Here is the incredible true story of a group of determined space voyagers who wouldn't wait for the space program to catch up with them. From 1999 to 2002, the stalwarts of the Mars Society began the virtual exploration of Mars through a series of unique missions. Complete with habitat modules, space suits, and next-generation exploration equipment, they lived in the most isolated spots on earth, where they replicated and studied the real-life challenges of exploring the Red Planet. Encounters with polar bears, tensions between crew members, bouts with near-disaster, and, ultimately, victory in creating an earthbound "space program" would inspire people around the world who followed the mission on the Discovery Channel and in feature articles. Leading the mission was the man known as the "Christopher Columbus of Mars," internationally renowned astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin. In Mars on Earth, Zubrin tells a tale of risk and adventure in the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic, and in the parched deserts of the American southwest and the Australian outback. Strikingly illustrated with dramatic on-site photographs and possessed of remarkable accounts of technological know-how and achievement, Mars on Earth captures the wild-eyed idealism and hardheaded practicality of the current generation of space enthusiasts.