Preface

Abstract

The realization that the stars moving through the constellations of the zodiac were indeed other worlds and not sun-like stars initiated a fascination with the planets that exhibited itself most strikingly in the literary genre of science fiction. Of all the planets Mars has provided the most popular setting for science fiction. Mars is accessible.We can travel to Mars quickly and affordably. It has an atmosphere, sufficient to assist in decelerating an entry vehicle with a gravity field that is not so strong as to prevent return. While Percival Lowell's speculation about the existence of canals on Mars for transporting water was incorrect, the underlying hypothesis that Mars is a wet planet was not. That spacecraft could travel to Mars was then a fantasy but is so no longer. While unlike the stories of E.R. Burroughs we no longer expect astronauts to walk on the surface of the red planet and breathe the air or to have them encounter sentient beings, but we would not be surprised if one day we find evidence that life had existed on Mars or perhaps even exists today in some primitive form.

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