Exploring the Inner Solar System: Expecting the Unexpected

With NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft streaking past Venus on its way to Mercury, AAAS has teamed with the space agency to publish Exploring the Inner Solar System: Expecting the Unexpected, a book designed to inspire student interest in space sciences. The book, aimed at science educators and students, focuses on the moon and the solar system's four terrestrial planets: Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury. It features dozens of pictures and detailed discussion of both past missions and future expectations for MESSENGER, which is due to make its first Mercury flyby in January 2008. "Millions of people, from professional scientists to science-engaged citizens, first got excited about science by following NASA space missions," said Bob Hirshon, AAAS senior project director. "The MESSENGER mission to Mercury is a chance to excite a new generation of budding scientists." "We're trying to put the MESSENGER mission to Mercury in a broader context by showing how we reached our current understanding of the inner solar system," said the book's author, Justin Warner, who serves as a reporter for AAAS's daily Science Update radio program.