Many years have passed since the inaccurate translation of the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observations of the Red Planet. He wrote canali and meant channels, somehow it got translated as canals, and the whole Mars craze was born — a entire genre of scientific, quasi-scientific and purely fictional theories about intelligent life on Mars.
Many luminaries and celebrities were onboard. First, Nicola Tesla announced that he had recorded mysterious signals emitting from Mars. Then H.G. Wells inhabited the planet with menacing creatures who came to destroy us in the War of the Worlds. Then Tarzan’s creator Edgar Rice Burroughs sent there US Civil War officer John Carter to start another conflict among the locals. Science fiction scion Ray Bradbury had in his Martian Chronicles humans accidentally destroying Martian civilization. Arnold Schwarzenegger paired there up with Sharon Stone to find his Total Recall.
Why? Why since the time immemorial, when humans spotted the moving red dot in the night sky and immediately named after their own god of war, why did it capture our imagination so vividly? Could it be that we always knew — this is going to be the next frontier. This is where we are going, this is where the red steppingstone for the big journey into the Universe is.
