Exploring Mars Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow 

public domain image of Mars from space, Going to Mars book reviews, lynettemburrows.com

I posted a series of book reviews titled, Going to Mars Word-by-Word, in September 2012. It was a fun exploration of the portrayal of Mars in classic to modern science fiction. In real life, we’ve been exploring Mars in new and better ways since then.

The number of launches to Mars is too long, international and complex for a single post by a space enthusiast with limited aerospace knowledge. We’ll focus on a few of the NASA missions. 

Odyssey

Mars Odyssey launched on April 7, 2001 and arrived on October 24, 2001. It is an orbiting spacecraft that studies Mars’ surface. Its mission is to detect water, shallow buried ice, and to study the radiation environment. 

It is still operational.

Spirit and Opportunity

Spirit was a Mars Exploration Rover launched by NASA on June 10, 2003. Its twin, Opportunity, launched on July 7, 2003. About the size of a golf cart, they carried the same scientific instruments. They landed on opposite sides of the planet on January 4 and 25 (UTC), 2004. 

They searched for and characterized a wide range of rocks and soil for clues about past water activity on Mars. Scientists planned for the rovers to drive up to 40 meters (approx. 44 yards) a day for up to 1 kilometer (about three quarters of a mile). 

These mechanical geologists exceeded their creators’s wildest dreams. Spirit concluded its mission in 2010. Opportunity worked for almost fifteen years. Scientists lost communication with it on June 10, 2018, during a planet-wide dust storm. It drove 45.16 kilometers (28.05 miles). The findings of the two rovers showed scientists that a very long time ago, Mars had salty seas and may have looked a lot like water on Earth.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) blasted off in 2005. On March 10, 2006, the orbiter reached Mars. Its scientific instruments studied the planet’s surface from orbit. The mission was to seek the history of water on Mars with extreme close-up photography. 

The MRO’s last communication came on December 31, 2010. 

Mars Phoenix

The Phoenix Mars Lander launched on August 4, 2007 (UTC) and landed on May 25, 2008. It studied the Martian arctic, searched for evidence of a habitable zone, and assessed the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.  

On July 31, 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander discovered water ice on Mars. The sample contained the same elements as water on earth. Elements we believe are important components of the building blocks for life. 

The Lander also observed snow falling from the clouds and found salts and minerals that suggest Mars ice had thawed in the distant past. The lander also exceeded its life expectancy. After five months, instead of 90 days, its mission ended November 2, 2008. NASA lost contact with the lander completely in 2010.

Curiosity

Artist's rendition of Curiosity Rover exploring Mars shows a collection of metal boxes on a platform with four wide all terrain wheels and a camera on a stalk above the over and a robotic arm extended to rock in front of the rover.

Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity, is twice as long and three times as heavy as the twins, Spirit and Opportunity. Launched on November 26, 2011, it landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 using precision landing techniques similar to the way the Space shuttle landings on Earth. Its landing inspired me to launch my blog series, Going to Mars Word-by-word.

This rover’s mission was to study martian rocks and soil in greater detail to understand the geologic processes that formed them and to study the atmosphere. Its design and power supply gave it an expected lifetime of a full martian year (687 Earth days.)

As of June 2022, Curiosity is still active.

Exploring Mars Today

According to NASA, there are five missions exploring Mars at present: Perseverance, MAVEN, Ingenuity, InSight, and Curiosity.

Other countries and space agencies have current missions on Mars as well. Some of these Mars missions are multiple nations and space agencies’s cooperative efforts.

For an international list of missions to Mars, see Space.com’s post or its brief history of Mars missions.

Going to Mars Word-by-Word

Illustration of a spaceship approaching the red planet, Mars, by Robert W. Burrows © 2013 for the post Exploring Mars on author Lynette M. Burrows' website

There are eight book reviews in this series. The first one reviews A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the last one is Mars Crossing by Geoffrey Landis. Wouldn’t itl be fun to explore the series to see if new information gained from exploring Mars changes my review?

What new information have you learned about Mars in the past ten years?

Image Credits

Middle image Curiosity Rover, NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Last image by Robert W. Burrows © 2013.

Going to Mars: Word-by-Word Bear Style

Nominated for the Nebula in 1986 and the Hugo and Locus in 1988, The Forge of God by Greg Bear is our next stop in this series Going to Mars: Word by Word. It is a grim, relentless examination of what might happen if an alien society of machines wanted to destroy the earth without regard or consideration for any of her inhabitants or history. Hop aboard for an exploration of Mars Bear Style.

Lynette M. Burrows, science fiction author; Lynette M Burrows author of action-suspense science fiction

 

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Europa explodes stunning astrologists. Chunks of the former moon hit Mars and Venus. Mountains suddenly appear in locations as diverse as the Australian Outback and the United States’ Death Valley stumping geologists. Oceanographers observe and track large meteor-like objects that enter the earth through the ocean’s trenches.

Scientists, politicians, and everyday people struggle with the fact that the Earth will be destroyed by an unfathomable planet eater. A second race of robots select some people to gather and load what they can onto space-going arks.

Among the saved are those who stood witness to the earth’s destruction. “It is the Law.”

Awakened from nearly four hundred years of cryosleep, the survivors create a colony on New Mars. A select few of the survivors accompanied the robots to search the stars seeking to destroy the planet eaters. For this is how balance is kept.

HOW THE RED PLANET IS PORTRAYED

Only the last chapter of The Forge of God takes place on Mars. Despite the brief appearance, Bear does a good job of presenting the reader with a credible Mars, early in its terraforming. The colonists live in habitats with some functions occurring underground. Wearing cold suits, they can leave the habitat via airlocks and breathe the cold, thin Martian atmosphere unaided as long as they don’t exert themselves. Lichen and mosses, seeded by the aliens, thrive on the planet’s surface. And the reader knows that while the colonists have a long way to go, they will survive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Science fiction and mainstream author, Greg Bear (b 1951 – ) completed his first story when he was ten years old. He sold his first story at the age of fifteen and by age twenty-three he was selling regularly. His stories and novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have won numerous awards including Hugos, Nebulas and the French Prix Apollo.

The Forge of God is the first book in one of several series written by Bear and is in development by a film studio.

For more information and a complete list of works by Greg Bear please visit his website.

CONCLUSION

The Forge of God by Greg Bear could be excruciating in its merciless flight toward the destruction of earth, yet it isn’t. He isn’t heavy-handed in his treatment of characters who greet the news of their fate with religious fervor, or stoicism, or panic. The appearance of the robotic saviors and characters who work to save art and history, who pursue life regardless, create a sense of hope. And Bear’s description of the earth’s destruction is wrenchingly beautiful and mesmerizing. It makes one wonder:

What would you do if you knew the earth would end in a few months?

If you survived, would you be on a needle-shaped ship seeking to destroy the destroyers?

 

RESOURCES

Greg Bear’s official website

Wikipedia entry on Greg Bear

 

 

Going to Mars, Word by Word with Man Plus

The next stop on our Going to Mars, Word-by-Word tour is the Nebula award-winning novel, Man Plus by Fredrik Pohl, published in 1976. By the mid-seventies, Pohl had been writing and publishing stories for almost 40 years. The writing reflects that. Smoothly written, it is a quick and entertaining read.

Man Plus, book review, Lynette M Burrows action-suspense science fiction

 

THE SET-UP

In reality the early 1970’s were a time of disco dances like the hustle, world wide unrest and fear of terrorist bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, and assassinations. There were economic worries and hardships and a huge energy crisis. The United States, USSR, and France were doing nuclear tests on their own soil. Space Mountain opened at Disneyland and Jaws by Steven Spielberg had its premier. The television show The Bionic Man was popular. Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 rendezvoused in space. And the Viking 2 Mars probe was launched.

Man Plus takes place in the not-too-distant future when the overpopulated earth is on the brink a world war battling over the few remaining natural resources on the planet. The fate of humanity rests on the people and the project inside a building in Tonka, Oklahoma.

 

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

When former astronaut Col. Roger Torraway volunteered to be the understudy for astronaut Willy Hartnett, Roger never thought he’d actually be called upon. After Willy’s death, the President of the United States urged the team at the project to meet their deadline because computer projections predicted the world would soon be at war. Roger was mankind’s last hope. He was to become Man Plus, a cyborg engineered to survive and thrive in the harsh conditions on Mars.

