The Martian Race

Benford, Gregory
http://new.marsstuff.com/author/gbenford

Warner Books(ISBN: 0446526339). (1999)

For American John Axelrod, it's not about nationalism or personal fame. It's about the money: the Mars Prize, a $30 billion purse offered for the first successful manned mission to the Red Planet. When NASA becomes bogged down in politics and bureaucracy, businessman Axelrod and a conglomerate of backers seize their chance.

But for astronauts Julia; her husband, Viktor; Marc; and Raoul--Axelrod's team of ex-NASAnauts--it's not about wealth or media attention. It's about courage, discovery, and facing the unknown. It's about Mars...and staying alive. For the prize rules clearly state that the winning team can't just grab a rock and leave. Their mission will keep them on the barren planet for almost two years, a genuine opportunity for biologist Julia and the others to research, learn, adapt, and search for clues to the Red Planet's greatest mystery: Did life ever exist there?

This isn't, however, a NASA mission with backups, fail-safes, and Mission Control. The astronauts know that Axelrod has cut corners and that theirs is a high-stakes, high-risk return to the oldest rule of exploration: Succeed or die. Now four people are trapped on a frigid, alien world that can kill them in countless ways. And a time will come when "to survive" Julia, Viktor, Marc, and Raoul must embrace everything that makes them human.

And everything that will make them Martian.