"Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission" is the product of more than two years of reporting -- much of it at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena where the scientists and engineers worked. Under a kind of non-disclosure agreement with JPL, I was able to watch as events unfolded, talk with key people as decisions were being made and findings evaluated, and generally embed myself. In return, I promised not to write about what I had learned with this special access until the book was published. That's why many aspects of the Curiosity mission reported in the book will seem new to readers.I believe the book breaks new ground in terms of the narrative told, and I know it does in terms of the photos displayed. With more than 300 images, maps and illustrations, it puts a new face on Mars. Major advances in images coming from the rover, as well as beautiful and revelatory images from the orbiting HiRISE camera and other sources, reveal a planet very different than earlier seen.This is my second book about space -- the first being "First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Search for Life Beyond Earth," published in 2011 by Simon & Schuster.As a reporter and editor for more than 30 years, mostly at The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, I've been primed to jump on the big story. That's precisely what I saw in the Curiosity mission and in the burgeoning field of astrobiology.I've had the pleasure of writing about space for a decade now, but I believe my years working as a foreign correspondent trained me best to write these books. Why? My task as a reporter abroad was to learn and understand new languages and cultures. Writing about science for a broad public involves similar dynamics. In both settings I needed to find the individuals who might best bring the work and the stories to life, and then to in effect understand and translate their research. It wasn't always easy for an author without deep training in science but it has been the education of a lifetime for me, and hopefully will be eye-opening and compelling for you.