Michael W. Carroll is a well-known space artist. He has frequently been commissioned by NASA. Carroll is the recipient of the 2006 Lucien Rudaux award for lifetime achievement in the astronomical arts. His art has appeared in magazines such as TIME, National Geographic, Astronomy and other publications, and has flown aboard the Russian space station MIR and NASA's Phoenix Mars lander. Carroll is also a science journalist, with over a dozen children's and adult books on subjects ranging from space to paleontology.