Geologist Steve Squyres knew that it wasn’t possible to go to Mars himself, so he did the next best thing: He helped create two robotic geologists that could make the journey and report back. Doing so took funding from NASA and an entire team of scientists. “It was so complicated,” he noted, “that not a single one of us fully understood what was going on.” After a six–month journey, the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity (named by a nine-year-old girl), landed on different parts of the red planet and began their explorations, with scientists back on earth directing their moves and troubleshooting when things went wrong. Color photographs transmitted from Mars stand side by side with photographs of the scientists back home, who are watching, worrying, wondering, and celebrating throughout the rovers’ amazing explorations. The story itself is inherently dramatic, and the science is skillfully woven into the account. Readers will feel the same sense of discovery that Squyres and his team felt as the two Mars rovers opened up a whole new world to them. (Ages 9–14)

The story of the two robot vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, that were sent to explore Mars, lasting far past their projected lives of 3 months and sending back invaluable images of the environmentally hostile planet.