Reading: Space Rocks

Astronauts. Shine Shine Shine. Gravity. The Martian. Commander Hadfield. Mars Rovers. Red Rising. Marissa Meyer. Mars One. Konapun. (These are all the things that somehow connect in my mind to lead to this blog post.)

Space is a happening place. It’s got all of those stars and planets and asteroids and stuff. Mars is especially cool. After all, it is the most habitable planet after Earth (according to Mars One & maybe others).

Within the next couple of weeks, there are two new, buzzy books coming out starring the red planet, so see…it IS really cool because there are new books. These two books are SO different, but it’s interesting to see how Mars plays a role in both. (Jesse and I still talk about both of these books though we liked and didn’t like different things about each.)

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown is mythology meets Hunger Games meets Ender’s Game. Fascinating mix that took a little while for me to get into. By the end I was totally hooked and now am really looking forward to the next.
• The Martian by Andy Weir is more plausible (though I would like to see what an astronaut has to say about it because maybe it isn’t.) than Red Rising, though I doubt NASA will have manned-missions to Mars within my lifetime, it would be REALLY cool if we did (and some say it’s feasible). Despite all the Science (yes…calls for a capital ‘S’) in this book it’s incredibly readable and (surprisingly) a page-turner.

Add Gravity (the movie — which is fantastic/amazing/beautiful) to the mix plus the next book in the Lunar Chronicles (out this week!) AND having read Chris Hadfield’s autobiography (have you been to his website lately?) — you can see why I’ve been a little fascinated by space of late. (Also…Carl Sagan’s Cosmos is coming back with Neil deGrasse Tyson in March — SPACE FTW!)

Since reading Commander Hadfield’s autobiography, I’ve asked the one question a lot (I even asked it above): What would/does a real astronaut think? (There are a lot of astronaut opinions about Gravity…I’m hoping there are some about The Martian once it hits shelves.)

With all of that out in the world, now I will share with you many links:

• Follow the rovers on Twitter — @MarsCuriosity & @MarsRovers
• Smithsonian also had an exhibit celebrating 10 years on Mars
• Plus…11 Photos from the Opportunity Rover’s Decade on Mars via mental floss
• Pictures of Earth from Mars via NASA — I went hunting for this while reading The Martian
• Sci-Fi Predictions About Mars That Came True from Bookish
• Teens…in Space! via Epic Reads
• Mars or Bust: Putting Humans on the Red Planet from NPR
• 10 of the Most Dangerous Space Walks Ever Done via Popular Mechanics
• One-Way, Manned Mission to Mars Just Got Closer to Reality via Popular Science — This Mars One idea and the people that have applied amazes me.
• Jet-Lagged: NASA Engineer and Family Living on Mars Time via NPR (re-discovered this link on my own blog…apparently I’ve been fascinated with Mars for longer than I thought.)
• And during all of this, my sister sent me a link to Rrcherrypie and Konapun (Syd started watching). I have to share this space food toy thing with all of you. It’s the strangest and most fascinating thing.