A highly informative and entertaining look at how hard it is going to be to put humans on Mars and return them safely to Earth. It takes the form a dialogue between an aspiring astronaut and a knowledgable space advocate -- both women of color -- as they hike through some rough terrain on Earth that morphs as their discussion wanders from the International Space Station to Mars itself.

The mentor is very realistic about the challenges to be surmounted and how a mission to Mars will build upon what has come before, from Martian probes to our manned Moon missions. The problems to be solved are daunting, but the describing of them excited me more for the how great the accomplishment will be when it occurs.

Mostly, this book made me want to read Andy Weir's The Martian again, probably my favorite book of the last ten years. ( )

Thorough and well-researched, The Mars Challenge describes the state of the art of work toward sending human astronauts to Mars through a dialogue between a woman who desperately wants to be among the first astronauts, and another woman who explains the technology we'll need and problems we haven't solved yet. There are a lot of challenges, and it's daunting. In the end, the wannabe astronaut almost loses hope, but delivers a stirring speech: "When we talked about building space stations back in the 1950s, people like Wernher von Braun came up with these sleek, gorgeous designs. Shining silver wheels in orbit with simulated gravity. What we got is a chain of cans and trusses. An orbiting jumble of compromises. But you know what? It's up there. We did it." I recommend this book to any kid who dreams of being an astronaut. It's good to dream, and it's good to face reality. The two aren't incompatible.

Full disclosure: I was one of two fact-checkers on this book. Wilgus took all my recommendations to heart. ( )