Mars Rover

Lego Mars Exploration Rover (7471)
$89.99
The product is informative in the basic requirements of a mars exploration rover. But it lacks the more important aspect of the true versions design, such as all terrain traction and shock absorbers. It is also lacking self propulsion. But this is, of course, only a toy.

Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet
$14.95
I loved this book. As someone who has done large scientific studies before, including a medical experiment for NASA, I was fascinated from the word go and found it hard to put down. Steve Squyres is very articulate and describes the experience very well. It is not an overview of everything we know about Mars but a look at the development and early life of a particular project. The book is broken down into three major section desribing the background & earlier projects of the author, the development of this actual program, then the launch and first few months of the mission up to Sept 2004 (& which is still ongoing as of Nov 2009). I found the first two sections particularly riviting. One can feel the excitement of things that on the surface would possibly seem mundane ("We were finally able to find this one little piece of trash..."). After getting to Mars, the book is actually a journal, appearently written in real time as the events were unfolding. I did not find it quite as good ("Day 43; drove 35 meters today...") but still both very readable and fascinating. Overall, the book is excellent and very highly recommended to anyone interested in Mars, space exploration, or how science really gets done.

Mars Rover
$79.95
Mars Rover puts you in the pilot's seat of the most advanced virtual space explorer created by man. Experience the famous red planet. The surface racing beneath your rover, the canyon walls flashing past as you continue your explorations, are all authentic reconstructions of Martian terrain data. You have full control to stop and explore the alien environment. Out on the horizon, your laser direction finder pinpoints a path through the canyons. Slide back into your rover, the engines rev up to speed and you're off! Your Rover accelerates smoothly and the whine of the engines gives way to the cabin music. Cliff and canyons whisk past, the horizon changes as you are transported to another unique Martian vista - an unbelievable adventure into an unknown world.

Mars 3-D: A Rover's-Eye View of the Red Planet
$19.95
I have several of Jim Bell's books and they were all very well done.
This one however left me wondering why the publisher used this format of 3-D. It is very inconvenient to use and unless the book is placed on a flat surface at eye level, one has to fiddle with the 3-D lenses and the photo.
The content is interesting and allows the viewer to see Mars as if one were there and the explanation/description is informative.
Were it not for the arrangement of the 3-D lenses, I would have rated this 4-1/2 stars.
Likewise the same format was used for his publication of the Moon in 3-D.
Unfortunate. Paul