Heavily sedated, Roger did not know when his nervous system, his eyes, lungs, heart, ears, nose, and skin were replaced or supplemented. To solve the power problem, they gave him wings of solar panels. When the surgeries were finally over, Roger had to learn to use his new senses. His large, multifaceted eyes could distinguish everything from infrared to UV light. With his bat-like ears, he could hear all of life’s most minute sounds and easily heard conversations in the corridors outside his pressurized room. Roger also had to come to terms with who he was, was he still human? Would his wife still love him? Was his wife having an affair with his best friend, Brad, who was also the scientist responsible for much of Roger’s new body?

The remaining two-thirds of the book is about Roger adapting to his new, alien self, to the planet Mars, and finding a way to be human despite everything. The computers now predict humanity will survive on Mars and are pleased they have been successful in their mission to save the humans as well as themselves.

The story is told from a kind of limited omniscient viewpoint with sentient computers as the ‘surprise’ narrator. The reader of today is not surprised. And on reflection, there are plot holes, inconsistencies, and questionable motivations throughout the story. So yes, the story has some flaws. But it was a story that captured many readers imaginations at the time it was first published. And, it may not be as far-fetched as it seems at first glance. Do you remember these stories that made the news?

Oscar Pistorius makes Olympic history 
Boy Gets Robotic Hand Made with 3D Printer 
Multiple-Organ Transplant Survivor Celebrates New Year 

HOW THE RED PLANET IS PORTRAYED

The descriptions of Mars in Man Plus are minimal, but not inaccurate visually. Various metals and elements mentioned in the novel I’m unable to recognize as correct or incorrect. The human characters erect tents for shelter and begin performing scientific studies and tests one would expect the first persons on Mars to do.

Roger’s reaction to being on Mars is delightful. “To Roger, looking out on the bright, jewel-like colors of the planet he was meant to live on, it was a fairyland, beautiful and inviting.” And a little later, “First he walked, then trotted, then he began to run. If he had sped through the streets of Tonka, here he was a blur. He laughed out loud.” He is so eager to explore Mars that he gets himself into trouble with his power supply. This is what I read books about Mars for, that sense of wonder and excitement.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in 1919, Frederik George Pohl, Jr. has been a high school drop-out, an American soldier (during WWII), and has had nearly every possible role in science fiction. He has been a fan, poet, critic, literary agent, teacher, book and magazine editor, and a writer. “Elegy to a Dead Planet” was his first published story and appeared in Amazing Stories in 1937. His volume of writing is phenomenal and he has won every major science fiction award and then some.

When asked about his process, Pohl has had this to say, “People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories. Maybe that’s the best way to do it.” from Locus Online

Between the duration of his career and the breadth of his career, there is no way to do him justice in this post. Please visit the resources listed below.  Be sure to visit his blog, The Way The Future Blogs, in which he discusses his travels (all over the world), sf writers he has known (there’s a lot of those!), and things that interest him (the list is endless).

 

CONCLUSION

I believe that Man Plus deserves its place in science fiction history. It deserved a Nebula at the time and it deserves being read today. It challenges you to think about what it is to be human, how we humans are going to deal with our burgeoning population and consumption of natural resources, and it questions our reliance on computers. Finally, it’s one more way that Man might go to Mars.

Resources:

Official website of Frederik Pohl 
The Way The Future Blogs
wikipedia on Frederik Pohl
A bibliography 

What books have filled you with that sense of wonder?

Do you think colonizing Mars, the moon, or another planet will help us deal with problems of overpopulation or disappearing natural resources?

If you liked this post, you may like the others in the Going to Mars, Word by Word series.

Going to Mars Word By Word via a Time Slip

Published in 1964, Martian Time Slip by Phillip K. Dick (PKD) is a dark, moody story of tricks of the mind: delusions, hallucinations, power, and a time slip. It is simply told, but dated by socially unacceptable gender, racial, and ethnic descriptions. Despite the language, it has characters you want to succeed and characters you want to see get their comeuppance. Join me for the next book review in my Going to Mars Word by Word series.

Time slip, book review, Lynette M. Burrows author action-suspense fiction

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

There are multiple colonies on Mars, each dominated by a different nationality or workgroup (plumbers, farmers, etc.) The colonies are officially run by the UN, but each settlement is controlled by the appropriate union boss. They are interdependent and separate communities connected by a series of canals. It is the scarcity of water that gives the plumbing union boss a stranglehold on Mars.

