mars in culture

Historical connections

Mars is named after the Roman god of war. In Babylonian astronomy, the planet was named after Nergal, their deity of fire, war, and destruction, most likely due to the planet's reddish appearance.^[112] When the Greeks equated Nergal with their god of war, Ares, they named the planet Ἄρεως ἀστἡρ (Areos aster), or "star of Ares". Then, following the identification of Ares and Mars, it was translated into Latin as stella Martis, or "star of Mars", or simply Mars. The Greeks also called the planet Πυρόεις Pyroeis meaning "fiery". In Hindu mythology, Mars is known as Mangala (मंगल). The planet is also called Angaraka in Sanskrit, after the celibate god of war, who possesses the signs of Aries and Scorpio, and teaches the occult sciences. The planet was known by the Egyptians as "Ḥr Dšr";;;; or "Horus the Red". The Hebrews named it Ma'adim (מאדים) — "the one who blushes"; this is where one of the largest canyons on Mars, the Ma'adim Vallis, gets its name. It is known as al-Mirrikh in Arabic, and Merih in Turkish. In Urdu and Persian it is written as مریخ and known as "Merikh". The etymology of al-Mirrikh is unknown. Ancient Persians named it Bahram, the Zoroastrian god of faith and it is written as بهرام. Ancient Turks called it Sakit. The Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet as 火星, or the fire star, a name based on the ancient Chinese mythological cycle of Five elements.

Its symbol, derived from the astrological symbol of Mars, is a circle with a small arrow pointing out from behind. It is a stylized representation of a shield and spear used by the Roman God Mars. Mars in Roman mythology was the God of War and patron of warriors. This symbol is also used in biology to describe the male sex, and in alchemy to symbolise the element iron which was considered to be dominated by Mars whose characteristic red colour is coincidentally due to iron oxide.^[113] ♂ occupies Unicode position U+2642.

Intelligent "Martians"

An 1893 soap ad playing on the popular idea that Mars was populated.

The popular idea that Mars was populated by intelligent Martians exploded in the late 19th century. Schiaparelli's "canali" observations combined with Percival Lowell's books on the subject put forward the standard notion of a planet that was a drying, cooling, dying world with ancient civilizations constructing irrigation works.^[114]

Many other observations and proclamations by notable personalities added to what has been termed "Mars Fever".^[115] In 1899 while investigating atmospheric radio noise using his receivers in his Colorado Springs lab, inventor Nikola Tesla observed repetitive signals that he later surmised might have been radio communications coming from another planet, possibly Mars. In a 1901 interview Tesla said:

It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.^[116]

Tesla's theories gained support from Lord Kelvin who, while visiting the United States in 1902, was reported to have said that he thought Tesla had picked up Martian signals being sent to the United States.^[117] However, Kelvin "emphatically" denied this report shortly before departing America: "What I really said was that the inhabitants of Mars, if there are any, were doubtless able to see New York, particularly the glare of the electricity."^[118]

In a New York Times article in 1901, Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory, said that they had received a telegram from Lowell Observatory in Arizona that seemed to confirm that Mars was trying to communicate with the Earth.^[119]

Early in December 1900, we received from Lowell Observatory in Arizona a telegram that a shaft of light had been seen to project from Mars (the Lowell observatory makes a specialty of Mars) lasting seventy minutes. I wired these facts to Europe and sent out neostyle copies through this country. The observer there is a careful, reliable man and there is no reason to doubt that the light existed. It was given as from a well-known geographical point on Mars. That was all. Now the story has gone the world over. In Europe it is stated that I have been in communication with Mars, and all sorts of exaggerations have spring up. Whatever the light was, we have no means of knowing. Whether it had intelligence or not, no one can say. It is absolutely inexplicable.^[119]

Pickering later proposed creating a set of mirrors in Texas with the intention of signaling Martians.

In recent decades, the high resolution mapping of the surface of Mars, culminating in Mars Global Surveyor, revealed no artifacts of habitation by 'intelligent' life, but pseudoscientific speculation about intelligent life on Mars continues from commentators such as Richard C. Hoagland. Reminiscent of the canali controversy, some speculations are based on small scale features perceived in the spacecraft images, such as 'pyramids' and the 'Face on Mars'. Planetary astronomer Carl Sagan wrote:

“	Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears.	”
—Carl Sagan, Cosmos[120]

In fiction

Main article: Mars in fiction

The depiction of Mars in fiction has been stimulated by its dramatic red color and by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions not only might support life, but intelligent life.

