Humanity's Fascination with Mars | MARS

Dreamers of space have always had their eyes there, their hopes, their aspirations on getting to Mars. It has to look at the sky, saw that thought, and wondered what's on it. As soon as people understood what planets were, some of them said, “Wouldn't it be neat to go there?”

The modern fascination with Mars began with Percival Lowell. He was wealthy enough to build his own observatory, and he was convinced that Mars had life, and he writes about this. The seed was planted in the hearts and minds of the public that maybe the planets have life. Shortly after he published his books, the novel "War of the Worlds" comes out. Where did those aliens come from? Mars.

For whatever reason, we have been talking about the Red Planet and little green men, the red planet Mars for over 2,000 years. The symbol for war, it's been part of movies and shows. I think it's just because it's this next planet, and it looks really cool. New adventures in undreamed-of places—all of this led to an early 20th-century sense that there's probably something there.

You'll be the next to attack, sign, and maybe, yeah, right into oblivion. The public perception of going to Mars and going to the moon is what pushed us to go there.