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Postcards from Mars: The First Photographer on the Red Planet | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Bell
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $12.99
You Save: $37.01 (74%)
New (1) Used (2) from $8.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 168076
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 11.8 x 11.6 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 559.9230222
ASIN: B0018SUH6A
Publication Date: November 16, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Product Description
The first photographic tour of the surface of another planet has now been accomplished. Those who thrilled to the lunar beauty of Full Moon and the IMAX smash Roving Mars will marvel at this awesome, vivid, beautiful portrait of what it is like to take a stroll on Mars.
The most fantastic of all journeysthe Spirit and Opportunity mobile robot missions to the surface of Marsproduced over 150,000 astonishing photographs. While the images were made available on low-resolution computer screens as they were sent back across millions of space miles, no one until now has done the painstaking work of editing, cropping, and processing these massive (often larger than 100 megabytes) images. The person to do it is Jim Bell, the scientist and photographer who led the photography team on this historic expedition. With his unique perspective, these photographs take us from the brave launches of these robots, to the alien landscape they discovered and the mysteries of the planet that they have helped to solve. Over 150 lavish full-color-process prints bring the colors and textures of Mars to vivid life on the page. Four of the most impressive pictures are presented in their entirety as gatefold images which extend over three feet in widthproviding a view of the surface of another planet unprecedented in its detail and clarity. Postcards from Mars is the perfect gift to give readers who have their feet on the ground and their eyes on the heavens.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Amazing photos, very good words, too. March 24, 2008
I expected the photos to be great, but I was surprised to find the accompanying writings (by a project scientist) to be so interesting and informative.
Photos from Mars are extraordinary! March 20, 2008
This book is wonderful! I can't really add anything to what others have said. I just hope we get a second edition of additional photos when the two rovers have completed their epic adventures. When I was growing up in the 50s, the planets were just fuzzy blobs in the best telescopic photos. I'm glad I've lived to see these extraordinary "postcards."
 Feels Like You're There January 27, 2008
Postcards From Mars is the definitive coffee table book of images from the two rovers which landed on Mars in 2004. Jim Bell goes through all the stages of the missions, from conception, spacecraft assembly, their launch and cruise to Mars, landings, and their adventures and discoveries on the planet. He does this in layman's terms and from the perspective of someone who was working on the missions. These missions are still continuing today in 2008, and he should write another edition when the missions are completed.
But the real stars of the book are the many images of the Martian surface taken by the rovers. These are shown to (almost) full advantage in this large-format book with many gatefold panoramas. (A few of the pictures are printed rather dark.) The one thing lacking is in the captions of the images. Only a few words are said about each image.--These historic images deserve to have more said about them. You can find many of these same images on the various NASA websites, and they certainly have more detailed captions there. Also, the captions in this book are very small and hard to read. The brief captions are the only reason why I give this book four stars instead of five.
A good companion to this book is The Martian Landscape, another large-format book, this one filled with images from the two Viking Landers which landed on Mars in 1976. The captions in this book go into exhaustive detail.
 Had some damage September 26, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
A beautiful book for a good price. However, the book came with a damaged corner that was not related to the packing. It should have been rated at a lower level.
In fact, this has been the only book I have ever received with this kind of damage.
So, who is profiting from this great book! May 16, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is simply fantastic! The photos are "out of this world". However, my only concern is that as a tax payer, who funded these missions to Mars, how is it that someone is profiting from these photos taken by United States of America vehicles? Why isn't the money from this book going to the USA to offset the cost of the mission?
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