The Field of Mars


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Campus Martius


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A mosquito-infested and swampy plain lying north of the city walls, Rome's Campus Martius, or Field of Mars, was used for much of the period of the Republic as a military training ground and as a site for celebratory rituals and occasional political assemblies. Initially punctuated with temples vowed by victorious generals, during the imperial era it became filled with extraordinary baths, theaters, porticoes, aqueducts, and other structures - many of which were architectural firsts for the capitol. This book explores the myriad factors that contributed to the transformation of the Campus Martius from an occasionally visited space to a crowded center of daily activity. It presents a case study of the repurposing of urban landscape in the Roman world and explores how existing topographical features that fit well with the Republic's needs ultimately attracted architecture that forever transformed those features but still resonated with the area's original military and ceremonial traditions.




Working on Mars


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Beginning in 2004, a team of geologists and other planetary scientists did field science in a dark room in Pasadena, exploring Mars from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by means of the remotely operated Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). Clustered around monitors, living on Mars time, painstakingly plotting each movement of the rovers and their tools, sensors, and cameras, these scientists reported that they felt as if they were on Mars themselves, doing field science. The MER created a virtual experience of being on Mars. This book examines how the MER has changed the nature of planetary field science. NASA cast the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as "robotic geologists," and ascribed machine initiative to remotely controlled actions. Clancey argues that the actual explorers were not the rovers but the scientists, who imaginatively projected themselves into the body of the machine to conduct the first overland expedition of another planet. The author investigates how the design of the rover mission enables field science on Mars, explaining how the scientists and rover engineers manipulate the vehicle and why the programmable tools and analytic instruments work so well for them.




The Big Book of Mars


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The most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars—yesterday, today, and tomorrow—through history, archival images, pop culture ephemera, and interviews with NASA scientists Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the ancient Egyptians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague. But it wasn't until the 19th century when “canals” were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there’s life on Mars. Since then, Mars has fully invaded pop culture, inspiring its own day of the week (Tuesday), an iconic Looney Tunes character, and many novels and movies, from Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles to The Martian. It’s this cultural familiarity with the fourth planet that continues to inspire advancements in Mars exploration, from NASA’s launch of the Mars rover Perseverance to Elon Musk’s quest to launch a manned mission to Mars through SpaceX by 2024. Perhaps, one day, we’ll be able to answer the questions our ancestors asked when they looked up at the night sky millennia ago.




The Field of Mars


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The Volcanoes of Mars


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The Volcanoes of Mars offers a clear, cohesive summary of Mars volcanology. It begins with an introduction to the geology and geography of the red planet and an overview of its volcanic history, and continues to discuss each distinct volcanic province, identifying the common and unique aspects of each region. Incorporating basic volcanological information and constraints on the regional geologic history derived from geologic mapping, the book also examines current constraints on the composition of the volcanic rocks as investigated by both orbiting spacecraft and rovers. In addition, it compares the features of Martian volcanoes to those seen on other volcanic bodies. Concluding with prospects for new knowledge to be gained from future Mars missions, this book brings researchers in volcanology and the study of Mars up to date on the latest findings in the study of volcanoes on Mars, allowing the reader to compare and contrast Martian volcanoes to volcanoes studied on Earth and throughout the Solar System. Presents clearly organized text and figures that will quickly allow the reader to find specific aspects of Martian volcanism Includes definitions of geological and volcanological terms throughout to aid interdisciplinary understanding Summarizes key results for each volcanic region of Mars and provides copious citations to the research literature to facilitate further discovery Synthesizes the most current data from multiple spacecraft missions, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as geochemical data from Martian meteorites Utilizes published geologic mapping results to highlight the detailed knowledge that exists for each region




The Atlas of Mars


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Planetary scientist and educator Ken Coles has teamed up with Ken Tanaka from the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeology team, and Phil Christensen, Principal Investigator of the Mars Odyssey orbiter's THEMIS science team, to produce this all-purpose reference atlas, The Atlas of Mars. Each of the thirty standard charts includes: a full-page color topographic map at 1:10,000,000 scale, a THEMIS daytime infrared map at the same scale with features labeled, a simplified geologic map of the corresponding area, and a section describing prominent features of interest. The Atlas is rounded out with extensive material on Mars' global characteristics, regional geography and geology, a glossary of terms, and an indexed gazetteer of up-to-date Martian feature names and nomenclature. This is an essential guide for a broad readership of academics, students, amateur astronomers, and space enthusiasts, replacing the NASA atlas from the 1970s.




Field of Mars


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From Communism to Anti-Communism


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Boris Souvarine moved from communism, in the first years of the Soviet régime, to anti-communism by the 1930s and throughout the rest of his long life. This book gives us a new and original perspective on the period that runs from the Russian Revolution to the 1950s and allows us to better understand that era. The documents come from the Boris Souvarine Collection consisting of his working notes, press clippings, and documentation concerning East-West relations collected by Souvarine.




Mysteries of Mars


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This book introduces the reader to the wonders of Mars, covering all aspects from our past perceptions of the planet through to the latest knowledge on its history, its surface processes such as impact cratering, volcano formation, and glaciation, and its atmosphere and climate. In addition, a series of ten intriguing open issues are considered in a more advanced way. These include such thought-provoking questions as What turned off the planet’s magnetic field?, Why are the northern and southern hemispheres so different?, What was the fate of the once abundant water?, and Is there, or was there, life on Mars? Numerous original figures, unavailable elsewhere, reproduce details of images from Viking, CTX, MOC, HiRISE, THEMIS, and HRSC. The book will appeal especially to general readers interested in planetary sciences, astronomy, astrogeology, and space exploration and to students of Earth Sciences and Natural and Environmental Sciences. The higher-level materialon the remaining mysteries of Mars will also be of interest to astrogeologists and other researchers.