BAS Lecture: Friday 18th May 2007
Andrew Lound
Mars Odyssey

Andrew Lound appeared from the 18th century to conduct us on a Mars Odyssey which commenced back in the mists of history an mythology and continued towards an end when one day a human foot will make an imprint on Martian soil.

This was a splendid and exciting performance by Andrew, dramatically illustrated with famous astronomer’s records of Mars beginning with Christiaan Huygens sketch in 1659, telescope drawings by Schroter in 1880, Maraldi, Beer and Madler in the mid 19th century.
He continued with a graphic description of Schiaparelli’s drawings of “canals” and Percival  Lowell’s observations taking us right up to the present day NASA Mars mission images.

I the 1920’s and 30’s many astronomers and laypeople were certain that some form of life must exist on Mars. H G Wells had written his famous “War of the Worlds” and when a radio broadcast was made of it in the USA, many people listening were frightened, but not altogether surprised, to suddenly hear a break in to the programme announcing that Martians had landed on Earth.
Andrew played the actual radio broadcast at that time for us, with newspaper stories shown up on the screen, vividly describing what was happening. Of course it was a total hoax, but it emphasised the way the public can be taken in by clever media timing. Local farmers were convinced they saw menacing invaders at night, when the next day only farm structures were there!

Then the 1950’s saw the start of the space age. Both US and Russian missions were sent, some failing, but the successful ones sent back images confirming that Mars was far more like the Moon than the Earth, and there was no sign of any water on the planet.

The US Viking probes, landing on the surface, were inconclusive over any form of life, even microbes. These missions did explain a variation in Mars’s orbit around the Sun. It seems this can vary about every 12½ thousand years creating a warmer climate and possibly releasing water into liquid form.

The recent Mars missions, especially the US rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, together with several orbiters have sent back astonishing images enabling detailed mapping to be done. We saw views of canyons, vast deserts, such as Hellas, a huge volcano, Olympus Mons, as we toured over the Martian landscape.
Andrew concluded with an exciting prospect for future Mars exploration. Artistic pictures showed how one day manned bases, now being planned, will be constructed. There will have to be international projects between many nations before the human footprint is seen on this most fascinating of all the planets in our Solar System.