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4[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mars_2007.png]]
5[[caption-width-right:350:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXOanvv4plU Dun-dun-dun-dun,]] [[Music/GustavHolst dun, dun-dun-dun]]]]
6[floatboxright:
7'''Profile'''
8* Diameter: 6,779 km
9* Mass: 0.107 of Earth
10* Density: 3.9335 g/cm³
11* Surface Gravity: 0.38 g
12* Semi-major Axis: 1.52 AU
13* Orbital Period: 686 Days (1.88 Years)
14* Rotational Period: 24 hours, 39 minutes
15* Axial Tilt: 25.19°
16* Average Surface Temperature: -63° C
17* Atmospheric Pressure: 0.006 atm
18* Notable Features: Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris, Hellas Planitia
19* Number of Moons: 2
20* Number of Total Missions: 48
21]
22
23->''"This is Mars. Not the home of some fantastic civilization. A lonely desert, populated by rocks."''
24-->-- '''Creator/PatrickStewart''', ''The Planets''
25
26Ah, Mars. Its vivid red soil has entranced the imaginations of humans since it was first identified.
27
28Historically while the white areas seen on Mars's poles with a telescope were correctly identified as polar caps of water ice first and carbon dioxide plus water ices later, and as happened with the lunar "maria" that were thought at first to be actual seas of water instead of plains of solidified lava, the dark spots ("albedo features") that can be seen in Mars' surface with an Earth-based telescope as in the image to the right were considered actual seas, astronomers creating in such way [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_albedo_features_NASA_1970.JPG a nomenclature]] that while today obsolete is still used by amateur astronomers and that uses names drawn from the myths, history and geography of classical antiquity; dark features were named after ancient seas and rivers, light areas after islands and legendary lands[[note]]Actual Martian surface features located in the same place of such albedo features would inherit such names more or less modified (i.e., the Mare Cimmerium would become Terra Cimmeria and the Nix Olympica would become Olympus Mons[[/note]]. In the late 19th century, astronomer Giovanni Schiapparelli [[note]]Uncle to the surrealist couturier UsefulNotes/ElsaSchiaparelli[[/note]] observed what appeared to be water channels on Mars. When his writings were translated into English, the Italian word ''canali'' was misleadingly translated as canals (the actual Italian word for "canals" is "canal''e''", with an "e"). For decades afterwards, it was widely believed that these had been built by intelligent aliens in order to carry water from the polar caps to the drier equatorial regions. Predictably, Martians featured in a large amount of ScienceFiction in the first half of the 20th century. Later on, when it was clear Mars lacks large bodies of liquid water, it was thought such features were areas of vegetation changing its extension as Martian seasons progressed.
29
30However, when UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s ''Mariner 4'' probe flew past Mars in 1965, it was conclusively shown that the canals didn't actually exist and that the dark features were as proposed by Creator/CarlSagan just the result of dust being blown by the winds of Mars exposing a dark substrate. When the ''Viking'' probes landed ([[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace the Soviets got there first]] with Mars 3, but the lander was taken out by a dust storm 14.5 seconds after landing), the planet was shown to be lifeless, and the concept of Martians quickly became discredited. More recent observations suggest that Mars may have supported life in the distant past, and some people still cling to hope that life may reside underground, no matter how unlikely it is. However, the Red Planet has had such a hold on human imagination for so long that it is not going to be lost as a setting any time soon.
31
32Mars regained its prominence in human imagination in 1976 when the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1 Viking 1]]'' probe reached the planet; equipped with more advanced technology, it was able to take a number of impressively high-resolution photographs. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_%28region_of_Mars%29 One of these showed]] [[ItKindOfLooksLikeAFace what appears to be a human face]]. Though quickly debunked by every legitimate authority, it has taken its place alongside the Nazca lines and the Pyramids of Giza in conspiracy lore — especially as one of the photographs from the mission ''[[RevealingCoverup has yet to be declassified]]''. Fictional representations of Mars were changed as well; no longer a destination but a stepping-stone to greater glories in the form of ancient ruins filled with LostTechnology, waiting for humanity to discover it and thereby leapfrog into the stars. One way or another, that particular argument will remain unsettled until [[IWantMyJetpack people actually go there unregulated]].
33
34More modern stories tend to have Mars [[ColonizedSolarSystem being colonized]], either as a plot point or part of the Back Story. This isn't an unlikely scenario in real life; it has more of the basic elements needed for life than any other non-Earth world in the solar system and it's quite similar to Earth in several aspects, including day length (24h 39m 35.244s), temperature (-2 to -87 °C, chilly, but overlaps a fair amount with Earth, albeit the coldest parts of Earth), and an atmosphere (although Martian "air" is mostly carbon dioxide and averages about 1/100th of the Earth's pressure). It's also our neighbor along with UsefulNotes/{{Venus}} (which we have yet to keep a probe functioning on for [[DeathWorld more than a few minutes]]). For these reasons, Mars is the planet that is most frequently subject to [[{{Terraform}} Terraforming]]. Strangely, regardless of how otherwise Earth-like it may be, Mars tends to retain its distinct red soil. The weak gravity and thin atmosphere also mean that dust storms go up to eleven on Mars. Every so often, a gigantic dust storm ''will cover the entire planet'' in a thick cloud of particles.
35
36Because the Martian day is almost, but not quite, the same length as Earth's day, NASA scientists working on Mars missions reckon the local time there by "sols" (Martial '''sol'''ar days). There's no special name for the Martian year, however.
37
38Despite its many Earthlike qualities, Mars is nowhere near as big as the Earth. It's only half the Earth's diameter and its surface gravity is only 0.38 g (38% of Earth's surface gravity). The reason for this is that when Jupiter migrated inward towards the Sun, it robbed Mars of material to form with; scientists believe that had Jupiter not drifted inward, Mars would have been the same size as Earth and Venus. The ''total'' surface area of Mars is about equal to the ''land'' surface area of the Earth (i.e. that small portion of the Earth's surface that isn't underwater). Nevertheless, Mars has a canyon system (Valles Marineris) that's far, far larger than Earth's Grand Canyon, and a volcano (Olympus Mons[[note]]Not to be confused with the Olympus Mons from Myth/ClassicalMythology. Or OlympusMons[[/note]]) that's far, far larger than Earth's Mount Everest.[[note]]The reason is that there is ''no'' continental drift on Mars, so the same vent was used over and over by Mars, unlike Earth, where the vents will drift — just ask the Yellowstone Caldera, or UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}.[[/note]] Unlike Everest or most other large mountains on Earth, Olympus Mons is not steep at all. On the contrary, it rises so gradually that in terms of land area it's roughly the size of France, and a person standing at the base of Olympus Mons would be unable to see its summit because it would actually be over the horizon. Olympus Mons and Mariner Canyon both lie on a region called the Tharsis Bulge, essentially a seven-kilometer high (that's ''before'' adding the altitude of the volcanoes) bump on the planet's surface caused by a massive upward magma flow beneath that entire area. Olympus Mons is the largest of ''many'' volcanoes sitting on the bulge. When these volcanoes were being formed, the pressure caused by the upward magma flow caused a part of the crust to ''split open'', creating the Valles Marineris. Depending on how the boundary of the Tharsis Bulge is defined, it covers up to twenty-five percent of Mars's surface area.