Jack, a ‘recovered’ schizophrenic and a repairman, left earth to escape the pressures of an overpopulated Earth. Arnie Kott, the plumbing union boss, found the power and wealth on Mars that he would never have been able to achieve on Earth. These two men are brought together by the UN announcer’s emergency notification that a party of Bleekmen, in the open desert, were dying of thirst and exposure.

By law, all nearby helicopters had to respond and help the UN-protected Martian natives. Jack went willingly, wishing he could do more. Arnie would have preferred his pilot ignore the notification, but his pilot feared the fine he’d have to pay only a little more than he feared Arnie.

Arnie visits Camp B-G, a home for ‘anomalous children,’ one of whom is his own. There he meets Manfred Steiner, a functionally mute, autistic boy born on Mars. After Manfred’s father commits suicide, Manfred falls under Arnie’s power.

Arnie believes that people with mental disorders live and perceive time differently than regular folk. He believes they have knowledge of the future. Certain he can use this knowledge to gain more money and power, he wishes they could communicate their knowledge to him. He hires Jack to create a mechanical device that will enable Manfred to perceive ‘real’ time and communicate his knowledge of the future.

Jack studies Manfred, keeping the boy at his side most of the time. Soon, Jack has hallucinations and slides into his former schizophrenic state. When Jack confesses to Arnie that not only can he not make the mechanical device for Manfred, but that Jack’s father bought most of the mountain real estate that the UN will soon buy for development, Arnie becomes enraged. Arnie blames Jack for financial losses he assumes he will have because of his lack of knowledge about the pending development.

Manfred finally finds someone he can communicate with, Arnie’s Bleekman servant, Helio. Helio tells Arnie that the sandstone and volcanic glass projection of rock in the so-called Dirty Knobby is sacred to the Bleekmen. It’s a time portal. Activating the portal requires Manfred’s presence. Arnie conceives a plot to kill Jack. He takes Manfred to Dirty Knobby, forcing Jack to fly his helicopter overhead during their pilgrimage for ‘safety’ reasons.

At Dirty Knobby, Arnie uses Manfred to open the time slip and travels to the past. He plans to kill Jack at their first meeting so Jack won’t be his ruin. Instead, he enters into a degenerating time loop, his perceptions more and more confused until he returns to his present where he is shot by an aggrieved victim of his. Arnie dies convinced he’s in the fantasy of a schizophrenic.

With Arnie dead and Manfred with the Bleekmen, Jack realizes that the worlds of the schizophrenic, the autistic, and the ‘normal’ are not absolutely distinct, but a question of degree. He returns home, to competence, and to his family.

HOW THE RED PLANET IS PORTRAYED

I was a bit disappointed in PKD’s portrayal of the planet. Despite the set-up that water is scarce, water is wasted by those who have enough money. The settlements in Martian Time Slip resemble suburbia in the USA: there are the rich and the poor. The rich have landscapes with roses and other earth imports; the poor struggle to maintain a garden for food. The air is cold but breathable. The F.D.R. mountains are the one place where it seems like Mars. It’s arid and largely unexplored.

The native Martians were disappointing also. The Bleekman, a dark-skinned aboriginal race, are either living on their own away from the settlements and dying of exposure and thirst (for no discernible reason) or they are slaves or servants. They speak a kind of pidgin-English and trade and barter with the Earther-immigrants. Arnie’s servant speaks to Manfred in English and somehow perceives Manfred’s answers. Some reviewers say this is telepathy. The Bleekmen appear to be spiritual but the ‘priest’ at the sacred Dirty Knobby does not come across as a spiritual leader.

Though I was disappointed in the setting, PKD’s point was not the “where” of this story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author of 44 published novels and more than 100 short stories, Phillip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) and his twin sister, Jane, were born prematurely. Jane died just six weeks after their birth. The loss of his twin had a profound effect on PKD.

By seventh grade, he began suffering extreme bouts of vertigo. Multiple physicians and psychiatrists examined him. The differed in what caused his symptoms. Some called it schizophrenia, others identified other illnesses, and one even declared him quite sane. Regardless of the diagnosis, PKD experienced what he called “nervous breakdowns” throughout his life

He often cited two questions as encompassing his work: What is Reality? And What is Human? Those questions reflect his experiences, from the death of his twin to the nervous breakdowns.

