crossing plains, climbing hills, and tracing the bottoms of craters - in search of water and life. It is not the first to visit Mars. It will not be the last. But it might be the most curious.--book jacket.

Mars Curiosity. It could be NASA's last chance to set wheels down on Mars until the end of the decade: last August, a rover named Curiosity touched down inside Mars' Gale Crater, carrying 10 new instruments that will advance the quest for signs that Mars might have once been suitable for life. But Curiosity's mission is risky. After parachuting through the Martian atmosphere at twice the speed of sound, Curiosity will be gently lowered to the planet's...