In celebration of the landing of NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, we’ve gathered titles for fans of science fact, and fiction.
Eight Years to the Moon
Nancy Atkinson
A Behind-the-Scenes Look At NASA’s incredible Journey to the Moon Space journalist and insider Nancy Atkinson weaves together the riveting story of NASA’s mission to complete “the greatest adventure on which humankind ever embarked.” This incredible account is a keepsake celebrating some of the most important and dramatic events in modern history. Told through over 60 personal interviews and oral histories, as well as personal photographs, this tribute to the men and women who made the Apollo 11 mission a reality chronicles the highs and lows that accompanied the race to the Moon: the devastating flash fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1; the awe of those who saw their years-in-the-making contributions to space exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral; the knuckle-biting descent of Apollo 11 to the lunar surface; a near-catastrophic event on the crew’s flight home; the infectious excitement and jubilation across the world after the astronauts returned safely to Earth. These little-known stories of the dedicated engineers, mathematicians and scientists in the 1960s reveal the “hows” of the Apollo missions and bring to life the wonder and excitement of humanity’s first steps on the Moon.
Read More View in CatalogApollo to the Moon
Teasel E. Muir-Harmony
A celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo missions to the moon, this narrative uses 50 key artifacts from the Smithsonian archives to tell the story of the groundbreaking space exploration program. Bold photographs, fascinating graphics, and engaging stories commemorate the 20th century's most important space endeavor: NASA's Apollo program to reach the moon. From the lunar rover and a survival kit to space food and moon rocks, it's a carefully curated array of objects--complete with intriguing back stories and profiles of key participants. This book showcases the historic space exploration program that landed humans on the moon, advanced the world's capabilities for space travel, and revolutionized our sense of humanity's place in the universe. Each historic accomplishment is symbolized by a different object, from a Russian stamp honoring Yuri Gagarin and plastic astronaut action figures to the Apollo 11 command module, piloted by Michael Collins as Armstrong and Aldrin made the first moonwalk, together with the monumental art inspired by these moon missions. Throughout, Apollo to the Moon also tells the story of people who made the journey possible: the heroic astronauts as well as their supporters, including President John F. Kennedy, newsman Walter Cronkite, and NASA scientists such as Margaret Hamilton.
Read More View in CatalogAmerican Moonshot
Douglas Brinkley
As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.
Read More View in CatalogCosmos
Carl Sagan
Presents an illustrated guide to the universe and to Earth's relationship to it, moving from theories of creation to humankind's discovery of the cosmos, to general relativity, to space missions, and beyond.
View in CatalogVisual Galaxy
National Geographic
This compelling visual journey through our galaxy combines more than 350 photographs, illustrations, and graphics to present the universe as you've never seen it before. Galaxia is a deep dive into the past, present, and future of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. In this mind-expanding visual tour through the cosmos, spectacular photographs are converted into interpretive graphics, starting with the sun and moving outward into space where stars are born, black holes lurk, and planets of diverse size and anatomy spin through their orbit. The final chapters locate our galaxy within the known universe and add a scintillating peek of other exoplanets in the cosmos. Detailed maps and fascinating imagery from recent space missions are paired with clear, authoritative scientific information.
Read More View in CatalogSpace Exploration—A History in 100 Objects
Sten Odenwald
This is no ordinary space book. Within the pages of this eclectic pop-history, scientist and educator Sten Odenwald at NASA examines 100 objects that forever altered what we know and how we think about the cosmos. From Sputnik to Skylab and Galileo’s telescope to the Curiosity rover, some objects are iconic and some obscure—but all are utterly important. The Nebra sky disk (1600 BCE) features the first realistic depiction of the Sun, Moon, and stars. The Lunar Laser Ranging RetroReflector finally showed us how far we are from the Moon in 1969. In 1986, it was the humble, rubber O-ring that doomed the space shuttle Challenger. The Event Horizon Telescope gave us our first glimpse of a black hole in 2019. These 100 objects, as Odenwald puts it, showcase “the workhorse tools and game-changing technologies that have altered the course of space history . . . the tools and devices that, taken together, represent the major scientific discoveries—and celebrate the human ingenuity—of space technology, showing the ways physics and engineering have brought about our greatest leaps in understanding the way our universe works. . . . They make it clear that we have made giant strides in our quest to search ever more deeply into the farthest reaches of the universe—and behind each new discovery is an object that expands our appreciation of space as well as the boundless imagination and resourcefulness we carry within us.”
Read More View in CatalogCosmos Possible Worlds
Ann Druyan
With lucid prose that recalls the best-selling and beloved Cosmos, Ann Druyan takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the vast and unexplored realms of Earth and space, past and future, fact and imagination. Written and published in coordination with the sensational international television debut of a second season of National Geographic's Cosmos, Cosmos Possible Worlds travels through more than 14 billion years of cosmic evolution and into an astonishing future where probes travel by light beams to distant stars, helping us solve enduring mysteries of our origins and dream of an unimaginable time ahead. Along the way, we meet the colorful characters who push beyond the boundaries of knowledge--both the little-known but monumental visionaries of the past and the scientists whose work is shaping our future. Color photographs, art, and diagrams based on graphics created for the television series--plus a foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson, best-selling author, wildly popular science commentator, and host of Cosmos on the National Geographic Channel--complete this highly anticipated package.
