Imagine the X Prize for Mars Exploration

After Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), science fiction novels about Mars exploration became quite common; and, most of them were just that common and derivative and paled in comparison to Robinson's epic trilogy. But, finally there is a worthy successor with the release of Gregory Benford's The Martian Race.

The Martian Race is an exciting take on a near future where one more fatal accident in the space program has left NASA canceling its Mars Exploration program that was considered the front runner in claiming a $30 billion international prize for the first successful exploration mission to the red planet. But, the void left by NASA's exit is filled by an eccentric billionaire who leverages everything to to hire away NASA's best astronauts, buy up its hardware (including the return vehicle already parked on Mars, but exposed to the harsh Martian atmosphere), and launch a stripped down effort to make the launch window before it closes for two years.

Benford has divided up the storytelling in a way that sucks the reader into the excitement of the exploration effort, while using flashbacks to tell the story of how the scrappy effort succeeding launching and the trials and tribulations they faced in doing so, as well as the Chinese program that rose as competition in a fog of secrecy.

Told from the perspective of astronaut Julia Barth, this tale brings the reader along for the ride as the mission both discovers amazing things on Mars and suffers potentially fatal setbacks such as corrosion of the return vehicle that needs make-shift repairs so they can attempt to return home. Benford has modeled his mission after Robert Zubrin's Mars First plans and designs, a mission design that many find quite doable and a better approach than any effort now being considered. ( )

Billionaire's boys and girls beat NASA by parsimony and corporate propaganda.

A novel that details the first trip to Mars by a manned crew. This is done as cheap and as feasibly as possible by an idealistic and enterprising rich guy, who realises that but cutting out some super keen safety margins and using osme existing stuff they can do it 'cheap', that being a relative term when you are talking about manned spaceflight. it also involves cramming in more advertising than a Formula One driver carries.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/06... ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a... ( )

The Martian Race tells the story of the first manned mission to Mars.

It is a light read and an interesting look at how such a mission might proceed. The storytelling is fairly straightforward. There's no contrived drama the way there is in many books of this type. The characters get along and do their jobs about as well as could be expected and there's no grandstanding and no 'nefarious dealings'. This made quite a pleasant change - I kept waiting for one of the characters to do something essentially out of character just to "add drama" but it didn't happen.

This book doesn't provide the detail that a book like Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars does - but is an easier read for that.

One aspect of the book that amused and rang very true was that the mission was funded by a private consortium rather than NASA. The astronauts became, by necessity, media stars - and sponsorship deals were everything. Picture Astronauts taking that first historic step onto mars, then holding up a Mars Bar for the cameras. ( )