Bibliographical citation: Rusch, E. (2012). The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. 79 pages. ISBN: 9780547478814.
Awards: none (yet!)
Author's website: http://www.elizabethrusch.com/
Annotation: Was there life on Mars? Read this story to follow the journeys of two Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to the red planet where they collect groundbreaking information and communicate with scientists while enduring harsh and challenging climates.
Personal Reaction: This very exciting and engaging title in the Scientists in the Field Series is about exploration on Mars by two very unique rovers named Spirit and Opportunity. This exploration began with Steven Squyres' dream of sending a robot to Mars. He imagined a robot that would take the place of a geologist in order to study and test the rocks on Mars. Although the surface of Mars appeared to all be the same, Steven Squyres knew that closer study and inspection would reveal more information about Mars than has previously been obtained. He used his stubbornness and perseverance to write proposals to NASA to fund a Mars rover. After eight years of refusals, NASA finally contacted him asking not for one rover, but two. This was the chance of a lifetime, and Squyres and his team of 170 scientists had to work quickly to complete their tasks in order to meet the launch windows to send spacecraft to Mars since these only occur approximately every twenty-six months.
The mission was successful in getting the rovers to Mars without incident. Once there, it took teams of engineers and scientists to slowly and safely navigate the rovers through the unfamiliar and sometimes dangerous terrain of Mars. On their journeys, the rovers sent thousands of pictures back to Earth and provided so much important information that has given us new awareness of Mars. These rovers performed far beyond what was expected and initially planned. Instead of a period of three months, the rovers have lasted more than six years, and Opportunity is still going! Filled with wonderful photographs, this title offers a great deal to fans of space exploration and science.
Front/Back Matter: Table of Contents, Mission Update, Sources, Chapter Notes, For Further Exploration, Acknowledgements, Photo Credits, Glossary, Index.
*Bibliographical citation information, award information, as well as image retrieved from www.bwibooks.com (Titletales).
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