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We Are The Martians

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Once Upon a Time Theories

The popular idea that Mars was populated by intelligent Martians exploded in the late 19th century. Giovanni Schiaparelli's "canali" observations combined with Percival Lowell's books on the subject put forward the standard notion of a planet that was a drying, cooling, dying world with ancient civilizations constructing irrigation works.
Many other observations and proclamations by notable personalities added to what has been termed "Mars Fever". In 1899 while investigating atmospheric radio noise using his receivers in his Colorado Springs lab, inventor Nikola Tesla observed repetitive signals that he later surmised might have been radio communications coming from another planet, possibly Mars. In a 1901 interview, Tesla said: "It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another."
Tesla's theories gained support from William Thompson, Lord Kelvin who, while visiting the United States in 1902, was reported to have said that he thought Tesla had picked up Martian signals being sent to the United States. Kelvin "emphatically" denied this report shortly before departing America: "What I really said was that the inhabitants of Mars, if there are any, were doubtless able to see New York, particularly the glare of the electricity."
In a New York Times article in 1901, Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory, said that they had received a telegram from Lowell Observatory in Arizona that seemed to confirm that Mars was trying to communicate with the Earth: “Early in December 1900, we received from Lowell Observatory in Arizona a telegram that a shaft of light had been seen to project from Mars (the Lowell observatory makes a specialty of Mars) lasting seventy minutes. I wired these facts to Europe and sent out neostyle copies through this country. The observer there is a careful, reliable man and there is no reason to doubt that the light existed. It was given as from a well-known geographical point on Mars. That was all. Now the story has gone the world over. In Europe, it is stated that I have been in communication with Mars, and all sorts of exaggerations have sprung up. Whatever the light was, we have no means of knowing. Whether it had intelligence or not, no one can say. It is absolutely inexplicable.”
Pickering later proposed creating a set of mirrors in Texas with the intention of signaling Martians.
In recent decades, the high-resolution mapping of the surface of Mars, culminating in Mars Global Surveyor, revealed no artifacts of habitation by 'intelligent' life, but pseudoscientific speculation about intelligent life on Mars continues from commentators such as Richard C. Hoagland. Reminiscent of the canali controversy, some speculations are based on small-scale features perceived in the spacecraft images, such as 'pyramids' and the 'Face on Mars'. Planetary astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: “Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears.”
For much more, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars

Suggested Media

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Companion book to Nat-Geo Mars
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Web Resources

Print:

ANCIENT ASTRONOMY: https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/astronomybc/chapter/2-2-ancient-astronomy/ COLONIZATION: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_MarsCOLONIZATION (Multiplanetary Humanity): https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/COLONIZATION AND EVOLUTUION: https://www.astronomy.com/science/colonizing-mars-could-speed-up-human-evolution/MARTIAN COLONIES & INSECTS: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/science/mars-needs-insects.html? HISTORY OF MARS OBSERVATION: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mars_observation#MARS AND PANSPERMIA: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a35450915/did-life-start-on-mars/MARS AND PANSPERMIA: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/130905-mars-origin-of-life-earth-panspermia-astrobiologyMARS AND PANSPERMIA: https://www.space.com/22577-earth-life-from-mars-theory.htmlPLANET OVERVIEW: https://www.space.com/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-sun.htmlMARS OCEAN THEORY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_ocean_theoryMARTIAN “CANALS”: https://www.britannica.com/place/canals-of-MarsMARTIAN “CANALS”: https://www.loc.gov/collections/finding-our-place-in-the-cosmos-with-carl-sagan/articles-and-essays/life-on-other-worlds/seeing-and-interpreting-martian-oceans-and-canalsMARTIAN CIVILIZATION: https://www.loc.gov/collections/finding-our-place-in-the-cosmos-with-carl-sagan/articles-and-essays/life-on-other-worlds/envisioning-martian-civilizationsMARTIAN CIVILIZATION: https://www.loc.gov/collections/finding-our-place-in-the-cosmos-with-carl-sagan/articles-and-essays/life-on-other-worlds/envisioning-martian-civilizationsTESLA AND MARS: https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/world-speaks-world-mysterious-signals-through-vast-space-tesla-electrician LIFE ON MARS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_MarsLIFE ON MARS: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/world/mars-subsurface-habitability-scn-trnd/index.htmlMARS HABITAT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_habitatMARS HABITAT: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/07/nx-s1-5032120/nasa-mars-simulation-volunteers-year? NASA AND MARS COLONIZATION: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/humans-to-mars/SPACEX AND MARS (update): https://www.planetary.org/articles/20170929-spacex-updated-colonization-plans? MARS SOCIETY: https://www.marssociety.org/ MARS SOCIETY (Editorial): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/opinion/mars-simulation-desert-mdrs.html? MARS IN BOOKS: https://marspedia.org/List_of_books_set_on_MarsMARS IN FICTION: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_in_fiction MARS-MARTIANS IN FILM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_set_on_Mars

Video:

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Opportunity 2004--2019
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Ingenuity 2019--present
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Living in Martian Caves

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