Editing Mars in fiction (section)

=== Terraforming ===
{{Further|Terraforming in popular culture}}
[[File:MarsTransitionV.jpg|alt=Artist's impression of the hypothetical phases of the terraforming of Mars|thumb|Some works depict Mars being [[Terraforming|terraformed]] to enable [[Planetary habitability|human habitation]].]]
Clarke's ''The Sands of Mars'' features one of the earliest depictions of [[Terraforming of Mars|terraforming Mars]] to make it more hospitable to human life; in the novel, the [[atmosphere of Mars]] is made breathable by plants that release [[Oxide mineral|oxygen from minerals]] in the [[Martian soil]], and the [[Climate of Mars|climate]] is improved by creating an artificial sun.<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="ReadingMars" /> The theme appeared occasionally in other 1950s works like the aforementioned "Crucifixus Etiam" and ''Police Your Planet'', but largely fell out of favour in the 1960s as the scale of the associated challenges became apparent.<ref name="ScienceFictionAndEcology" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2020 |title=Terraforming |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/terraforming |access-date=2022-08-22 |edition=4th |author1-last=Edwards |author1-first=Malcolm |author1-link=Malcolm Edwards |author2-last=Stableford |author2-first=Brian |author2-link=Brian Stableford |author3-last=Langford |author3-first=David |author3-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> By the 1970s, Martian literature as a whole had mostly succumbed to the discouragement of finding the planet's conditions to be so hostile, and stories set on Mars became much less common than they had been in previous decades.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="ReadingMars" />

A resurgence of popularity of the terraforming theme began to emerge in the late 1970s in light of data from the ''[[Viking program|Viking]]'' probes suggesting that there might be substantial quantities of non-liquid and sub-surface [[water on Mars]]; among the earliest such works are the 1977 novel ''The Martian Inca'' by Ian Watson and the 1978 novel ''[[A Double Shadow]]'' by [[Frederick Turner (poet)|Frederick Turner]].<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /><ref name="MartianMusings" /><ref name="CrossleyMarsRemade" /> Works depicting the terraforming of Mars continued to appear throughout the 1980s. The 1984 novel ''[[The Greening of Mars]]'' by [[James Lovelock]] and [[Michael Allaby]], a study on how Mars might be settled and terraformed presented in the form of a fiction narrative, was influential on science and fiction alike.<ref name="ScienceFictionAndEcology" /><ref name="CrossleyMarsRemade" /><ref name="MarkleyFallingIntoTheory">{{Cite book |last=Markley |first=Robert |title=Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination |date=2005 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-8727-5 |pages=355–384 |language=en |chapter=Falling into Theory: Terraformation and Eco-Economics in Kim Stanley Robinson's Martian Trilogy |quote=Robinson's trilogy is structured ideationally as a series of conflicts between competing visions of terraforming Mars and, therefore, opposing views of politics, economics, and social organization. |author-link=Robert Markley |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loalUL6vakoC&pg=PA355}}</ref><ref>{{multiref2|{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Allaby, Michael |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/allaby_michael |access-date=2023-07-14 |edition=4th |author1-last=Clute |author1-first=John |author1-link=John Clute |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}|{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Lovelock, James |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lovelock_james |access-date=2023-07-14 |edition=4th |author1-last=Langford |author1-first=David |author1-link=David Langford |author2-last=Clute |author2-first=John |author2-link=John Clute |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}}}</ref> [[Kim Stanley Robinson]] was an early prolific writer on the subject with the 1982 short story "[[Exploring Fossil Canyon]]", the 1984 novel ''[[Icehenge]]'', and the 1985 short story "[[Green Mars (novella)|Green Mars]]". Turner revisited the concept in 1988 with ''[[Genesis (poem)|Genesis]]'', a 10,000-line [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] written in [[iambic pentameter]], and [[Ian McDonald (British author)|Ian McDonald]] combined terraforming with [[Magic realism|magical realism]] in the 1988 novel ''[[Desolation Road]]''.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /><ref name="CrossleyMarsRemade" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Jo |author-link=Jo Walton |date=2009-12-21 |title=Magical Realist Mars: Ian McDonald's ''Desolation Road'' |url=https://www.tor.com/2009/12/21/magical-realist-mars-ian-mcdonalds-lemgdesolation-roadlemg/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007020647/https://www.tor.com/2009/12/21/magical-realist-mars-ian-mcdonalds-lemgdesolation-roadlemg/ |archive-date=2015-10-07 |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=[[Tor.com]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

