TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Reaching the Red Planet 5 CHAPTER 2 Orbiters and Landers 11 CHAPTER 3 Trial and Error 15 CHAPTER Ч Studying the Surface 23 FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY Landing on Mars 28 CHAPTER 5 Looking for Water and Life 31 CHAPTER 6 International Exploration 37 PERSON OF IMPACT Ellen Stofan 40 CHAPTER 7 Human Landings 43 Focus on Missions to Mars 46 Glossary 47 To Learn More 48 Index 48
CHAPTER 1 REACHING THE RED PLANET Mars is the fourth planet from the sun In the night sky it looks like a reddish star Known as the Red Planet it has fascinated astronomers for ages People often wondered if there was life on Mars But even the largest telescopes showed only fuzzy views of the planet's surface To learn more about Mars people would need to send a spacecraft But Mars is millions of miles from Earth Sending a rocket there would be difficult Mars is more than 140 million miles 225 million km from the sun