39
40One unusual feature of Mars is that its northern and southern hemispheres are so dramatically different in geography. The northern hemisphere is largely smooth (and it is theorized that much of it was once covered in water), while the southern hemisphere has very rough, cratered ground that averages 1–3 kilometers higher in elevation. Given the sheer improbability that asteroids and meteors would only strike half of a planet, astronomers have been trying to figure out why this would be the case ever since detailed photographs of Mars first became available. In the last decade, study of the northern hemisphere has indicated that [[ColonyDrop a single massive impact]] by an object about 2/3rd the size of Earth's Moon may have wiped away all smaller craters and other irregularities on the northern hemisphere. The signs of this enormous crater, bigger than the next four largest in the solar system combined and covering some 40% of Mars' surface, were obscured by over a billion years of volcanic eruptions along its rim. It has been argued that the difference in cratering is because Mars once had a shallow ocean covering most of its northern hemisphere. While there is no evidence to disprove this claim, there is also no conclusive evidence for it either.
41
42The most damaging is that Mars has a core that's dead, with very little tectonic activity,[[note]][=InSight=]'s SEIS seismometer has picked [[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-0544-y almost 200]] weak marsquakes until September 2019, and [[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01836-3 there's evidence]] of such probe having landed on a part of the planet underlaid by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superplume mantle superplume]][[/note]] so there's no magnetic field to keep the solar wind from keeping the planet more or less sterile. Although science holds out hope that they will [[OnceGreenMars one day discover evidence that life once existed on Mars]], there's very little hope they will find life living there now.[[note]]This might seem like a problem for colonization, but isn't really; building largely underground — as most serious proposals call for — handles the radiation problem pretty handily. Many current proposals for colonization indicate that lava tubes — basically big caves where ancient lava had flowed underground and then shrank as it cooled, leaving a big empty tunnel — would be a good spot to settle.[[/note]] Worse than that, the Martian soil is now known to be extremely rich in hexavalent chromium (known for short as [=HexChrome=]).[[note]]You may recognize it as the chemical that ''Film/ErinBrockovich'''s law firm sued PG&E over for contaminating the water supply in Hinckley, California.[[/note]] Today, the moons [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfJupiter Europa]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn Enceladus]] are considered more likely to currently harbor life, both having verified subterranean liquid water and the protection of their respective home planets' magnetic fields. (Europa's surface ice is also a protective barrier from Jupiter's latent radiation.) While in 2015 it was finally verified that there is indeed liquid water on the surface of Mars, the lack of a magnetic field and toxic soil would still be severe obstacles to life. However, despite the odds, there is a chance extremophiles live inside Mars. After all, life has been found to thrive inside of otherwise lethal conditions such as tar pits, geothermal pools, and geothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean.
43
44Although Mars doesn't have nearly as substantial an atmosphere as Earth (let alone Venus, or the gas giants), it has enough of one that the reduced level of sunlight relative to Earth (40%)[[note]]Coincidentally, this is about the same level of sunlight that Venus, which gets 1.9 times more sunlight than Earth but only 20% of which reaches its own surface, receives[[/note]] that reaches Mars is able to diffuse in the sky (the large amounts of dust in the atmosphere aid immensely in this process). Most observers describe the daylight sky as being "butterscotch" or similar in color. Amusingly, because of the way sunlight is refracted, at sunrise and sunset the sky around the sun is more bluish, the opposite of the reddish hue the sky around a rising or setting sun takes on in our own atmosphere. The Martian night sky resembles our own in many ways, with the exception of two tiny moons rather than one large one (see below), and, of course, the presence of nearby Earth and its Moon, though with the naked eye, they are not always discernable as two distinct objects. Even at their brightest, both Earth (-2.5) and the Moon (+0.9) are dimmer than Venus (-3.2) as seen from Mars, making it the brightest planet as seen from all three of the other inner planets.
45
46And as we all know from pop psychology, [[MarsAndVenusGenderContrast men are from there]]. [[Music/EltonJohn Not the kind of place to raise your kids.]]
47
48!!!Moons
49
50Mars has two moons, called Phobos and Deimos. They were discovered in 1877, later than all the major moons of all the outer planets, and are named after two figures from Greek mythology.[[note]]sons of Ares (the Greek counterpart of Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus),[[/note]] They are both extremely small; Phobos, the larger of the two, is only ten miles across, and Deimos is half that. Their surface gravity, such as it is, can be measured in micro-''g''. They're really not much more than irregular rocks, asteroids that were captured by Mars' gravity.[[note]]Possibly. Their orbits are rather unusual for captured asteroids, since they each have a near-circular rather than elliptical path and each orbits at relatively low altitude. As such they might be products of a debris field from the hypothesized giant impact on Mars' north hemisphere.[[/note]] Irregular rocks [[BilingualBonus named]] ''[[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Fear]]'' and ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Panic]]''.
51
52Although these moons both orbit the planet in the same direction, Phobos is close by (nearer than any other known moon to its parent planet, in fact) and orbits ''faster'' than Mars rotates, while Deimos is farther away and orbits slightly ''slower'' than Mars rotates. Phobos rises in the west, sets in the east, and rises again in the west 11 hours later. Deimos rises in the east, sets in the west 2.7 [Earth] days later, and rises in the East again 2.7 days after that. What this essentially means is that at some point Deimos is going to fling itself into space ([[DeathFromAbove hopefully not in our direction]]), while Phobos, held together only by its own gravity, is going to disintegrate when tidal forces break it apart as it gets too close.
53
54!!!Mars has been visited by:
55* ''Mariner 4'' (UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}, flyby, launched 1964, flew by Mars 1965): First images taken of Mars.
56* ''Mariner''s ''6'' and ''7'' (NASA, flybys, 1965)
57* ''Mariner 9'' (NASA, orbiter, 1971-1972): First probe to orbit another planet.
58* ''Mars 2'' (USSR, orbiter/lander/rover, 1971–72): Lander and rover failed, but became the first manmade objects to reach the Martian surface.
59* ''Mars 3'' (USSR, orbiter/lander/rover, 1971–72): Contact with lander lost 110 seconds after landing.
60* ''Mars 5'' (USSR, orbiter, launched 1973, orbited 1974)
61* ''Mars 6'' and ''7'' (USSR, flybys/landers, launched 1973, arrived 1974): ''Mars 6'' lander returned atmospheric data but contact was lost before landing. ''Mars 7'' lander missed Mars entirely.