By the 1990s, terraforming had become the predominant theme in Martian fiction.<ref name="SFEMars" /> Several methods for accomplishing it were depicted, including ancient alien artefacts in the 1990 film ''Total Recall'' and the 1997 novel ''[[Mars Underground (novel)|Mars Underground]]'' by [[William Kenneth Hartmann]],<ref name="GreenwoodMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /> utilizing indigenous animal lifeforms in the 1991 novel ''[[Martian Rainbow]]''<!-- Crossley mistakenly gives the title as "The Martian Rainbow" --> by [[Robert L. Forward]],<ref name="CrossleyScientificAdvances" /> and relocating the entire planet to a new [[Planetary system|solar system]] in the 1993 novel ''[[Moving Mars]]'' by [[Greg Bear]].<ref name="GreenwoodMars" /><ref name="CrossleyBeingThere">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=265–268, 271, 277, 279–283 |language=en |chapter=Being There |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA271}}</ref> The 1993 novel ''[[Red Dust (McAuley novel)|Red Dust]]'' by [[Paul J. McAuley]] portrays Mars in the process of reverting to its natural state after an abandoned attempt at terraforming it.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="Baxter" /><ref name="CrossleyScientificAdvances" /> With a Mars settled primarily by China, ''Red Dust'' also belongs to a tradition of portraying a multicultural Mars that developed parallel to the rise to prominence of the terraforming theme. Other such works include the 1989 novel ''[[Crescent in the Sky]]'' by [[Donald Moffitt]], where Arabs apply their experience with surviving in desert conditions to living in their new [[caliphate]] on a partially terraformed Mars, and the 1991 novel ''[[The Martian Viking]]'' by [[Tim Sullivan (writer)|Tim Sullivan]] where Mars is terraformed by [[Geats]] led by [[Hygelac]].<ref name="Baxter" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /><ref name="CrossleyMarsRemade" />

The most prominent work of fiction dealing with the subject of terraforming Mars is the [[Mars trilogy|''Mars'' trilogy]] by Kim Stanley Robinson (consisting of the novels ''Red Mars'' from 1992, ''Green Mars'' from 1993, and ''Blue Mars'' from 1996),<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="WestfahlMars" /><ref name="GreenwoodMars" /> a [[hard science fiction]] story of a [[United Nations]] project wherein 100 carefully selected scientists are sent to Mars to start the first settlement there.<ref name="MammothPlanets" /><ref name="CrossleyBecomingMartian" /> The series explores in depth the practical and ideological considerations involved, the principal one being whether to turn Mars "Green" by terraforming or keep it in its pristine "Red" state.<ref name="MarkleyFallingIntoTheory" /><ref name="CrossleyBecomingMartian" /> Other major topics besides the [[ethics of terraforming]] include the social and economic organization of the emerging Martian society and its political relationship to Earth and the [[Multinational corporation|multinational]] economic interests that finance the mission, revisiting the earlier themes of Mars as a setting for utopia—albeit in this case one in the making rather than a pre-existing one—and Martian struggle for independence from Earth.<ref name="TheNewMartianNovel" /><ref name="MarkleyFallingIntoTheory" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackford |first=Russell |title=Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination: Visions, Minds, Ethics |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-61685-8 |series=Science and Fiction |pages=187 |language=en |chapter=Conclusion: Great Power and Great Responsibility |quote=At the same time as they attempt to settle this debate, the colonists have to sort out the political relationship between their new home and Earth. |author-link=Russell Blackford |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jlU0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA187}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Franko |first=Carol |title=A Companion to Science Fiction |date=2005 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-79701-3 |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |editor-link=<!-- No article at present (April 2024); Wikidata Q112491049 --> |pages=544–555 |language=en |chapter=Kim Stanley Robinson: Mars Trilogy |quote=Meanwhile, two recurring themes in SF treating Mars is that of Mars as a locale for building Utopia (James 1996: 64–75) and of Martian societies gaining independence from Earth (Baxter 1996: 8–9). |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PiphRocVYRwC&pg=PA544}}</ref> 

Alternatives to terraforming have also been explored. The opposite approach of modifying humans to adapt them to the existing environment, known as [[pantropy]], appears in the 1976 novel ''[[Man Plus]]'' by [[Frederik Pohl]] but has otherwise been sparsely depicted.<ref name="GreenwoodMars" /><ref name="MammothPlanets">{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=George |title=The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |date=2001 |publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers |isbn=978-0-7867-0887-1 |pages=498 |language=en |chapter=Planets |author-link=George Mann (writer) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/mammothencyclope00mann/page/498/mode/2up}}</ref> The conflict between pantropy and terraforming is explored in the 1994 novel ''[[Climbing Olympus]]'' by [[Kevin J. Anderson]], as the humans that have been "areoformed" to survive on Mars do not wish the planet to be altered to accommodate unmodified humans at their expense.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="CrossleyBecomingMartian">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=284–306 |language=en |chapter=Becoming Martian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA284}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Buker |first=Derek M. |title=The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, and Sorcerers |date=2002 |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |isbn=978-0-8389-0831-0 |pages=26 |chapter=Mars |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionfa00buke_0/page/26/mode/2up}}</ref> Other works where terraforming is eschewed in favour of alternatives include the 1996 novel ''[[River of Dust]]'' by [[Alexander Jablokov]], where the settlers create a liveable environment by burrowing underground,<ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Di Filippo |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Di Filippo |date=October–November 1996 |editor-last=Dozois |editor-first=Gardner |editor-link=Gardner Dozois |title=Intruders in the Dust |url=https://archive.org/details/asimovs-v-20-n-10-11-1996-10-11/page/283/mode/2up |magazine=[[Asimov's Science Fiction]] |volume=20 |issue=10/11 #250/251 |pages=283–284 |issn=1065-2698}}</ref> and the 1999 novel ''[[White Mars, or, The Mind Set Free: A 21st-Century Utopia]]'' by [[Brian Aldiss]] and [[Roger Penrose]] where [[environmental preservation]] is prioritized and humans live in domed cities.<ref name="CrossleyBecomingMartian" />