For hundreds of years Mars has inspired the imagination of scientists, scholars and especially ordinary people. The myths surrounding this planet remain intact even today, in spite of the numerous expeditions that have unveiled some of its mysteries. Mars is reliably newsworthy. For half a century it has been the “other planet” that space agencies all over the world wish to explore in the search for extra-terrestrial life. Mars is also the authentic, unique, lone venue where one day we might establish a human colony. In this book an internationally renowned astrophysicist, “father” of the Mars Express ESA mission, explains all the red planet’s secrets: its structure, its habitability, the most recent findings by the rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012. A promise for a new life above? The dream continues…

Marcello Coradini teaches Space Systems at the Universities of Genoa and Trento and has worked since 2010 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as a representative of the European Space Agency, conducting advanced research on Martian hydrology. He was among the founders of European planetary science in the 1970s. Over a quarter century of work at the European Space Agency he contributed to the creation of a space exploration programme allowing Europe to “invade” the solar system. The dreams he has helped come true include SOHO, Cluster, Huygens/Cassini, Mars Express, Venus Express and Rosetta.