Mars

As one of the five planets that can be seen in the night sky without the aid of a telescope, Mars has been a source of fascination for millennia. Astronomer Patricia Skelton investigates our relationship with Mars, beginning with the earliest observations and the conundrums they generated and ending with our ambitious plans for the future. She explores how the Red Planet helped solve the mysteries of planetary motion, sparked furious debates about other life in the Solar System, became an early target of space exploration and has since been a testing ground for remarkable new technologies.