He published his first story in 1951 and worked full-time as a writer from then on. His first novel was published in 1955.

He won the 1963 Hugo award for his novel, The Man in the High Castle, the 1974 John W Campbell Memorial Award for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

PKD spent most of his career in near-poverty. He began to see more financial success when he sold the rights to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which became Blade Runner. He died of heart failure, at the age of 53, before he could see the finished movie.

After his death, a number of his stories were made into movies: Total Recall; Minority Report; Screamers; Next; Imposter; Paycheck; A Scanner Darkly; The Adjustment Bureau; Radio Free Albemuth; and Confessions d’un Bario, a French film based on his mainstream novel, Confessions of a Crap Artist.

PKD wanted recognition as a literary writer, however, few of his mainstream novels were ever published. Still, PKD loved to read and to write science fiction.

The SF writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities. It’s not just ‘What if’ – it’s ‘My God; what if’ – in frenzy and hysteria. The Martians are always coming. – Phillip K. Dick

CONCLUSION

Martian Time Slip is full of uncomfortable language and attitudes, inconsistencies, and lacks the story logic that readers often demand today. Does this mean I would not recommend this book? Not at all. As an exploration of tricks of the mind (delusions, hallucinations, and reality) it creates powerful emotions. Was it PKD’s intention to make the reader think deeply about race, gender, and ethnic issues? Possibly. I do believe he intended to stir deep thoughts about reality and mental illness.

It’s not an easy book to read because of the subjects and its flaws, but it will make you think. That’s part of the reason I read science fiction. Isn’t that part of the reason you read science fiction?

Learn More About Phillip K. Dick:

The official author’s site.

Wikipedia

Internet Movie Database

Why do you read science fiction? If you don’t read science fiction, do you read books that make you think? I’d love to hear from you.  Please share some examples. Thank you for reading!

Going to Mars Word by Word with an Optimistic Knight

We’re going to Mars today via the words of one of the “Big Three*,” Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sands of Mars. Clarke said, “I have a special fondness for Sands, as it was my first full-length novel”. Published in 1951 it is an optimistic story of the early days of colonizing Mars. So hop aboard, let’s explore Mars with an Optimistic Knight.

Illustration of the Ares space-liner as it approaches Deimos and Mars, Going to Mars word by word with a optimistic knight, lynettemburrows.com

I read an omnibus edition paired with The City and the Stars. Warner Aspect published the omnibus in 2001.

In the introduction, Clarke makes wry note of the year, and says, “When I tapped out ‘The End’ on my Remington Noiseless (ha!) Portable in 1951, I could never have imagined that twenty years later I would be sitting on a panel with Ray Bradbury and Carl Sagan at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory waiting for the first news of the real Mars to arrive from the Mariner Space Probes. . .”. Nor could he imagine the Mars we’ve come to know through modern telescopes and NASA rovers.

Clarke does not romanticize the harsh conditions he imagined the colonists would have to survive. He used the best scientific information available at the time but admits there are errors in his speculations. Like many other science fiction authors, Clarke did not imagine the miniaturization of electronics. Nor did he imagine the development of personal electronic devices that resulted in a proliferation of computers and cell phones. His protagonist takes a manual typewriter on the spaceship. He faxes articles back to Earth. Faxes! And the crew of the space-liner smokes cigarettes. (Secondhand smoke was not an acknowledged issue in 1951.)

I am delighted that a multiple award-winning, best selling author like Clarke re-released this novel with all of its warts. The story is entertaining, though much slower paced than today’s novels. It suffers from stiff prose, weak conflicts, and internal story inconsistencies. All of which are fairly typical of a first or second novel. Personally, I can forgive and overlook those blunders if I enjoy the characters.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

The first half of the book deals with the flight to Mars. The protagonist, a well-known science fiction author, rides a rocket ship into space. Martin is going to Mars on assignment. He is to report on what the colony is doing with the millions of Earth dollars spent on it.

Stricken with space-sickness, Gibson fears he’ll be sent back to Earth in shame. Fortunately, the space-sickness resolves quickly and he boards the next ship on his journey.

Ares is on her maiden voyage, a test run with a stripped down crew consisting of Captain Norden, an experienced space pilot; his engineer, the Scottish astrogator; the cynical electronics officer, the medical officer, and Jimmy Spencer, a Master’s degree student hoping to pilot his own spaceship someday. Jimmy, the junior member of the crew, must assist their only passenger, Gibson. Over the course of the three-month trip, Gibson discovers a link between Jimmy and Gibson’s own unpleasant college days.

When he first arrives on Mars, the spartan lifestyle in the small, claustrophobic settlement disappoints Gibson. As he explores the domed city and its surrounds, Gibson learns about the challenges of surviving on the planet. The weekly articles he writes and sends to Earth become more and more pro-Mars as his ideas about the colony change. He meets and grows to respect and like the locals, even his antagonist Warren Hadfield, Chief Executive of Mars. Finally, during one of Gibson’s excursions, a severe sandstorm forces his aircraft off course and he makes discoveries vital to the success of the colony, or so he thinks.

I found the ending satisfying, but in case you’d like to read this novel for yourself, I’ll keep that information to myself.

HOW THE RED PLANET IS PORTRAYED

Clarke’s vision of Mars is more scientific and less descriptive than some. During the trip to the planet, the electronics officer confesses that he can’t see why anyone would want to go to Mars. “It’s flat, it’s cold, and it’s full of miserable half-starved plants looking like something out of Edgar Allan Poe”. The cities and scientific centers are contained in clusters of circular domes. Oxygen is ‘cracked’ from the iron oxide that tinted the soil a dark red.

Clarke does a remarkable job of evoking the orbiting moons, Deimos and Phobos, and the size of Mars. However, he speculates that lush brilliant green plants fill areas of the planet, though much of the planet was barren, red dirt and rocks. Infamously, he has his protagonist, Gibson, declare, “There are no mountains on Mars!” (That was true as far as anyone knew in 1951.) Finally, Clarke disables his protagonist and strands him in a deep trench. (In 1950 Clyde Tombaugh a member of the Lowell Observatory and discoverer of Pluto, proposed that the ‘canals’ of Mars were actually fissures radiating from craters which were the result of cosmic impacts.*)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in southwestern England, Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 – 2008) enjoyed stargazing and reading American science fiction magazines as a child. So much so, that he was active in science fiction circles before World War II. During the War he joined the Royal Air Force, serving as a radar instructor and technician. It was during that time he published his landmark scholarly paper, “Extra-Terrestrial Relays Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage,” where he set out the first principles of global communication via satellites in geostationary orbits.

His first science fiction story professionally published was “Loophole” for Astounding in 1946. Listing all of Clarke’s accomplishments as a scientist and author is not possible in this short blog post, but I’ll hit the major points.

Besides having been a radar instructor and technician, Clarke earned a first class honors degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1948 and served two terms as the British Interplanetary Society president.

He developed a keen interest in undersea exploration when he visited Sri Lanka (called Ceylon at that time) and moved there in 1956. He created a diving school. In 1962 a diagnosis of polio curtailed his diving activities. (The 2004 tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia did not harm Clarke, his staff, or his home. It did destroy his diving school.)

Regarded as one of the chief prophets of the space age, he joined CBS newsman Walter Cronkite and astronaut Wally Schirra in narrating the 1969 Apollo lunar landing and returned for coverage of Apollo missions 12 and 15.

Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are among Clarke’s best-known works. His body of work includes more than 70 books of fiction and nonfiction.  He’s known for an optimistic view of the future of space exploration. Histories have accurate technical details and philosophical themes. He’s won Hugos, Nebulas, and the SFWA Grand Master. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1997 and was knighted in 1998.

CONCLUSION

I would recommend reading this novel. Its characters are engaging. The argument of should we explore and colonize Mars is pertinent today. Finally, it’s fascinating to read the first novel of one of the best-known science fiction writers of all time. Go ahead, go to Mars in the words of Arthur C. Clark’s The Sands of Mars.

REFERENCES

There are numerous websites where you can learn more about Sir Arthur C. Clarke. My references include the Clarke Foundation, arthurcclarke.net, and sf-encyclopedia.

If you’d like to read a Mars discovery timeline to make your own comparisons of the facts known in 1950 go to astrodigital.org

*science fiction authors, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein

I love it when you share your thoughts with me!

What do you think? Would you read a book with known inaccuracies?  

Will there be a colony on Mars one day?

Are exploration and colonization worth it?