"What became one of the most thrilling of all journeys of the modern space era put the Spirit and Opportunity mobile robots on the surface of Mars with a dazzling array of scientific instruments, including unique stereo panoramic cameras - the culmination of years of engineering research and development. Aboard their solar panel-powered rovers, these cameras were expected to take photographs for about three months. No one imagined that after more than two years these superbly designed robots would still be exploring the plains and mountains of Mars. So far they have sent back over 150,000 images, some taking days to reach us across the tens of millions of miles of space that separate us from our closest planetary neighbor." "Jim Bell was charged at the beginning of the mission with delivering this historic view to the world. Every color image went from Mars to Earth and then through his laptop computer before being posted or printed. He has now completed the selection, cropping, and processing of these images, some over 20,000 pixels wide, for presentation in the large-format "book for the ages" that they deserve." "Four of the most breathtaking "hyper-real" panoramas are printed on magnificent 46-inch-wide gatefolds. Also included are photographs from microscopic imagers offering close-up views of the unnervingly strange yet familiar rocks and soil that the Spirit and Opportunity rovers trekked across. A work that evokes spine-tingling thoughts of our place in the universe in a way human artifacts have never been able to do before, Postcards from Mars is a masterpiece of both art and science."--BOOK JACKET.