Alien tripod illustration from the 1906 French edition of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.

Thus originated a large number of science fiction scenarios, the best known of which is H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, published in 1898, in which Martians seek to escape their dying planet by invading Earth. A subsequent radio version of The War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938 was presented as a live news broadcast, and many listeners mistook it for the truth.^[121]

Also influential were Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, in which human explorers accidentally destroy a Martian civilization, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series and a number of Robert A. Heinlein stories before the mid-sixties.

A comic figure of an intelligent Martian, Marvin the Martian, appeared on television in 1948 as a character in the Looney Tunes animated cartoons of Warner Brothers, and has continued as part of popular culture to the present.

Author Jonathan Swift made reference to the moons of Mars, about 150 years before their actual discovery by Asaph Hall, detailing reasonably accurate descriptions of their orbits, in the 19th chapter of his novel Gulliver's Travels.^[122]

After the Mariner and Viking spacecraft had returned pictures of Mars as it really is, an apparently lifeless and canal-less world, these ideas about Mars had to be abandoned and a vogue for accurate, realist depictions of human colonies on Mars developed, the best known of which may be Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. However, pseudo-scientific speculations about the Face on Mars and other enigmatic landmarks spotted by space probes have meant that ancient civilizations continue to be a popular theme in science fiction, especially in film.^[123]

Another popular theme, particularly among American writers, is the Martian colony that fights for independence from Earth. This is a major plot element in the novels of Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as the movie Total Recall (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick) and the television series Babylon 5. Many video games also use this element, including Red Faction and the Zone of the Enders series. Mars (and its moons) were also the setting for the popular Doom video game franchise and the later Martian Gothic.