62* ''Viking'' program (NASA, orbiters/landers, launched 1975, arrived at Mars 1976)
63** ''Viking 1'' (orbiter active 1976-1980, lander active 1976–1982)
64** ''Viking 2'' (orbiter active 1976–78, lander active 1976–1980)
65* ''Phobos 2'' (USSR, orbiter, launched 1988, active 1989): Attempted mission to Phobos. Contact lost shortly before Phobos approach phase.
66* ''Mars Pathfinder'' (NASA, lander, launched 1996, active 1997)
67** ''Sojourner'' (rover, active 1997): Landed with ''Pathfinder''. First successful Mars rover.
68* ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (NASA, orbiter, launched 1996, active 1997–2006)
69* ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' (NASA, orbiter, 2001–present): Yes, it's named after ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
70* ''Mars Express'' (UsefulNotes/{{ESA}}, orbiter, 2003–present)
71** ''Beagle 2'' (UK National Space Centre, lander, landed 2003): Accompanied ''Mars Express''. Contact was lost after landing.[[note]]Satellite photos taken by the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' in 2015 revealed that ''Beagle 2'' had landed safely, but its solar panels had failed to deploy properly, preventing the probe's communications antenna from extending[[/note]]
72* ''Mars Exploration Rover''s (NASA, rovers, launched 2003)
73** ''Spirit'' (active 2004–2010)
74** ''Opportunity'' (active 2004–2018)
75* ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (NASA, orbiter, launched 2005, active 2006–present): Helped pick landing spots for future NASA landers and rovers.
76* ''Phoenix'' (NASA, lander, launched 2007, active 2008)
77* ''Curiosity'' (NASA, rover, launched 2011, active 2012–present)
78* Mars Orbiter Mission/''Mangalyaan'' (ISRO, orbiter, launched 2013, active 2014–2022)
79* MAVEN (NASA, orbiter, launched 2013, active 2014–present)
80* [=ExoMars=] Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA/Roscosmos, orbiter, launched 2016, active 2016–present)
81** ''Schiaparelli'' EDM (ESA/Roscosmos, lander, deployed 2016): Carried with [=ExoMars=] Orbiter. Crash-landed and destroyed.
82* ''[=InSight=]'' (NASA, lander, launched 2018, active 2018–2022)
83** Mars Cube One/[=MarCO=] (NASA, two nanospacecraft orbiters, active 2018–2019): Designed to help relay signals from ''[=InSight=]''. Nicknamed [[WesternAnimation/WallE WALL-E and EVE]].
84* ''Hope'' ([[UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre]], orbiter, launched 2020, active 2021–present)
85* ''Tianwen-1'' (CNSA, orbiter/lander, launched 2020, orbiter active 2021–present): Lander reached end of designed lifespan after successful soft landing in 2021.
86** ''Zhurong'' (rover, active 2021–2022): Deployed by ''Tianwen-1''.
87* ''Perseverance'' (NASA, rover, launched 2020, active 2021–present): Caching samples for eventual joint NASA-ESA sample return mission.
88** ''Ingenuity'' (NASA, rotorcraft, active 2021–2024): Carried by ''Perseverance''. First aircraft to take off on another planet.
89
90----
91
92!!Mars in tropes:
93* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast
94* {{Martians}}
95* MarsMedia: Works of fiction centered around the planet.
96* OnceGreenMars
97* {{Terraform}} - Mars is a popular target.
98
99!!Mars in fiction:
100
101[[foldercontrol]]
102
103!!!Pre-''Mariner''
104
105[[folder:Comic Books]]
106* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The God of War, ComicBook/WonderWoman's enemy, used to have his base here, generally because the two shared a name. The idea was lost after ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', where he got renamed Ares, his Greek counterpart.
107[[/folder]]
108
109[[folder:Film]]
110* ''Film/{{Aelita}}'', an extremely weird 1924 film from the Soviet Union about a fanciful trip to Mars that finds an intelligent civilization there.
111* ''The Red Planet'', a RedScare film, no less.
112* ''Film/SantaClausConquersTheMartians''. Yes.
113* ''Film/RobinsonCrusoeOnMars''.
114* ''Film/RocketshipXM'' (1950) lands on Mars to find the Stone Age survivors of a post-nuclear civilization.
115* ''Conquest of Space'', the 1955 flop by George Pal (ironically producer of ''Film/DestinationMoon'', the DuelingMovies competitor to ''Film/RocketshipXM'').
116* ''Das Himmelschiff'' is an obscure 1918 Danish film on a trip to Mars.
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:Literature]]
120* One of the earliest "travel to Mars" stories comes from ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', where the author is guided through the Heavenly Paradise by his former lover. On the planet Mars, the author encounters the warriors and martyrs who died to bring the justice and love of {{God}} to the world.
121* Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'' is one of the best-known examples of a Martian invasion of Earth.
122** Although the action would not actually shift to Mars itself until the unauthorized sequel, ''Literature/EdisonsConquestOfMars'' by Garrett P. Serviss.
123* Wells' contemporary Creator/KurdLasswitz in ''Auf zwei Planeten'' ("On Two Planets", 1897) portrays Mars (Nu to the Martians) as the densely populated home of a highly advanced civilization capable of interplanetary travel, which it uses in a BenevolentAlienInvasion of Earth. Politically the Martians are organized in a planet-wide federation of 154 states governed by parliamentary democracy.
124* ''The Sands of Mars'', by Creator/ArthurCClarke, which interestingly is one of the more realistic stories to be set on Mars. Indeed, quite a few of Clarke's novels and short stories involve Mars in some way.
125* The ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, who went on to write ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}''. Unusually for the time period, Burroughs did take into account existing hypotheses on the livability of Mars (or Barsoom), and turned it into a dying world supported by a technological atmosphere plant to keep the air breathable, and a polar ice extraction system to keep the canals filled.
126* ''Literature/OutOfTheSilentPlanet'' by Creator/CSLewis is set mostly on Mars (and on a spaceship bound to or from it). Here the name of the planet is Malacandra.
127* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand''. Unknown to many, ''Stranger'' is actually a prequel of sorts to RAH's excellent juvenile book called... wait for it... ''Literature/RedPlanet''. ''Red Planet'' was written decades earlier but featured the same Martians seen in ''Stranger''. When it was finally discovered that Mars and other planets in our Solar System are lifeless, Heinlein points out ''his'' alternate universes have life on them and one of his characters expresses disappointment in our universe's Solar System. The AnimatedAdaptation moved this to a planet "New Ares", which wasn't in our solar system but resembled pre-Mariner Mars.
128* Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Martian Time-Slip'' (1964).
129* ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' by Creator/RayBradbury (''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'') is more of a collection of short stories connected by an overarching continuity than a real novel. Human characters can breathe on the surface (albeit the air's thinner), communicate telepathically with the Martians, and use typewriters. The book at one point inverts the "life on Mars" concept, where a Martian comments that life on Earth is impossible because there's "too much oxygen."
130* ''Literature/TheSirensOfTitan'' by Creator/KurtVonnegut (1959). Except the ''Martians'' in this novel are actually human colonists.
131* In Creator/HBeamPiper's ''Paratime'' stories, Mars was the original home world of humanity. Their world was dying, 75,000 years ago, so they attempted colonizing Earth -- with varying success on different timelines. The maximum probability was the cluster of timelines including what we laughingly call "reality": "...the colonists evidently met with some disaster and lost all memory of their extraterrestrial origin.... As far as they know, they are an indigenous race..."
132** Like many things fictional involving Mars, this is a case of ScienceMarchesOn: back when these stories were written, knowledge of human origins and evolution was still vague and fragmentary enough that the exogenesis theory wasn't ''completely'' implausible.
133** Piper's short story "Omnilingual" also involves apparently human Martians who died out millennia ago. An archeological expedition in 1996 is exploring the ruins of Martian civilization, and finds the mummified bodies of one of their last communities. "Their power was gone, and [[DespairEventHorizon they were old and tired, and all around them their world was dying]]." So they quietly committed suicide.
134* Creator/LeighBrackett's PlanetaryRomance stories featuring Eric John Stark, ''The Secret of Sinharat'' and ''People of the Talisman'', were set on a Burroughs-esque dying Mars suffering from Terran colonization, with a distinct HeroicFantasy flavor and plenty of WeirdScience. Another story, "The Sword of Rihannon," sent its protagonist back in time to ancient Mars, before its oceans dried up. [[ScienceMarchesOn After Mariner]] she set Stark's further adventures on extrasolar planet Skaith.
135* Otis Adelbert Kline wrote a couple of PlanetaryRomance stories set on Mars, which has a Barsoom-type civilization full of swashbuckling and SchizoTech. He does imply that the humans who travel to Mars traveled through time as well as space, and that modern Mars is lifeless.
136* The anthology ''Old Mars'' is a homage to the pre-Mariner era stories, with tales by contemporary sci-fi writers.
137* Literature/CreationManAndTheMessiah, written by Creator/HenrikWergeland in ''1829'' and re-written in ''1845'' has the angelic spirit Abiriel, who once [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended to a higher plane of existence]]. In the opening chapter, he is seen brooding over a newly created, and yet lifeless Earth. Then, he goes on to tell his backstory, implying that he was born in a physical form on "the red planet up yonder". Guess. Which. Planet. The channels were known in the first half of the nineteenth century.
138* ''Literature/TheShipThatSailedToMars'' is an early (1923) work of ScienceFantasy that follows the adventures of a human and his fairy companions, who construct and crew a magically endowed sailing ship that takes them from Earth to Mars. They find the red planet to have an Earth-like climate (with a breathable atmosphere, liquid water, and Earth-like weather patterns) and a thriving population of fairyfolk, mermaids, and other fantastic creatures. The capital Martian Fairy City is built on a network of glorious canals.
139[[/folder]]
140
141[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
142* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Ice Warriors were originally from Mars, even after Martian life was discredited (they were originally from the distant past preserved as [[HumanPopsicle Alien Popsicles]], and later from colonies in outer solar systems).
143* Disney's ''Mars and Beyond''.
144* ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian'', which started a couple of years before the Mariner, and ended shortly afterwards. The 1999 movie obviously was well post-Mariner, but played with its blatant scientific inaccuracy in a funny opening sequence that shows scientists looking at the wrong part of the planet and missing, by about half a mile, a gigantic Martian city.
145* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episodes "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E25PeopleAreAlikeAllOver People Are Alike All Over]]", "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E19MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]" and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E28WillTheRealMartianPleaseStandUp Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?]]" all depict different Martian races. In the first, they are HumanAliens. In the second, they have two heads. In the third, they have three arms. Furthermore, in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E25TheFugitive The Fugitive]]", the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifter]] Ben turns into a Martian, a fanged creature with antennae and large eyes, while playing a game with children.
146[[/folder]]
147
148[[folder:Radio]]
149* The second and third series of ''Radio/JourneyIntoSpace'' involve a mission to, and the attempt to get back from, Mars.
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
153* Although the RPG supplement ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Mars'' is full of modern information on the planet (see under [=Post-Mariner/Viking=] below), two of the example settings in the book -- the '50s-SF-style "Superscience Mars" and the pulpy "Dying Mars" -- are stuffed full of pre-Mariner motifs, including the mandatory canals.
154[[/folder]]
155
156[[folder:Video Games]]
157* ''VideoGame/JamestownLegendOfTheLostColony'' is set in a SchizoTech version of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies the colonial era]] where Mars is being colonized by man as opposed to the Americas. Sights include [[FloatingContinent floating islands]] filled with British and Spanish colonies, tentacled Martians and [[spoiler:an ancient Martian temple named Croatoa located deep within the ground]], amongst others.
158[[/folder]]
159
160!!!Post-''Mariner''/''Viking''
161
162[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
163* Many events in [[spoiler:the past]], [[spoiler: present]] and [[spoiler: future]] of Manga/BattleAngelAlita happen on Mars.
164* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', due to the fact that [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter Earth has been devastated]] by numerous meteor strikes, Mars is the most important planet in the solar system. Along with Venus and many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Mars been terraformed to be suitable for human life.
165* ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' has human colonies on Mars. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt For about five minutes]]. [[spoiler:Its backstory also features an ancient Martian civilization, from whose ruins the humans acquired most of the show's AppliedPhlebotinum.]]
166* The manga ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'' is set on Mars a hundred and fifty years after {{terraform}}ing. Surprisingly, no one lives under domes and most of the planet is covered in water that was intentionally pumped from underground, but since they got a lot more than they had planned on. Mars has been renamed Aqua, Earth is now called Manhome, and the story happens in the city of Neo-Venizia, recreated from the remains of the lost (ironically from rising global ocean levels) city of Venice.
167* Another watery Mars can be seen in a game and anime ''Anime/MarsDaybreak'', which, interestingly, is set in the same universe with the ''VideoGame/GunparadeMarch'' series.
168* Mars plays a major role in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Gundam F90]]'': [[spoiler:the remnants of Neo-Zeon from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' retreated there, and thirty years later have built a giant railcannon for the purpose of destroying Earth.]]
169** The strange thing is that this is the only UC Gundam work it appears in. This may be due to the aborted ''Turn A Space'' series plan, which eventually became ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', which was meant to serve as a DistantFinale not only to all of Gundam, but Tomino's other HumongousMecha anime as well. This would have included ''Daitarn3'', in which Mars is the home of a race of evil cyborgs known as the Meganoids. Not exactly the friendliest place in the Solar System.
170*** But then, no Gundam series before ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronbloodedOrphans'' really ever ventured away from the Earth Sphere. F90 and Crossbone series are little-known spinoffs, and any other series paid the Outer System only a mention at best. Even ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'', which featured a Jovian, Paptimus Scirocco, still have him visit the Earth Sphere.
171** Mars gets a couple of mentions in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'', as [[TheOjou Relena]] makes terraformation her pet project after becoming Vice Foreign Minister near the end of the series. The sequel novel ''Frozen Teardrop'' gives Mars a much larger role: the planet is terraformed a couple of decades after the anime ended thanks to miraculous algae from Jupiter's moon Europa, leading [[TheRival Zechs Merquise]] to become the first President of the Martian Federation, and war clouds may be stirring between the red planet and Earth.
172** Mars also plays a prominent role in some of the ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'' spinoffs, one of which features a Gundam that turns into a tripod.
173** The Red Planet is the home of the series villains in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE''. It was revealed that the Unknown Enemy are Martian colonists abandoned by the Earth Federation, and because of what it thinks to be betrayal, have initiated revenge by attacking colonies in the Earth's orbit. However, they stay mainly in a space colony in Martian orbit due to the botched terraforming.
174** Mars now takes a central stage in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans''. Mars has been divided into four colonies by four Earth blocs, and the people on Mars want independence. It is also the first animated series with a Mars-born protagonist, as well as the series starting on the Martian surface itself.
175* Whenever asked, Chao Lingshen of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' would claim that she was from Mars. Thanks to events in chapter 257, [[spoiler: this no longer seems so random with the confirmation of [[MagicWorld Mundus Magicus]] being located on Mars itself]].
176** ...sort of. [[spoiler: Mundus Magicus is essentially "[[AnotherDimension out of phase]]" with Mars. It occupies the same area and the geographic features more or less line up, but it's not "really" Mars. Just [[LayeredWorld layered]] on top of it.]]
177** [[spoiler: Near the end of the manga, Negi was leading a plan to terraform the planet to keep Mundus Magicus stable. A 130-year TimeSkip shows that the plan succeeded.]]
178* The first several episodes of ''Anime/NinjaSenshiTobikage'' are set on Mars, which has been made a prison colony.
179* The backstory of ''Anime/AldnoahZero'' goes that Captain Eugene Cerner of the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon found an alien teleportation portal that led to Mars. A survey team that traveled through the Hypergate found the remnants of an ancient civilization there, including alien technology they called "Aldnoah." With the power of Aldnoah, a {{Terraforming}} process began and a Martian colony was established. But by 1985, a movement for independence resulted in the founding of the Holy Vers Empire on Mars, eventually leading to a devastating war between Earth and Mars that resulted in the Hypergate's destruction and [[DetonationMoon the Heaven's Fall disaster.]]
180* ''Manga/TerraforMARS'' is about a {{terraform}}ing process on Mars using [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered cockroaches]]. It ends up [[GoneHorriblyWrong going horribly wrong.]]
181[[/folder]]
182
183[[folder:Comic Books]]
184* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter in Franchise/TheDCU. Originally appeared pre-Mariner, retconned post-Mariner to have been pulled forward in time from a Martian civilization that was [[LastOfHisKind now long-dead]].
185* ''ComicBook/ABCWarriors'' is mostly set on Mars. complete with Martians who resent human colonization. The titular robots spent a long time fighting on the side of Earth, but eventually ended that arc by forcing the president of Earth to become half-Martian. In the current stories, the primary inhabitants of Mars seem to be robots, though public restrooms have separate stalls for men, women, and Martians.
186* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Mars is where Doctor Manhattan retreats in chapter 4, after being accused of causing his former colleagues and his ex-girlfriend to contract cancer. After reflecting there on his past, present and future, he teleports Laurie to the planet so she can make an argument for his intervention in human affairs. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle_(Martian_crater) The Galle Crater]] is used both in the comic and the film in keeping with the story's recurring Smiley {{motif}}.
187* Vol. 2, issue 1 of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' takes place there. Where else can you see Literature/JohnCarterOfMars and Literature/GullivarOfMars teaming up with [[Literature/OutOfTheSilentPlanet Sorns]] to take down H.G. Wells' [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898 tripod-invaders]]? And in Vol. 4 on we learn it's the home of superhero Marsman, and they've also got the automated murder-house from ''[[Literature/TheMartianChronicles Usher II]]''.
188* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Ares used to have a base/home on Mars, but as Tomas Byde discovers when he goes to confront the fading god it has been long abandoned and what is left of it lies in ruin. It is hinted that this is a reflection of the way the Olympians are dying and losing their power.
189* ''ComicBook/TrishTrashRollergirlOfMars'': The comic's main setting is on Planet Mars.
190[[/folder]]
191
192[[folder:Film]]
193* Most of the original ''[[Film/TotalRecall1990 Total Recall]]'' takes place there.
194** ''Very loosely'' based on the Creator/PhilipKDick's short story ''We Can Remember It For You Wholesale''.
195* ''Film/MarsAttacks'' is a rare modern film about a Martian invasion, being essentially an {{homage}} to '50s sci-fi.
196* The year 2000 saw DuelingMovies ''Film/MissionToMars'' and ''Film/RedPlanet''.
197* ''Film/GhostsOfMars''.
198* Mars was the astronauts' planned destination in ''Film/CapricornOne''.
199* ''Film/JohnCarter'', being based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' decidedly pre-Mariner ''Literature/{{Barsoom}}'' series, had to explain why Mars had breathable air and a living civilization. The (brief) answer was that we primitive, backward humans are ignorant of the ''real'' conditions on the planet. Either that, or the planet became an uninhabitable wasteland some time between Victorian England and the Mariner missions.
200* ''Film/TheLastDaysOnMars'' is basically the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Waters of Mars" minus the Doctor, plus half an hour and Creator/LievSchreiber.
201* ''Film/TheMartian''
202* ''Film/AdAstra''
203[[/folder]]
204
205[[folder:Literature]]
206* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' books and stories feature native Martians; to be fair, the first few stories were published just before the Mariner flybys. They eventually get [[spoiler:killed off in ''Literature/{{Protector}}'' by the KnightTemplar Brennan, who has been mutated into a superintelligent being with inhuman motivations]]. However, ''Literature/TheRingworldEngineers'' has some [[spoiler:surviving on the Ringworld's Map of Mars]]. Niven's Martians swim through sand and have alien biochemistry not based on water.
207** The lack of our discovering them is later [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by their living their entire lives underneath the sand (the details of the sand is of course another matter entirely). In-story, they weren't discovered until the 2100s, when a colony was mysteriously found dead from spear damage... on a planet thought uninhabited until then.
208** In the introduction to the ''Tales of Known Space'' anthology, Niven notes that [[ScienceMarchesOn Science was Marching On]] while he was writing:
209--->You may feel that Mars itself is changing as you read through the book. Right you are. [...] If the space probes keep redesigning our planets, what can we do but write new stories?
210* S.M. Stirling's ''Literature/TheLordsOfCreation'' [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructs]] the pre-Mariner image of Mars, with scientists making discovery after discovery through the early part of the twentieth century that indicate both Mars and Venus are life-bearing worlds. The Viking lander (in 1962!) finds a classic decadent canal-based near-human civilization, and later Earth explorers/ambassadors discover that {{Precursors}} are responsible for {{terraform}}ing Mars and Venus with ecologies transplanted from Earth.
211* As part of Creator/BenBova's ''Grand Tour'' series, he wrote a novel whose entire title is just ... ''Mars''. It's about the first manned mission to Mars, a joint international venture consisting of astronauts straight out of a Creator/JackieCollins novel. He eventually wrote two sequels, ''Return to Mars'' and ''Mars Life.''
212* Ian [=McDonald's=] ''Desolation Road'' and ''Ares Express'' are set on a far-future terraformed Mars. His treatment of Mars combines hard science and magic realism.
213* In Creator/GregBear's ''Moving Mars,'' scientists living in a Martian colony discover how to turn Bell's Discontinuity (a theory from quantum mechanics) into a long-range weapon of mass destruction.
214* Creator/HarryTurtledove's novel ''Literature/AWorldOfDifference'' is a response to the Viking discoveries by setting the story in an AlternateHistory universe where instead of Mars, there is an Earth-sized planet in its place called Minerva. As the preface states:
215--> Mars is boring. Turns out it's too damn small. But what if it weren't...?
216* The novel ''Terminal World'' and the Literature/RevelationSpace short story ''The Great Wall of Mars'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds.
217* Creator/StephenBaxter's AlternateHistory novel ''Literature/{{Voyage}}'', in which the first manned mission to Mars is launched in the mid 1980s, using expanded and improved Apollo programme era hardware.
218* In Creator/DanSimmons' ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', Mars is home to the Palestinians; shortly after winning independence from Israel, they got caught in the crossfire of a regional nuclear war, and, finding their land uninhabitable, they moved to Mars. Additionally, FORCE, the Hegemony's military, was based here. As for characters, [[ColonelBadass Col. Kassad]] is a Palestinian from Mars, as well as a FORCE officer.
219* ''[[Literature/TauCetiAgendaSeries One Day On Mars]]'', essentially [[Series/TwentyFour 24]] [[RecycledInSpace in THE FUTURE!]], takes place here. (Duh.) It's been colonized long enough for people to have a particular phenotype (tall, pale, black-haired).
220* Andy Weir's ''Literature/TheMartian'' features Mark Watney, a stranded astronaut on Mars, trying to survive for the four years before the next mission arrives on contemporary early 21st century technology.
221* In the science fiction novel ''Literature/{{Nation of the Third Eye}}'' by K.K. Savage, 22nd century Mars is a poor a thinly populated planet. One of the main characters is from the Red Colony on Mars, which was founded by Russians. There are also monasteries in remote locations on Mars.
222* ''River of Dust'' by Alexander Jablokov posits that humans tried to terraform Mars but met with no success, but that a the colonists persisted in creating an enclosed civilization there in the harsh Martian conditions.
223* Creator/KimStanleyRobinson's trilogy, ''[[Literature/RedMarsTrilogy Red/Green/Blue Mars]]'', covering the terraforming of the planet over more than two hundred years. The three novels are named in allusion to key steps in the project: Red (natural) -> Green (life) -> Blue (open water).
224* The Russian collaborative novel ''Literature/RoadToMars'' involves a [[MultinationalTeam multinational crew]] of the ''Ares'' spacecraft on its way to the red planet. In a twist, no one expected this particular crew to go. The crew (all male) consists of two Russians, two Americans (one of them black), an Italian, and a Frenchman, thus representing three power blocs and space agencies (Russia/Roscosmos, US/NASA, and EU/ESA, respectively). China is left out and chooses to send their own mission to Mars in the form of a two-man crew on the poorly-tested ''Millennium Boat''. Part of the novel involves a race between the two craft, as both crews have orders to be the first to get there, although, in private, some of the crewmembers on both would gladly give up the chance to be first in favor of cooperation to make sure everyone makes it back. During the flight, strange things are happening aboard the ''Ares'', which appear to be connected with something found on the planet by earlier probes.
225* In Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' series, it's revealed that humanity spread through the galaxy from Mars, having terraformed it and relocated there just before Earth became nearly uninhabitable. Not everyone made it to Mars, and one novel involves the time-traveling protagonist trying to help the Martian colonists prevent a nuclear attack on their planet from mutated humans on Earth. [[spoiler:Earth ends up destroyed by its own nukes, and Mars serves as humanity's new launchpoint]].
226* Although its core plot takes place entirely on Earth, Mars is important in the setting of ''Literature/BlackMan'' as the first effort of human civilization spreading outside of the Earth, and as a dumping ground for the now-ostracized genetically enhanced humans once created to wage war but now finding themselves becoming criminals to sate their bloodlust. The book discusses both terraforming efforts on Mars (along with bizarre water-based PTSD any "Martians" get when they return to Earth) and in stark defiance of SubspaceAnsible the long turnaround for messages sent to and from Mars is used as a plot point several times.
227* In ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'', we get to see snapshots of Mars over the centuries of human space exploration, although the planet is far from the main focus of the series. In the first novel, the human presence on Mars consists of a single station manned by a dozen people at most as well as the base for Earth's Second Fleet. Over the next several centuries, thanks to the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum reverse-engineering of Faata technology]], space travel gets easier, and large-scale settlement becomes an option. Despite humanity obtaining FTL capability and discovering a number of habitable extrasolar planets, Mars is still seen as a viable site for terraforming. However, it's stated that part of the reason is because it serves as a proving ground for experimental terraforming techniques that are later employed on other arid worlds (of which there are a lot more than Earth-like planets). By the fifth novel, taking place two and a half centuries later, Mars has a sizable population, the largest in the Solar System besides Earth's, and the air is breathable, if a little rarefied. There is even a small ocean, several seas, and a number of rivers. The heat and light are maintained via the use of artificial "suns" in orbit, which appear to be large solar reflectors. Several areas are designated as preserves and still feature the native Martian landscapes, although it's not uncommon to see a highway going through one (despite most Martians preferring to use {{Flying Car}}s for transportation).
228[[/folder]]
229
230[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
231* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Mars is an Earth colony which becomes an independent state in 2262. It is in the process of being terraformed.
232* In ''Series/DefyingGravity'', Maddux Donner is haunted by his previous mission to Mars, when a storm forced him to abandon two crew members (including his LoveInterest) in order to allow the other three to survive. The current mission involves a journey across the Solar System with landings on several planets, including Mars. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before they made it to Mars, but WordOfGod is that they would have found the two crew members alive and well.
233* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
234** Post-Mariner/pre-Viking, the Fourth Doctor visits the Red Planet in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars "Pyramids of Mars"]] — the title pyramid is a receiver set up by AncientAstronauts to keep the story's BigBad from escaping the pyramid he's imprisoned in on Earth.
235** The Tenth Doctor visits a mid-21st century Earth colony on Mars in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]]. [[ContinuityNod The Ice Warriors are mentioned]], but the menace this time are Martian parasites residing in the colony's water source (the polar ice caps) and infecting the residents of the base, turning them into [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]].
