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Mars is the Promised Land of the modern space program, the new frontier toward which many scientists and astronauts focus their daily efforts.  If humanity ever becomes sufficiently advanced to colonize new worlds, Mars will most likely be first on our list of destinations.  Missions manned and unmanned have been planned and imagined for decades.  In science fiction, Mars has been the archetypal home-world for peaceful green men, marauding extraterrestrials, and everything in between.  Mars unites danger and possibility, demands study and invention, and captures the imaginations of this once-Earthbound species.

In keeping with this tradition, Steve at WebUrbanist has provided us with an insightful collection of Martian visions, from the scientific to the comical:

Most space scientists, sociologists and sci-fi writers agree: when humankind finally sets down roots somewhere other than the planet of our birth, Mars is our most likely destination. Chilly, lifeless (as far as we know) and frighteningly far away, Mars still offers the best hope for a human race whose figurative eggs have been kept in one basket for far too long.

Back in the days before the Space Race really got going, our impressions of landing, living and lasting on Mars came courtesy of sci-fi writers like Ray Bradbury at first, Hollywood producers after.

Films like Robinson Crusoe On Mars, Abbott And Costello Go To Mars, and Santa Claus Conquers The Martians took a lot of liberties when it came to portraying life on the Red Planet – who was going to argue?

As robotic probes like the Mariner orbiters and the Viking landers revealed the red planet’s forbidding nature, Hollywood shifted gears slightly and gave us screen gems like Total Recall. While short on hard science and heavy on Ah-nold, Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990) at least tried to give a reasonable impression of what the seedier side of life would be like if grafted onto the Martian landscape.

After a series of reflections on aspects of human colonization (terraforming, gathering resources, building cities) Steve shares some final thoughts on our species’ interplanetary destiny:

…Colonizing Mars is one way for humanity to start over, as it were, with a clean slate. This is a challenge we’ve accepted before, following Columbus’ (re)discovery of the New World… the results were mixed, depending on who you ask. Will we have better (or worse) luck with Mars?

I look toward a potential Martian colonization as a great opportunity for humanity.  In this globablized world, I’d hope that we could recognize and sidestep the difficulties of imperial conquest in favor of a more balanced, egalitarian venture.  But hey, I’ve always been a bit of an idealist.

Steve’s article has a huge array of classic Mars images, so definitely hop over to say hi.  Just make sure to wipe the red dust off your shoes before you head back to work.

[Via WebUrbanist]

[Image Source:  Between the Lines]

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