Mars

Mars

Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope
Designations
Adjective	Martian
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch J2000
Aphelion	249,209,300 km 1.665 861 AU
Perihelion	206,669,000 km 1.381 497 AU
Semi-major axis	227,939,100 km 1.523 679 AU
Eccentricity	0.093 315
Orbital period	686.971 day 1.8808 Julian years 668.5991 sols
Synodic period	779.96 day 2.135 Julian years
Average orbital speed	24.077 km/s
Inclination	1.850° 5.65° to Sun's Equator
Longitude of ascending node	49.562°
Argument of perihelion	286.537°
Satellites	2
Physical characteristics
Equatorial radius	3 396.2 ± 0.1 km[a][2] 0.533 Earths
Polar radius	3 376.2 ± 0.1 km[a][2] 0.531 Earths
Flattening	0.005 89 ± 0.000 15
Surface area	144,798,500 km² 0.284 Earths
Volume	1.6318×1011 km³ 0.151 Earths
Mass	6.4185×1023 kg 0.107 Earths
Mean density	3.934 g/cm³
Equatorial surface gravity	3.69 m/s² 0.376 g
Escape velocity	5.027 km/s
Sidereal rotation period	1.025 957 day 24.622 96 h[3]
Equatorial rotation velocity	868.22 km/h (241.17 m/s)
Axial tilt	25.19°
North pole right ascension	21 h 10 min 44 s 317.681 43°
North pole declination	52.886 50°
Albedo	0.15[4]
Surface temp. Kelvin Celsius	min mean max 186 K 227 K 268 K[3] −87 °C −46 °C −5 °C
Apparent magnitude	+1.8 to −2.91[4]
Angular diameter	3.5—25.1"[4]
Atmosphere
Surface pressure	0.7–0.9 kPa
Composition	95.72% Carbon dioxide 2.7% Nitrogen 1.6% Argon 0.2% Oxygen 0.07% Carbon monoxide 0.03% Water vapor 0.01% Nitric oxide 2.5 ppm Neon 300 ppb Krypton 130 ppb Formaldehyde 80 ppb Xenon 30 ppb Ozone 10 ppb Methane Life Main article: Life on Mars The current understanding of planetary habitability—the ability of a world to develop and sustain life — favors planets that have liquid water on their surface. This requires that the orbit of a planet lie within a habitable zone, which for the Sun is currently occupied by Earth. Mars orbits half an astronomical unit beyond this zone and this, along with the planet's thin atmosphere, causes water to freeze on its surface. The past flow of liquid water, however, demonstrates the planet's potential for habitability. Recent evidence has suggested that any water on the Martian surface would have been too salty and acidic to support life.[77] The lack of a magnetosphere and extremely thin atmosphere of Mars are a greater challenge: the planet has little heat transfer across its surface, poor insulation against bombardment and the solar wind, and insufficient atmospheric pressure to retain water in a liquid form (water instead sublimates to a gaseous state). Mars is also nearly, or perhaps totally, geologically dead; the end of volcanic activity has stopped the recycling of chemicals and minerals between the surface and interior of the planet.[78] Evidence suggests that the planet was once significantly more habitable than it is today, but whether living organisms ever existed there is still unclear. The Viking probes of the mid-1970s carried experiments designed to detect microorganisms in Martian soil at their respective landing sites, and had some apparently positive results, including a temporary increase of CO2 production on exposure to water and nutrients. However this sign of life was later disputed by many scientists, resulting in a continuing debate, with NASA scientist Gilbert Levin asserting that Viking may have found life. A re-analysis of the now 30-year-old Viking data, in light of modern knowledge of extremophile forms of life, has suggested that the Viking tests were also not sophisticated enough to detect these forms of life. The tests may even have killed a (hypothetical) life form.[79] Tests conducted by the Phoenix Mars Lander have shown that the soil has a very alkaline pH and it contains magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride.[80] The soil nutrients may be able to support life, but life would still have to be shielded from the intense ultraviolet light. At the Johnson space center lab organic compounds have been found in the meteorite ALH84001, which is supposed to have come from Mars. They concluded that these were deposited by primitive life forms extant on Mars before the meteorite was blasted into space by a meteor strike and sent on a 15 million-year voyage to Earth. Also, small quantities of methane and formaldehyde recently detected by Mars orbiters are both claimed to be hints for life, as these chemical compounds would quickly break down in the Martian atmosphere.[81][82] It is possible that these compounds may be replenished by volcanic or geological means such as serpentinization.[57] Exploration Main article: Exploration of Mars Mars 3 Lander (stamp, 1972) Viking Lander 1 site Dozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed in one manner or another before completing or even beginning their missions. While this high failure rate can be ascribed to technical problems, enough have either failed or lost communications for causes unknown for some to search for other explanations. Examples include an Earth-Mars "Bermuda Triangle", a Mars Curse, or even the long-standing NASA in-joke, the "Great Galactic Ghoul" that feeds on Martian spacecraft.[83] Past missions The first successful fly-by mission to Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, launched in 1964. The first successful objects to land on the surface were two Soviet probes, Mars 2 and Mars 3 from the Mars probe program, launched in 1971, but both lost contact within seconds of landing. Then came the 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program, which consisted of two orbiters, each having a lander; both landers successfully touched down in 1976. Viking 1 remained operational for six years, Viking 2 for three. The Viking landers relayed the first color pictures of Mars[84] and also mapped the surface of Mars so well that the images are still sometimes used to this day. The Soviet probes Phobos 1 and 2 were sent to Mars in 1988 to study Mars and its two moons. Phobos 1 lost contact on the way to Mars. Phobos 2, while successfully photographing Mars and Phobos, failed just before it was set to release two landers on Phobos's surface. Following the 1992 failure of the Mars Observer orbiter, NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor in 1996. This mission was a complete success, having finished its primary mapping mission in early 2001. Contact was lost with the probe in November 2006 during its third extended program, spending exactly 10 operational years in space. Only a month after the launch of the Surveyor, NASA launched the Mars Pathfinder, carrying a robotic exploration vehicle Sojourner, which landed in the Ares Vallis on Mars in the summer of 1997. This mission was also successful, and received much publicity, partially due to the many images that were sent back to Earth.[85] The most recent mission to Mars was the NASA Phoenix Mars lander, which launched August 4, 2007 and arrived on the north polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008.[86] The lander has a robotic arm with a 2.5 m reach and capable of digging a meter into the Martian soil. The lander has a microscopic camera capable of resolving to one-thousandth the width of a human hair, and discovered a substance at its landing site on June 15, 2008, which was confirmed to be water ice on June 20.