ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission: Magical Mars a cultural odyssey

Mars has always been a symbol of our longing for other worlds.The myth of magical Mars shattered into a thousand pieces when Mariner 4 spacecraft arrived at the Red Planet in July, 1965. What awaited Mariner was a dry, arid land, abandoned to the winds. From HG Wells to cult comic legend Alan Moore, the Red Planet has served as the source of legends for our popular culture. But much of this was really about us back on Earth; our values, worldviews, our hopes and nightmares. Balu Mohan takes a look at the Red Planet through the eyes of authors and narrates the story of a Mars that never was

The idea of intelligent Martians exploded in popularity in the 19th century when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli saw channels on the Planet, and Percival Lowell speculating that they were canals built by an ancient Martian

First contact – Mars in 19th Century

Across the Zodiac (1880) by Percy Greg. Perhaps the earliest of the Martian stories where the narrator fl ies his craft, the “Astronaut,” to visit Mars

The War of the Worlds (1898) by HG Wells. The novel features an attack on England by Martians.

1910s, 20s, 30s and 1950s

A Princess of Mars and another 10 Mars stories (1912– 1943) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Aelita (1922) by AN Tolstoy. One of the 1st Soviet science fiction novels. It describes a Soviet expedition to Mars headed by an engineer, Los.

Out of the Silent Planet, by CS Lewis (1938). A rare example of theological science fiction The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury. A set of stories feature Martians whose civilisation is destroyed by humans

In Philip K Dick’s fi ction, Mars is an almost empty, dry land, with isolated communities and individuals, most of whom do not want to be there Martian Time Slip (1964) The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)

1960s , 1970s and 1980s

A Rose for Ecclesiastes (1963) by Roger Zelazny Known Space stories by Larry Niven (1964) In Man Plus (1976) by Frederik Pohl The Far Call by Gordon R Dickson Ananke (1982) by Stanis³aw Lem The Forge of God (1987) by Greg Bear

1990s

Grand Tour series by Ben Bova Red Dust (1993) by Paul J McAuley Bright Messengers (1995) by Gentry Lee The Martian Race (1999) by Gregory Benford

Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson- Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, 1992–1996) is concerned with a centurieslong programme of terraforming the planet

2000s

The Galactic North (2000) by Alastair Reynolds - In the story, ‘The Great Wall of Mars’, the most technologically advanced faction of humans are based on Mars and are embroiled in an interplanetary war; introduced some of the most important characters and groups in the Revelation Space universe

Mars Crossing by Geoffrey A Landis (2000), First Landing (2002) by Robert Zubrin Ilium/Olympos series (2003) by Dan Simmons. Olympus Mons has become the Mount Olympos of Greek myth, home of beings playing the roles of the various Greek gods

Comics

Watchmen by Alan Moore: In Watchmen, Dr Manhattan tours Mars and visits Olympus Mons. He takes his girlfriend there, soon after he leaves for another galaxy

Calvin and Hobbes: Weirdos From Another Planet! by Bill Watterson: Calvin and Hobbes travel to Mars because the Earth is too polluted

Singing of Mars

In the second verse of the hit song “Rocket Man” (1972), Elton John sings

“Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids

In fact it’s cold as hell

And there’s no one there to raise them, If you did”.