Ever since the beginning of the space age, Mars has been the main target of our explorations of the solar system. It has also been the scene of many spectacular and dramatic failures.
This book takes the reader on a journey through the history of the missions to Mars, and explains why, although it is the planet that is the most similar and closest to ours, the challenges that its unique characteristics constitute for our spaceships are so tough that they have defeated half of the tens of missions that have tackled the Red Planet.
The author, who has participated actively in all the European missions to Mars and has also been involved in many of the NASA missions to the Red Planet, writes of these explorations and of the planet from his personal experience. The conclusion of the book looks to the future, to the missions to Mars that are programmed for the coming years and the dream of sending the first human beings to the Red Planet, maybe even by the end of the first half of this century.
This book takes the reader on a journey through the history of the missions to Mars, and explains why, although it is the planet that is the most similar and closest to ours, the challenges that its unique characteristics constitute for our spaceships are so tough that they have defeated half of the tens of missions that have tackled the Red Planet.
The author, who has participated actively in all the European missions to Mars and has also been involved in many of the NASA missions to the Red Planet, writes of these explorations and of the planet from his personal experience. The conclusion of the book looks to the future, to the missions to Mars that are programmed for the coming years and the dream of sending the first human beings to the Red Planet, maybe even by the end of the first half of this century.
Author biography
Paolo Ferri studied theoretical physics at the University of Pavia and worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Darmstadt, Germany, for almost forty years. He has worked on numerous scientific missions, many of which he has directed. In 2006 he founded and directed the Solar and Planetary Mission Operations Division, and later became head of ESA's Mission Operations Department. From 1996 to 2016 he was involved with the historical Rosetta mission, the first historical mission to rendezvous with and land on a comet nucleus. He now lives in Frankfurt am Main, teaches at the Universities of Würzburg and Dresden, and holds conferences on space and space science in Germany, Italy and throughout Europe.
