Mars, Inc.

How do you get to the Red Planet? Not via a benighted government program trapped in red tape and bound by budget constrictions, that’s for sure. No, what it will take is a helping of adventure, science, corporate powerplays, a generous dollop of seduction—both in and out of the boardroom—and money, money, money!<br /><br />Art Thrasher knows this. He is a man with a driving vision: send humans to Mars. The government has utterly failed, but Thrasher has got the plan to accomplish such a feat: form a “club” or billionaires to chip in one billion a year until the dream is accomplished. But these are men and women who are tough cookies, addicted to a profitable bottom-line, and disdainful of pie-in-the-sky dreamers who want to use <i>their cash</i> to make somebody else’s dreams come true.<br /><br />But Thrasher is different from the other dreamers in an important regard: he’s a billionaire himself, and the president of a successful company. But it’s going to take all his wiles as a captain of industry and master manipulator of business and capital to overcome setbacks and sabotage—and get a rocket full of scientist, engineers, visionaries, and dreamers on their way to the Red Planet.<br /><br />The man for the job has arrived. Art Thrasher is prepared to do whatever it takes to humans on Mars—or die trying!<br /><br />At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).<br /><br /><b>About <i>Mars, Inc.</i>:</b><br />“. . .perfectly enjoyable as an SF book (could Bova write anything that wasn’t enjoyable?), <i>Mars, Inc.</i> has that torn-from-the-headline vibe that’s obviously intended for a larger audience. . . . the bottom line? Mars, Inc. has inspiration, excitement, thrills, romance, a dash of satir—and is a good, fun read . . . .”—<i>Analog</i><br /><br />"The Hugo winner returns to his most popular subject: the quest for Mars."—<i>Publishers Weekly</i><br /><br /><b>Ben Bova</b> has written more than one hundred twenty futuristic novels and nonfiction books, and has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, "for fueling mankind's imagination regarding the wonders of outer space." His 2006 novel <i>Titan</i> received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. In 2008 he won the Robert A. Heinlein Award "for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature." Bova is a frequent commentator on radio and television and a widely-popular lecturer. His articles, opinion pieces and reviews have appeared in Scientific American, Nature, <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>, and many other newspapers and magazines. Earlier, he was an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. His Grand Tour novels, such as <i>Moonrise</i> and <i>Mars</i>, combine romance, adventure, and the highest degree of scientific accuracy to show how the human race will expand through the solar system, and the impact this will have on individual human lives and society as a whole. Bova has taught science fiction at Harvard University and at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, where he has also directed film courses. Bova currently lives in Florida.<br /><br /><b>About the award winning novels of Ben Bova:</b><br />“Technically accurate and absorbing. . ..”—<i>Kirkus</i><br /><br />“[Bova is] the science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.”—Ray Bradbury<br /><br />“A masterful storyteller”—<i>Vector</i><br /><br />“Gives a good read while turning your eyes to what might be in the not so distant future, just like Clarke and Asimov used to do so well.”—<i>SFX</i>