The author chronicles the three months he spent in Mission Control for NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission, a project that lead to the discovery of liquid water on Mars, as well as a giant frozen ocean trapped beneath the planet's north pole.

"Author's note. This is a book about Mars and the humans that make rocket science possible. This is not the most accurate account of this NASA mission. For that, you'll want to review the science papers or other Mars-related literature. Instead, this is an account of winning the nerd lottery: The luckiest fanboy in fandom gets a shot to spend three months with unfettered access to Mission Control. It's just your average summer trying to capture the story of 130 of the world's best planetary scientists and engineers exploring the north pole of Mars. It's a warts-and-all look at the Phoenix Mars mission from a regular guy who loves space."--Page ix.