List of non-fiction books about Mars

The intent of this list is to provide a recommended list of non-fiction books that will provide an introduction to the high level hierarchy of categories in Marspedia: Mars Planetary Science, Mars Spacecraft/Robotic Missions, Mars Human Exploration (plans), Mars Human Settement (plans), Mars Outreach, and Mars Arts and Literature.

To that end there are several references^[1]^[2]^[3] that have been used to establish the table of recommended books that appear on this page.


Title	Author	Year	ISBN #	Comment
The Atlas of Mars: Mapping Its Geography and Geology	Kenneth S. Coles, Kenneth L. Tanaka, Philip R. Christensen	2019	978-1107036291	The most current atlas of Mars. Map quadrangles are at 1:10,000,000 scale
Human Missions to Mars: Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet	Donald Rapp	2008	978-3642092015	Requirements for human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective
Dynamic Mars: Recent and Current Landscape Evolution of the Red Planet	Richard J. Soare, Susan J. Conway, Stephen M. Clifford	2018	978-0128130186	Explanations of geological change at the surface or near-surface of Mars
Next Stop Mars: The Why, How, and When of Human Missions	Giancarlo Genta	2017	978-3319443102	Historic and future human mission plans and design
How We'll Live on Mars (TED Books)	Stephen Petranek	2015	978-1476784762	Making the case that living on Mars is an essential back-up plan for humanity
Mars	Giles Sparrow	2015	978-1623658564	A focus on images from Curiosity rover
Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet	Steven Squyres	2005	978-1623658564	A chief scientist's view of the planning and execution of the Spirit and Opportunity missions to Mars
Magnificent Mars	Ken Croswell	2003	978-0743226011	a synthesis of the latest research on Mars, accompanied with full-color images
Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer	Rob Manning, William L. Simon	2014	978-1588344731	A behind-the-scenes account as told by the Chief Engineer
Postcards from Mars: The First Photographer on the Red Planet	Jim Bell	2010	978-0452296749	from the photography team lead on the Spirit and Opportunity rover missions
Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration	Buzz Aldrin, Leonard David	2015	978-1426214684	This Moon astronaut presents his vision for near future space exploratoin
The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets	Kathy Sawyer	2006	978-1400060108	The story of ALH84001, the Mars meteorite found in Antarctica
Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet	Leonard David	2016	978-1426217586	A companion piece to a National Geographic series
The International Atlas of Mars Exploration: Volume 1, 1953 to 2003: The First Five Decades	Phillip J. Stooke	2012	978-0521765534	Atlas covering the first five decades of the exploration of Mars
The International Atlas of Mars Exploration: Volume 2, 2004 to 2014: From Spirit to Curiosity	Phillip J. Stooke	2016	978-1107030930	2nd volume of atlas that continues the story of Mars exploration through 2016
Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery	Scott Hubbard	2012	978-0816528967	A NASA manage r"follows the water" in orbit and on Mars' surface in a series of missions
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must	Robert Zubrin	2011	978-1451608113	Revised edition of the classic (1996) book on the Mars Direct plan to explore and settle Mars
Colonizing Mars The Human Mission to the Red Planet	Robert Zubrin, Joel Levin, Paul Davies	2012	978-0971644526	A roadmap to Mars. How it can be done, what it would be like, and how the mission can be paid for
The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars	Robert M. Haberle, R. Todd Clancy, François Forget, Michael D. Smith, Richard W. Zurek	2017	978-1107016187	This book brings together the many new ideas about the atmosphere and climate system of Mars
Working on Mars: Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers	William J. Clancey	2012	978-0262017756	A story of the JPL team that remotely operated the Mars Exploration Rovers
Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission	Andrew Mishkin	2004	978-0425198391	An insider's view of the JPL led Mars Pathfinder mission
Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World	Oliver Morton	2003	978-0312422615	The story of how we are able to map Mars in some ways better than Earth itself.
On to Mars 2: Exploring and Settling a New World	Frank Crossman and Robert Zubrin	2005	978-1894959308	130 papers and essays from the annual conferences of the Mars Society
Going to Mars: The Stories of the people Behind NASA's Mars Missions Past, Present, and Future	Garfield Reeves-Steven, Judith Reeves-Stevens), Brian Muirhead	2004	978-0671027964	A JPL scientist traces the history of Mars exploration and projects the future directions of expeditions to Mars
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void	Mary Roach	2010	978-0393339918	A human perspective of what space travel will be like
Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission	Marc Kaufman	2014	978-1426212789	A National Geographic publication on the Curiosity Mission
How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet	Robert Zubrin	2008	978-0307407184	The practicalities of your average Mars settler.
Mars Direct	Robert Zubrin	2016	978-0974144351	The author describes his relatively simple plan, called Mars Direct, that could feasibly have humans on the surface of Mars within a decade
The Geology of Mars	Thomas A. Mutch, R Arvidson	1977	978-0691081731	An encyclopedic book on Mars geology
A Traveler’s Guide to Mars: The Mysterious Landscapes of the Red Planet	William K. Hartmann	2003	978-0761126065	A traveler's guide to the evolution of Mars geology from a member of the Mars Global Surveyor science team
On to Mars: Colonizing a New World	Robert Zubrin and Frank Crossman	2002	978-1896522906	A compendium of papers from the annual conferences of the Mars Society
Human Exploration of Mars: Design Reference Architecture 5.0	Bert G. Drake	2009	NASA-SP-2009-566	The systems and operations that would be used for the first three missions to explore the surface of Mars by humans
Human Exploration of Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0 - Addendum	Bert G. Drake	2009	NASA/SP–2009–566-ADD	Addendum to The systems and operations that would be used for the first three missions to explore the surface of Mars by humans
Geology of Mars	James W. Head	2006	http://www.planetary.brown.edu/pdfs/2949.pdf	A multi-referenced review of the evolving understanding of geology on Mars
The Snows of Olympus: A Garden on Mars	Arthur C. Clarke	1994	978-0575063228	The author presents his vision of the colonization of Mars and shows what humans could do to make it inhabitable
Mars, the Red Planet	Iaaac Asimov	1977	978-0688418120	A study of Mars from the earliest discoveries of its distance, size, and satellites to recent data gathered during the Viking probes