Being our next door neighbor and the most Earth-like planet, it is
no wonder that Mars has been a source of fascination through the ages.
It has been the subject of countless movies and science-fiction novels.
In 1938 a fictional radio play by Orson Welles had Martians invading
New Jersey. Thousands of people, believing Martians had invaded Earth,
fled their homes.
Thoughts about ancient bacterial-like life on Mars and terraforming
the planet for human settlement are on the minds of many researchers
and are among the reasons for sending the Global Surveyor and Pathfinder
spacecraft to Mars.