236* There was an ABC miniseries of ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' that aired in 1980. It starred, among others, Rock Hudson, Darren Mc Gavin, Bernadette Peters, and Roddy [=McDowall=]. Richard Matheson wrote the script, which was significantly different from Ray Bradbury's novel.
237* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, Mars has been colonized by Earth, with the most prominent example being Utopia Planitia. (ExpandedUniverse works include other colonies, like Bradbury City.) Mars also has extensive starship construction facilities in orbit, which built the starships ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Enterprise-D]]'', ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Defiant]]'', and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]''. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' established a {{Terraform}}ing project in the 22nd century, which as of 2155 has thickened the air enough to make pressurized space suits unnecessary (though oxygen and heating gear is still needed). [[spoiler:Sadly, by the time of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', synthetic laborers (non-sentient androids) violently rebel and destroy the Utopia Planitia shipyards and the Martian colonies, killing over 90,000 people and rendering Mars uninhabitable for more than a decade.]]
238[[/folder]]
239
240[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
241* In one ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' story arc, the two of them travel to Mars in Calvin's red wagon (it's ambiguous whether it was all in Calvin's imagination). This provided the title and cover art to one of the books, ''Weirdos From Another Planet''.
242* Samantha's ultimate goal in life in ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' was to go to Mars. She eventually gets her wish commanding the first mission to Mars and finds out [[spoiler:it's [[GeniusLoci sentient]] and wants to destroy humanity. She (and Jenny) negotiate with Mars and agree to terraform it in exchange for sparing humanity. This, however, causes countries and real estate developers to plan to come to Mars to claim land for themselves, and refuse to recognize Mars's sentience so Samantha and Dave take the drastic measure of ''adopting'' Mars, ultimately causing Mars to HeelFaceTurn and save humanity from a comet threatening to destroy Earth.]] The dodos Paul and Mary decide to stay on Mars permanently. Also, Samantha and Dave's daughter Maria was born on Mars, technically making her a Martian.
243[[/folder]]
244
245[[folder:Podcasts]]
246* The ''Podcast/TwilightHistories'' episode Hannibal One is set in a world where Carthage won the Punic Wars and crushed Rome. 1000 years later, Carthage has launched its first mission of colonization to Mars. You have been sent to explore this fledgling colony.
247[[/folder]]
248
249[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
250* ''TabletopGame/BluePlanet'''s Mars is a cold and poisonous backwater, with a hereditary aristocracy, income disparity on par with late-20th-century America ([[CrapsackWorld still better than Earth's]]), and [[SpaceElevator the Pavonis Skyhook]] making it easy to leave. Since the plans to terraform it further fell apart, it's also still the Red Planet. [[spoiler: Though possibly not for long, if [[MegaCorp Lavender Organics]] goes forward with its plan to lower the Martian albedo...]]
251* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'', Mars is settled and in the early stages of terraforming -- just as well for humanity, given that Earth is no longer habitable.
252* The RPG supplement ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Mars'' is a comprehensive guide to what's known about Mars, and past fictional treatments of the planet; [=GMs=] can use it when building their own games, or set campaigns in the various sample versions of Mars (Domed, Terraformed, Superscience, or Dying), each of which use modern maps of the planet in different ways.
253* The theme of the board game ''TabletopGame/TerraformingMars'' is clear from the title. Players control rival corporations, seeking PR glory and profit from working on the project.
254* In ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'', Martian terraforming is well under way, with associated controversies and political complications, and Mars is a viable setting for campaigns. The speed of the terraforming process is perhaps one of the most optimistic, least realistic aspects of the setting design.
255* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', Mars is the homeworld of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the prison of the Void Dragon, at least during the Horus Heresy and before. The planet is surrounded by a massive orbital ring filled with shipyards, which produce the bulk of the Imperium's ships.
256[[/folder]]
257
258[[folder:Video Games]]
259* ''[[http://mars.takeonthegame.com/ Take On Mars]]'' allows gamers to explore Mars based on completely up-to-date data. They can also explore with the current probes like Curiosity, or [[RuleOfCool drive around in a weaponized SUV]].
260* Episode 1 of the first ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' game was set on Mars.
261* The central conflict in ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders'' is between TheFederation and a rebel army on Mars. All except the first game take place on Mars.
262* ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' is another video game about a Martian colonial revolution.
263* ''{{VideoGame/Destiny}}'' has a version of Mars in it that has been terraformed by the Traveler, a benevolent Eldritch Abomination. According to the game's lore, this was where the Traveler was discovered after it terraformed Venus and Mercury. The planet keeps its red soil, but there are plants and trees growing in it, along with several cities and alien outposts.
264* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' and the original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' take place on Mars and its moons respectively. Which, miraculously, all seem to have Earth-normal surface gravity as established by the rate at which your character falls when stepping off a high place. (Unless your SpaceMarine is really two centimeters tall.)
265** Justifiable in the original Doom, as Deimos is [[spoiler:hovering over hell]].
266* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', humans don't reach Mars until the ''22nd'' century, and take another four decades to unlock its secrets--a base left by AncientAstronauts filled with their technology. Immediately afterward they explode across the stars, becoming a galactic power just four decades after the discovery. The codex notes that the advent of easy space travel has caused Mars to go from humanity's first prospect at relatively easy colonization to a quaint backwater, far overshadowed by planets in other star systems. The main characters don't visit it till the beginning of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. [[spoiler: [[LateToTheParty The base there is under attack, and most of the people there are already dead.]]]]
267* ''VideoGame/UFOAfterlight'' series takes place entirely on Mars, as human colonists try to terraform it. Then they're attacked by the remnants of an old Martian Civilization. Then by alien invaders. Then ''more'' alien invaders. Then the Martians come back. And over the course of the game, [[{{Terraform}} the red planet slowly turns green]].
268* The second and last game in the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}} Worlds'' sub-series was titled ''Martian Dreams''. Despite all the knowledge that we had about Mars at the time the game was created, the game is set on an ''extremely'' fictionalized version of the Red Planet. For one thing, you don't need a space suit to breathe. For another, you can get there in a ship that's launched like a bullet from the Earth. And finally, the resident ''plant life'' is desperately trying to kill you. However, the game ''is'' set in the late 19th century, with the common misconceptions of the time being true.
269* The final part of ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' is set on Mars and features the "Face on Mars", which, alongside with many Earth monuments (Stonehenge, the Aztec and Egyptian pyramids, etc.) was apparently made by the Caponians, the titular aliens.
270* Mars is one of the three real planets (the other two being Earth and {{UsefulNotes/Venus}}) that appeared in ''VideoGame/SimEarth'''s scenario mode, which the player had to terraform and colonize.
271* The titular colony ship UESC ''{{VideoGame/Marathon}}'' is actually the moon Deimos, having been hollowed out and turned into a multi-generationational starship. Mars itself has been colonized but become a place of poverty, with the ''Marathon'' becoming a symbol of the UESC's neglect since the ship is going to be used to flee Mars rather than preserve it.
