Science Fiction - Mars

Visiting and considering the Moving to Mars exhibit has definitely influenced the direction I’ve taken with this project so far. However this has possibly moved the project and my line of research in a direction which is not essentially routed in science fiction, because a lot of the research is actual plans in place for this mission to mars, and the definition of science fiction that I’ve mainly been considering is -

‘Science fiction is fiction based upon some imagined development of science, or upon the extrapolation of a tendency in society’

To get my line of research back on track, while also following this interest in mars and colonising it, I’m going to research examples of science fiction related to mars.

https://www.space.com/14849-mars-science-fiction-legacy.html

For centuries, fantasy stories were often stuck on Earth, but in the 19th century, "we humans stopped really being able to come up with completely imaginary locations on Earth, and the idea of the truly alien here became much harder to maintain," said pop culture scholar Jess Nevins. "We were still doing it, but on some level we knew most things had been mapped."
So science fiction began exploring distant realms, such as Mars.
"Besides the moon, Mars is the easiest truly alien place for us to imagine ourselves or other creatures on, so we're able to project all sorts of fantasies onto it," Nevins said. "We know it's there, and known it's there for a long time. It's close, red and threatening." 
Books about Mars/Martians
  • War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells - doesn’t actually set foot on mars, however the alien species that invade earth in the story are martians.
  • The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury - A collection of linked stories that tell of the human conquest of Mars, it is full of mysterious elements that add a haunting quality to the book. 
  • White Mars, Brian w. Aldiss - a nod to the utopian writings of H.G. Wells.Martian colonists live in self-sufficient domes while the majority of Mars is left in a state of nature for scientific research. - The idea of the colonists living in self sufficient pods is incredibly similar to the pods being planned to be used for the actual mission too mars.
  • Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein - An expedition to Mars is lost. Twenty five years later, a second expedition finds there is one survivor of the first expedition, Valentine Michael Smith, who was raised by Martians. Returning reluctantly to Earth, Smith finds himself at the centre of a variety of political and religious disputes. But he brings with him Martian philosophy and wisdom, along with astonishing psychic abilities.
Movies about Mars/Martians
- A Trip to Mars (1910) - The 1910 movie is one of the more obscure inventions by the Edison Manufacturing Company (yes, the company named after famed creator Thomas Edison). A professor discovers that combining two powders create a "reverse gravity" that allows objects to float freely, independent of the laws of gravity. He makes a powder demonstration and accidentally spills some, sending him on a trip to Mars. It's not a Mars surface that is very realistic by today's standards (for example, he goes into a forest), but it's still an entertaining early look at Red Planet fiction. You can watch the 4-minute film here at Archive.org. A Danish film of the same name was released in 1918.


- The Angry Red Planet, (1960) -The first crewed mission returns to Earth from Mars, with only two of the original four astronauts surviving. The astronauts had a terrible time on the surface, we learn, which includes being attacked by the fauna on the surface as well as some spider-like creatures. The Martians are so unimpressed by Earthlings that they ultimately threaten catastrophic consequences if any people from our planet deign to return. If nothing else, the special effects in this movie are amusing, combining live action sequences with hand-drawn animations.

  • Christmas on Mars (2008) - In an entertaining departure from the usual Mars movies, "Christmas on Mars" was created by the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips (and all of the band members appear in the cast, too.) It's a bit of an odd plot, discussing what happens during the first Christmas on Mars – an extra-special event since the first baby was also born on the Red Planet. The film was never aimed for a big-screen audience, instead enjoying a limited theater release as well as a direct release to DVD.

  • The Martian (2015) - "The Martian" is just amazing. This movie about a Mars landing – part satire of NASA procedures, part inspirational in the way it shows astronauts and Mission Control solving a big problem – garnered lots of critical acclaim when it was released in 2015. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is accidentally stranded on Mars when his crew leaves without him, leaving him alone on a planet with no easy way to get home. He records his efforts to make contact in sardonic video diaries, as NASA races against time to get a rescue ship to him before he runs out of food – mostly, potatoes that Watney grew himself. Watney also takes a page from "Red Planet" and retrieves the Mars Pathfinder rover, although we'll let you watch the movie to see the true awesomeness of his rover hacking.

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