Mars: The Missions That Have Transformed Our Understanding of the Red Planet

All eyes are on Mars. NASA's new lander, InSight, has touched down on the red planet, and in two years Mars 2020 rover will depart Cape Canaveral bound for the red planet.

The ultimate challenge is to enable crewed missions to Mars by the 2030s - the next giant leap for mankind. In Mars, NASA historian and award-winning space writer Rod Pyle takes us through previously uncharted territory to experience the unravelling of the mysteries of Mars first-hand and as they happened. With unparalleled access to NASA's archives, he traces the exploration of the red planet from fleeting telescopic examinations of the first flybys in the 1960s, through the landers of the 1970s, to the increasingly sophisticated rovers and orbiters now exploring every region of the planet. Insider documents from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including newly found hand-drawn renderings of mission designs and personal annotations, illustrate every aspect of 50 years of discovery.

The elaborate plans for the human explorations of Mars are also shown in exquisite detail, including NASA's ambitious designs for crewed missions and some compelling alternative mission plans by experts such as Buzz Aldrin.