I think I read the 2nd edition because I remember it starting with a description of the accident, before the Congressional hearing part.

I read it around the time of the financial bailouts. They were saying it would cost something like hundreds of billions of dollars to mount a rescue mission, and obviously gov't would *never* borrow that kind of money to confront one problem.

there are wonderful tales like that which I enjoyed
back then -- lots of Heinlein, since I loved his view
on philosophy!

amazon has this book::: http://www.amazon.com/As-Mars-Revised-Se...

is that a re-edition? -- j

I may have told you there's an almost unknown book I happened upon call As It Is on Mars. An accident on a Mars mission kills all but 3 people. When it looks hopeless mission control says they can't rescue them but they're heroes and gives them all equipment they can salvage. They own it, for all the good it will do them. Several times they come close to dying from starvation, waste sanitation difficulties, and an explosion trying to build a makeshift greenhouse.. They manage to pull of some near-miracles and build a thriving little base there. When they send video back to Earth showing the amazing home they've built after over a year working 14-hour days, the people of Earth are envious. People had been happily feeling sorry for them, and now they're mad b/c they built a nicer life than many on Earth. A Mars mission tries to take some of their stuff by force, leading to a battle, with some people joining the Martians.

It sounds hokey when I tell it, but the book makes it easy to suspend belief. I don't know why the book is unknown or how I happened to find it.

that's the way I grew up, in my imagination, from
reading dozens of science fiction books. . always
wanted to be a space traveler, back then, solving
problems in colonies hither and yon. -- j

Every time I read something about this I think of all the sci-fi about people going there and establishing a colony and new ways of doing things emerging from the hardship and isolation.