Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the Ancient Sumerians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague.
Filled with entertaining history, archival images, pop culture ephemera, and interviews with NASA scientists, The Big Book of Mars is the most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars yesterday, today, and tomorrow..
And it has sparked a space-race feud between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who both hope to send a manned mission to Mars in the near future.
It has been the subject of iconic novels and movies, from Ray Bradbury\'s The Martian Chronicles to Mars Attacks! to The Martian.
It has its own day of the week (Tuesday, or martis in Latin), candy bar, and iconic Looney Tunes character.
Since then, Mars has fully invaded pop culture.
Wells suggested that we wouldn\'t need to make contact with Martians they\'d come for us while, many years later, Nikola Tesla claimed that he did make contact.
In The War of the Worlds, H.
G.
But it wasn\'t until 1877, when canals were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there s life on Mars.
Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the Ancient Sumerians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague
