Includes bibliographical references (pages [343]-345) and index.

"Nowhere is the quest to know Mars stronger than in the extraordinary commitment of the NASA scientists who carry the torch for the Red Planet - highly trained, brilliant men and women at the top of their fields, who have forgone the security (and higher salaries) of jobs in private industry to labor within a federal agency that is constantly scrutinized and under threat of budget cuts. These scientists are the world's last great explorers, and Laurence Bergreen has been given unlimited access to their work and lives. In Voyage to Mars, we learn about the obsessions that drive them, the personal and professional sacrifices they make, the politics they contend with, and the immense pressures and sleepless nights they endure, as we watch them prepare to launch multimillion-dollar missions with the potential to alter the fate of the universe."--BOOK JACKET.