April 7, 2006 - RASC - Mississauga Centre

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Apr 7, 2006 ... Hans Dominik wrote “A Journey to Mars” in German in 1908 inspiring Herman Oberth who became a mentor to the early German rocket.
Mississauga Astronomical Society 60th Meeting Speaker’s’ Night

Day:

Speaker:

Friday, April 7, 2006

Roy Godwin

The History of Mars and Martians in Fiction and Fact Roy Godwin of Apogee Books started out with books on Rock and Roll, and subsequently the space program after meeting Buzz Aldrin and being asked to publish a book on Apollo 8. He continued to work with various societies and published the NASA Mission Reports in print and DVD. Apogee Books has been involved with the Space Frontier Society and Mars Society publishing the Mars Mission reports, with the Discovery Channel series “Rocket Science”, and with science fiction such as “Edison’s Conquest of Mars, the sequel to “War of the Worlds”. William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, was the first one to notice that the polar caps on Mars wax and wane. Pierre Simon de Laplace theorized in 1976 that more distant planets in the solar system formed earlier than inner ones and that therefore life on Mars is older than life on earth. In 1871, William Huggins detected water on Mars using a spectroscope and in the same year Richard Proctor wrote stories of travelling to the planets. Proctor wrote that because of Mars’ low gravity, life forms would be 15 feet tall and canals would be easy to dig. In 1858, Fr. Pietro Secchi, astronomer, say straight lines on Mars through a telescope and called them ‘canali”. Camille Flammarion in 1877 drew red areas on a Mars map. Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877 drew a Mars map showing lines with conjunction points and named many features which are still used today. In 1878 Asaph Hall discovered the moons Phobos and Deimos. Percival Lowell was so taken by the idea of Martian canals that he built an observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona and in 1895 observed the planet. His observations were published in the Atlantic Monthly and in his book “Mars as the Abode of Life”. Kurt Lasswitz wrote “On to the Planets” in Germany in 1897 about Martians coming to Earth and building a space station. In the same year, Herbert George Wells started writing “War of the Worlds” wherein non-humanoid Martians invade the English countryside. The following year, the sequel “Edison’s Conquest of Mars” by Garrett Serviss was published in newspapers. Serviss made Edison the hero, organizing the whole planet to build a fleet of spaceships to move to Mars. Serviss’ book is the first one to show spacesuits. It also depicts spaceships as cigar-shaped for the first time – a design later used in pulp fiction. Robert Goddard, inventor of the solid booster rocket read these

stories and was inspired by them. Hans Dominik wrote “A Journey to Mars” in German in 1908 inspiring Herman Oberth who became a mentor to the early German rocket pioneers including Wernher von Braun and Ernst Stucklinger. Edgar Rice Burroughs, a pencil sharpener salesman, wrote “Under the Moons of Mars” in 1912. His novels of Mars became a huge hit. Hugo Gernsbach had a canal scene published in 1915 in “Electrical Experimenter” magazine. “Science and Invention” had a story in 1924 suggesting that we “talk” with lights or green crops planted in geometrical patterns for Martians to see. In 1938, Orson wells dramatized H.G. Wells attack by Martians on the radio causing panic. In 1951 von Braun and 192 German rocket scientists were told to build rockets. This was written up in Collier’s Magazine. Chesley Bonnestell had illustrations of Moon bases and landings, and a Martian fleet. Stanley Miller synthesized amino acids and nucleic acids in 1953 showing “how easy it is for life to form”. On July 14, 1964, the spacecraft Mariner 4 arrived at Mars showing craters but no sign of canals or Martians. Then in 1969 von Braun showed how it is possible to get to Mars by 1982 using a lander, excursion module etc. Sergei Korolev’s legacy, Mars 3 was the first vehicle to land on Mars; it landed in a sandstorm and was wiped out almost immediately. Finally, Viking landed on Mars in 1976. Among other things, it showed frost as predicted by Richard Proctor. Many Mars missions have been developed since then. Roy briefly touched upon the Mars Rovers, and Mars Global Surveyor. There is much to look forwards to including the book “Project Mars, A Technical Tale” by Wernher von Braun coming out in 2006

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary