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Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet

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This quote by Mike Malin sets the scene for the study of the red planet, as dreamed and hoped by mankind - scientist and layman alike. Over the centuries, Mars has confounded our attempts to describe it in Earth-like terms and Sheehan and O'Meara do a grand job of describing the history of hopes, dreams, and disappointments as the reality of Mars is discovered.

The book is set on epic scale and almost any paragraph rings with grand prose. At times this can be a little overpowering, but the canvas of the Authors is, after all, the entire celestial sphere and the history of human endeavour!

For Mars nuts this is a must buy and is compelling reading. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but it is a vital step in understanding how Mars has disappointed us in the past and may do so again.

Of course, I must declare an interest. Bill Sheehan included some of my own stories about dry Mars in this compendium. I am honoured to be included as a postscript to the legends of Mars' history.

Eurocentric in the Mediterranean (meaning "inner sea" in Greek) in the sixth century discovered the human mind. "This discovery was undoubtedly the most fateful of all history...which would one day lead on to Mars." What Mount Everest and the Moon were to the 20th centruy, Mars will be to the 21st. John Milton wrote in PARADISE LOST: "Their wandering course now high, now low' then hid, Progressive retograde or standing still." Mercury and Venus are known as the evening and morning stars.

Mars, on the other hand, uses zig-zagging movements while Jupiter and Saturn are slow creepers across the universe. Superior planets are those in orbit beyond that of Earth; the Inferior are Mercury and Venus are closer than our to the Sun. Mars prances with grandeur and grace with its red color (for fire) which makes it stand out. Mars has a rhythm, a musical harmony, to its flight across the sky.

Mars is the outermost of the inner group and has a substantial orbital distance from the Sun, taking longer than Earth to complete an orbit -- almost two years. Mars' retrograde "loop" perplexed ancient astronomers. Most of the time, it moves eastward; when Earth speeds past on its smaller, shorter orbit and overtakes Mars, it appears to move retrograde ("backwards") until a distance away and the eastward movement resumes. Earth knocks it for a loop.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program uses robots to explore the planet, dispatched to sites where water could have been eons ago. Thick deposits of salt, likely formed when water evaporated from an ancient sea have been found. There is dry ice at the poles. Mars has seen ice ages leaving icy polar caps. Volcanoes have formed deep valleys and large mountain ranges. They have their own Grand Canyon of enormous size, so vast that it takes up one-sixth of Mars' circumference. The atmosphere is thin, about one-hundredth of that on Earth.

NASA names prominent landmarks; like the United States postage stamps, the features are not named after living people. One was named after the former Columbia shuttle commander. University of Tennessee astronomers who work in conjunction with Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Lab named a mountain ridge Cumberland Ridge.

Through trials and tribulations, the scientists show strength in the face of criticism and bask in the glories of their successes in this exploration of Mars. In 1971, the spacecraft Mariner 9 started the deal. In 1993, there was a failure to reach Mars with the Observer which had a ruptured fuel line. Four years later, on July 4, 1997, the Pathfinder lander with Sojourner rover made its way to the spot where Viking I lander had explored twenty-one years earlier and sent transmissions for six years back to Earth. Then came the rover Spirit and Oportunity, robotic explorers to look for samples of rocks, soil and other materials to help us to determine if Mars had indeed been a planet such as ours in many centuries past.

A manned flight is in the not-too-distant future. In 2007, Mars will be in the Taurus border in the early morning sky, closer to Earth; the United Kingdom will have the best view that winter of 2007 and 2008 around Western Europe. In November of that year, it will be the brightest object in the late evening sky. On Christmas Eve, it will be as far north as it can be on the celestial sphere with peak brightness next to a Full Moon. What a sight! By February to mid-April, 2008, it will end its spectacular show. By the end of May, it is muted in the bright sky and, on December 5, 2008, it reaches conjunction beyond the Sun.

Come fly with me to the Heavens and observe all these happenings. It doesn't take an astronomer or a space ship to enjoy the wonders of the universe.