Read More View in Catalog50 Things to See in the Sky
Sarah Barker
This hip and handy guide helps you learn the science behind blue skies, sun dogs, and the solar eclipse, and shows you how to observe nocturnal wonders such as lunar halos, Martian ice caps, and far-off galaxies. Fifty celestial phenomena come to life with expert tips from astrophysicist Sarah Barker and stylish illustrations by Maria Nilsson. Any explorer can become an adept observer with their guidance, and more ambitious stargazers will be able to discover more distant sights with the help of binoculars, a telescope, or a local astronomy group. With a glow-in-the-dark cover, 50 Things to See in the Sky is a perfect complement to your next camping expedition and a wonderful gift for anyone who marvels at what lies in our celestial sphere.
Read More View in CatalogOlympos
Dan Simmons
Beneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer's timeless narrative. But that was before twenty-first-century scholar Thomas Hockenberry stirred the bloody brew, causing an enraged Achilles to join forces with his archenemy Hector and turn his murderous wrath on Zeus and the entire pantheon of divine manipulators; before the swift and terrible mechanical creatures that catered for centuries to the pitiful idle remnants of Earth's human race began massing in the millions, to exterminate rather than serve. And now all bets are off.
Read More View in CatalogPandora’s Star
Peter F. Hamilton
When the twenty-fourth-century arrival of human colonists in a faraway system unleashes a race of aliens formerly imprisoned within a giant force field, the aliens, having fought for centuries over scarce resources, turn to human space to fulfill their wants.
Read More View in CatalogThe War of the Worlds
H. G. Wells
H.G. Wells's spellbinding account of an invasion from outer space is the first and still the best of all such stories. Ten massive, super-intelligent aliens from Mars touch down in Victorian England and threaten to reduce the civilized world to cinder in short order, as humanity's vaunted knowledge proves to be of little use in such an emergency.
Read More View in CatalogImpact
Douglas Preston
Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world. A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast... and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater. A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source of gamma rays in the outer Solar System. He is found decapitated, the data missing. High resolution NASA images reveal an unnatural feature hidden in the depths of a crater on Mars... and it appears to have been activated. Sixty hours and counting.
Read More View in CatalogA Princess of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Best described as early science fiction melded with an epic dose of romantic adventure, A Princess of Mars is the first adventure of John Carter, a Civil War veteran who unexpectedly find himself transplanted to the planet Mars. Yet this red planet is far more than a dusty, barren place; it's a fantasy world populated with giant green barbarians, beautiful maidens in distress, and weird flora and monstrous fauna the likes of which could only exist in the author's boundless imagination. Sheer escapism of the tallest order, the Martian novels are perfect entertainment for those who enjoy classic "space opera."
Read More View in CatalogThe Martian
Andy Weir
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old 'human error' are much more likely to kill him first.
Read More View in Catalog
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 features an insider's look at one of the most significant events in human history. This documentary features never-before-seen, unedited footage as NASA prepares to send the first men to the moon and reveals the personal lives and experiences of Commander Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
Read More View in Catalog
David Bowie: Best of Bowie
Disc 1: Oh. You Pretty Things, Queen Bitch), Five Years, Starman, John I'm Only Dancing, The Jean Genie, Space Oddity, Drive-in Saturday, Life on Mars?, Ziggy Stardust, Rebel Rebel, Young Americans, Be My Wife, "Heroes," Boys Keep Swinging, D.J., Look Back in Anger, Ashes to Ashes, Fashion, Wild Is the Wind, Let's Dance, China Girl, Modern Love, Cat People (Putting Out Fire), Blue Jean, Loving the Alien, Dancing in the Street (with Mick Jagger) Disc 2: Absolute Beginners, Underground, As the World Falls Down, Day-In Day-Out, Time Will Crawl, Never Let Me Down, Fame '90, Jump They Say, Black Tie White Noise, Miracle Goodnight, Buddha of Suburbia, The Heart's Filthy Lesson, Strangers When We Meet, Hallo Spaceboy, Little Wonder, Dead Man Walking, Seven Years in Tibet, I'm Afraid of Americans, Thursday's Child and Survive.
Read More View in Catalog
The Space Between Us
Though sixteen-year-old Gardner Elliot has lived his whole life with a team of scientists on Mars, he has always longed to see Earth, to find the father he has never known, and to meet Tulsa, a beautiful street-smart girl he has become friends with online. But when his chance finally comes, doctors discover his heart can't withstand the Earth's atmosphere. Eager to find his father, Gardner and Tulsa escape on a cross-country race against time to unravel the mysteries of how he came to be and where he belongs in the universe.
Read More View in Catalog
Life
The six-member crew of the International Space Station is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life, which proves more intelligent than ever expected.
View in Catalog
The Planets
Among the stars in the night sky wander the eight-plus worlds of the solar system, each home to truly awe-inspiring sights. Volcanoes three times higher than Everest, geysers erupting with icy plumes, cyclones larger than Earth lasting hundreds of years. Each of our celestial neighbors has a distinct personality and a unique story. In this five-part series, NOVA will explore the awesome beauty including Saturn's 175,000-mile-wide rings, Mars's ancient waterfalls, and more.
Read More View in Catalog
Total Recall
Construction worker Douglas Quaid discovers a memory chip in his brain during a virtual-reality trip. He also finds that his past has been invented to conceal a plot of planetary domination. Soon, he's off to Mars to find out who he is and who planted the chip.
Read More View in Catalog