272* In ''{{VideoGame/Waking Mars}},'' life has been discovered on Mars deep within the caves below the surface. It is the job of Liang to research these new lifeforms and grow the ecosystem to a state of harmony. Later on in the game it is discovered that Mars was [[spoiler: inhabited by sentient beings which left clues to the puzzle of Mars's big secret. Later you meet them personally and [[StarfishAliens you wouldn't know they were sentient by just looking at them.]] They appear to be levitating tangled balls of... [[BuffySpeak stuff]] which can only communicate via radio-sent images.]]
273* In ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Nova'', Mars is a visitable planet. Evidently, some time before the game's setting, humanity tried to {{Terraform}} it [[GoneHorriblyWrong and failed miserably]], leaving it a relative backwater -- the most important stellar object in Sol aside from Earth ([[RingworldPlanet and its ring]]) is ''[[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfJupiter Europa]]'', mostly due to the Fed military base there.
274* Both ''MarsWarLogs'' and it's follow-up ''The Technomancer'' take place on Mars 200 years after it was colonized by humanity and 70 after [[AfterTheEnd it was completely cut off from the rest of civilization due to a]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal Polar flip.]]
275* The planet Mars is a recurring character in ''VideoGame/TheImpossibleQuiz'' series, where he first appears in Question 92 singing "What is the Light?" by Music/FlamingLips.
276* In the universe of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', Mars has been colonized and terraformed for centuries. Presently, it's the headquarters of the Orbital Drop Shock-Troopers, and orbiting it are the UNSC's main shipyards.
277* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', Mars[[note]]or "Sol IV" in case the Sol system isn't your home system[[/note]] is the only planet in the game to always spawn as a guaranteed terraforming candidate, and a decently sized one, to boot. This provides a quite noticeable advantage to any empire that hails from Sol (usually humans, natch), and naturally makes the Sol system the most popular of the unique starting systems even for non-human species.
278* ''VideoGame/SurvivingMars'' allows the player to create a colony on Mars. First, you send rockets with drones and rovers, set up systems to produce steady sources of minerals, energy, water, and air, then build domes with buildings inside, and finally, bring colonists and look for their needs. All while you take care against dust storms, falling meteors, and cold waves.
279[[/folder]]
280
281[[folder:Webcomics]]
282* In ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'', the human colonists on Mars have become much more advanced than elsewhere in the solar system, forming a kind of HiveMind and allowing them access to much greater technology, yet still retaining their individuality. The atmosphere is now breathable, and the colonists are preparing to restart the planet's tectonic activity, to make the terraformation self-sustaining. One of the protagonists is a Martian psychiatrist.
283* In ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'', Mars is called Huǒxīng, as it is [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld largely ruled by the Chinese]].
284* ''Webcomic/TheStormrunners'' takes place 3.5 billion years ago, when Mars ''kinda'' resembles the pre-Mariner version, canals and all, but its ecology has been wrecked by a centuries-long war against invaders from who-knows-where. Then somehow a couple of time-displaced humans crash land there to complicate things.
285* ''Webcomic/MareInternum'' takes place during the early days of Mars's colonization, with pretty hard science and a pretty realistic view of Mars. [[spoiler: Then life and the survivors of an ancient advanced civilization are discovered beneath the surface.]]
286* In ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'', the solar system is shown as a group of {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s, and Mars is a reclusive JerkWithAHeartOfGold who's VitriolicBestBuds with his far more friendly and idealistic neighbor, Earth. He's also the OnlySaneMan of the group.
287[[/folder]]
288
289[[folder:Web Original]]
290* In Episode 20 of ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures'', we meet Warlord Cassius, Ruler of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharsis_quadrangle Tharsis Quadrangle]], a LawfulEvil alien warlord intent on dueling Rufus for the right to invade the Earth (as he mistakenly believes that Rufus is the Earth's greatest champion, and thus, besting him will make him the planet's ruler).
291* Mars held an important position in the ''Website/OrionsArm'' universe from the nanoswarms through the first federation era, around one or two thousand years. It's still the most populated and influential planet in Solsys by the setting's present day, though the system itself is fairly inconsequential.
292* Played with in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', where the Martian Empire came into existence and began invading Earth [[ScienceMarchesOn the moment the Viking probe landed and found Mars uninhabited]]. That version of Mars is a [[AnotherDimension Bardo]], populated by [[TheHeartless Manes]] who insist on continuing to exist despite the fact that they shouldn't.
293* In ''WebAnimation/BravestWarriors'', Mars is the home to many intergalactic species and humans, including the Warriors themselves.
294* ''WebAnimation/{{SolarBalls}}'': Mars is one of the main protagonists.
295* The {{Speculative Biology}} project ''{{WebOriginal/Har Deshur}}'' tries to explore what alien life on the surface of Mars might be like, if conditions had remained more stable and if predictions from before Mariner-4 had turned out to be true. While complex, multicellular life does now exist on the surface in this reality, most of it is small, primitive and adapted to extreme conditions. Also acts as an homage to many earlier speculations about life on Mars. Glimpses of the other alternate planets in the solar system are given on occasion.
296[[/folder]]
297
298[[folder:Western Animation]]
299* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
300** After the first human (Philip J. Fry the second) set foot on it in the twenty-first century, Mars has been terraformed, first in order to facilitate the construction of Mars University, then later by farmers and ranchers. There are also jungles, which feature birds, monkeys, tigers and elephants, in lieu of the ones on Earth being long gone. And there's the massive gambling city Mars Vegas. Mars' foliage also contains a great many marijuana plants.
301** It also had native Martians, in an episode which parodied {{western}}s. They live in a reservation located under the Great Stone Face of Mars, and which apparently goes through the entire planet, coming out on the "Great Stone Ass of Mars". Once it turns out they sold the planet for a massive diamond, they decide to just leave and buy a new planet.
302* The {{Creator/Filmation}} cartoon ''[[AnimatedAdaptation My Favorite Martians]]'', circa 1970.
303* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' featured a lost Martian civilization who were wiped out because they put all their efforts into turning the planet ''into a ship'' [[Characters/DoctorWhoAliensAndMonsters like the original version of Cyberman with Mondas.]]
304-->'''Zim:''' Why would you do that?\
305'''Martian hologram:''' Because it was [[RuleOfCool cool]].
306* In ''WesternAnimation/StarcomTheUSSpaceforce'', Mars was long ago the home to a vanished advanced civilization, and archaeologists are diligently exploring any buried ruins they can find.
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308
309[[folder:Real Life]]
310* A RealLife example of getting Mars wrong: Former US Vice President UsefulNotes/DanQuayle, who was not known for his intelligent remarks (in fact, he was basically known solely for [[{{Malaproper}} his mangling of the English language]]), once famously declared, "Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as Earth]. [...] Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
311* Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, while touring JPL in 2005, asked if the Mars Pathfinder probe could see the flag planted by the Apollo 11 astronauts. On the Moon. (Perhaps she was asking about the probe's deep-space telescope capabilities, or perhaps she's just an idiot.)
312[[/folder]]
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