Mars: From War God to Space Race & Beyond

THE RACE
Mars is at the center of the modern space race. Major powers like the U.S. and China, as well as private companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are competing to be the first to land humans on the Red Planet. This renewed focus on Mars is driving innovation in rocketry, materials science, and life support systems.

PLANET B
Elon Musk views Mars as a potential safeguard for humanity, arguing that colonizing the planet is crucial for survival in the event of a Third World War. Meanwhile, India demonstrated that space exploration isn’t limited to superpowers, successfully sending a probe to Mars in 2014 with a modest budget.

COLD WORLD
Mars is a cold planet due to its thin atmosphere and distance from the sun. The average surface temperature is a frigid -63°C (-81°F), and can plummet to -140°C (-220°F) during polar winters.

A NAME WITH HISTORY
The name ‘Mars’ comes from the Roman god of war, a fitting title given the planet’s reddish hue, reminiscent of blood.

POP CULTURE CONNECTION
Bruno Mars, the stage name of singer Peter Hernandez, explained his choice of moniker: “A lot of girls say I’m out of this world, so I was like I guess I’m from Mars.”

A BRITISH ORIGIN
The Mars bar originated in England. Forrest Mars, son of the founder of Mars Inc., relocated to Slough, UK – also known from the comedy series The Office – and opened a candy factory there in 1932, where he invented the Mars bar, named after his surname and as a nod to the ‘otherworldly’ name of the Milky Way, which his father had already launched in the U.S.

MUSIC AND MARS
Ziggy Marley, son of Bob Marley, released the song ‘I Don’t Wanna Live on Mars,’ accompanied by a music video filmed on the planet’s surface. His first name, ‘Ziggy,’ was reportedly inspired by Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie’s famous extraterrestrial alter ego.

BOWIE’S INFLUENCE
‘Life on Mars?’ is a well-known song by David Bowie. During his time performing as Ziggy Stardust, his backing band was The Spiders from Mars.

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
In astrology, each planet is considered a ‘ruler’ of one or more zodiac signs. In the case of Aries, that planet is Mars, influencing the sign with traits like assertiveness, energy, and combativeness.

EARLY SPACE TOURISM
Dennis Tito, an American entrepreneur, became the first space tourist in 2001. Following his spaceflight, he shifted his focus, founding the Inspiration Mars Foundation in 2013 with the goal of conducting a flyby of Mars with a crew in 2018. The mission did not come to fruition. In 2021, Tito, now elderly, booked a trip to the moon with SpaceX.

EXTREME WEATHER
Mars experiences extreme weather conditions, with fierce winds sweeping across the surface, sometimes reaching hurricane force, and blowing dust clouds kilometers high. The thin atmosphere is also constantly bombarded by charged particles from the solar wind.

DUST STORMS
Mars is notorious for its massive dust storms, which can sometimes engulf the entire planet in a reddish-brown haze. These storms can last for weeks or even months, blocking out sunlight. In 2018, a storm led to the failure of the Opportunity rover, which relied on solar power. NASA was unable to re-establish contact, likely due to dust covering the solar panels.

A PAST INCIDENT
In 2010, singer Bruno Mars made headlines after being caught with a small amount of cocaine. He received a fine and community service and was not further prosecuted.

BY THE NUMBERS
Mars is significantly smaller than Earth and is ten times lighter. October 10th (10-10) marks a key moment in space exploration history, as the first spacecraft to Mars was launched on that date in 1960. NASA also revealed in 2004 that there are ten heart-shaped craters on Mars.

FOOTBALL AND MARS
SSC Napoli, an Italian soccer club, had Mars as a shirt sponsor for years, prominently displaying the logo on their jerseys.

A LEGEND WEARS THE LOGO
When Diego Maradona played for Napoli, he wore the shirt featuring the Mars sponsor logo.

SUBTERRANEAN WATER
Liquid water exists beneath the surface of Mars, hidden in deep layers of ice and rock. This discovery fuels hope that life may have once existed, or could still exist, deep underground.

ANCIENT OCEANS
Scientists believe Mars once had a vast ocean, larger than the Arctic Ocean. While that ocean is now gone, traces of it remain in the landscape.

POLAR ICE CAPS
The north pole of Mars is entirely covered in ice. During the summer, some of this ice sublimates, meaning it turns directly into gas without first becoming liquid.

VOLCANIC BOMBS
A ‘volcanic bomb’ is a piece of rock ejected into the air during a volcanic eruption. Mars, with its multiple volcanoes, is scattered with such debris. The Spirit rover discovered and examined one such bomb, providing valuable information: it likely landed on a wet surface. The depth of the impact also suggested that the Martian atmosphere was once twenty times denser than it is today.

RELAXATION AND MARS
One of Bruno Mars’s biggest hits is ‘The Lazy Song’ with the lyrics: “I just wanna lay in my bed.” There’s also a well-known story from Roman mythology, where Venus is caught in bed with Mars by her husband Vulcanus. This affair inspired many artists to paint the scene.

RED DUST
The Martian atmosphere is full of fine red dust, giving the planet its characteristic color.

BAKING ON MARS
Belgian company Puratos has raised €6.5 million for a unique project: researching how yeast and dough react under extraterrestrial conditions, with the goal of baking bread on Mars in the future. The research director at Puratos believes that people will be living on Mars in 100 years, and wants to enable them to bake bread locally.

MARTIAN GLASS
Scientists have found glass on the surface of Mars, likely formed by the heat of meteorite impacts or volcanic eruptions. These glass layers may contain traces of ancient life, as they can encapsulate and preserve organic material.

A CULTURAL MOMENT
In 2015, headlines announced “Water on Mars” following evidence of flowing water on the planet. A photo of a Mars bar under a glass of water went viral on social media.

NEW DISCOVERY
In 2024, scientists discovered water deep beneath the surface of Mars.

ROBOTIC EXPLORERS
Mars rovers, such as Spirit, Curiosity, and Perseverance, have been traversing the planet’s surface for years, sending back photos and measuring ground samples to aid scientific research.

THIRTY SECONDS
‘Thirty Seconds to Mars’ is an American rock band, fronted by actor Jared Leto.

OLYMPUS MONS
Olympus Mons on Mars towers 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) above the surface and is the largest known volcano and the highest known mountain in our solar system.

A PARISIAN LANDMARK
At the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris lies the Champ-de-Mars, a large open park. The name literally means ‘Field of Mars,’ referencing the ancient military training ground that once existed there.

A CLASSICAL COMPOSITION
Austrian composer Johann Strauss wrote numerous marches, including the famous Radetzky March.

MARTIAN MOONS
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, Greek for fear and terror. They orbit the planet rapidly and are believed to be captured asteroids.

SCIENCE FICTION
In the 2015 film ‘The Martian,’ Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded alone on Mars.

ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION
The Martian atmosphere consists of more than 95 percent carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is deadly to humans.

A PREDICTIVE NOVEL
Long before the moons of Mars were discovered, Jonathan Swift wrote about them in his 1726 novel ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ describing two small moons that closely resemble the Martian moons discovered with a telescope in 1877.

A SUCCESSFUL LANDING
Phoenix is the name of a Mars lander that discovered ice chunks the size of dice in the Martian soil in 2008.

A CLASSIC TALE
H.G. Wells’s novel ‘The War of the Worlds’ tells the story of an invasion by Martians. The 1938 radio adaptation of the book caused panic among American listeners, with some believing a Martian invasion was actually happening.