Martian Underground Ocean

An article about the huge reservoir of liquid water discovered below ground on Mars:

Oceans of Liquid Water on Mars

In the presence of H2O, life as we know it has the potential to evolve and thrive. Therefore, this revelation enhances the plausiblity of living organisms on Mars, even if only microscopic. According to data collected by the Mars rovers "it has become more and more evident that the red planet was once loaded with water. Minerals, terrain, and features such as ancient dry lake beds and deltas suggest that Mars was once pretty soggy." Maybe the obsolete belief in ancient artificial canals on the Red Planet isn't so farfetched after all, even though they would've existed so many eons ago as to leave no traces for us to find. Suppose, during the period of surface liquid water, advanced life developed -- even to the point of intelligence and a technological culture? And what if the ancient Martians didn't go extinct, but left a remnant who retreated underground and built subterranean cities, whose inhabitants are deliberately hiding from us?

Highly implausible, sure -- but impossible? That scenario could make an intriguing premise for an SF novel.

In Diane Duane's A WIZARD OF MARS, teenage wizard protagonists Kit and Nita learn of and visit a Martian civilization that existed in the unimaginably distant past. The Wikipedia overview of the novel:

A Wizard of Mars

Suppose that society had secretly survived into the present? I don't know of a published fictional work on that premise, but it wouldn't be much of a stretch from Duane's plotline.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Science, Fiction, Percival Lowell, and Superior Beings With Gills

On the eve of the 2017 solar eclipse, what better a topic than the Lowell Observatory, whose astronomers will be broadcasting on The Science Channel all Monday from Madras, Oregon?

There will also be events (but no actual "totality") at the Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill, above the dark skies town of Flagstaff, Arizona, which is over 7,000 feet above sea level.

"There is nothing in the world, or beyond it, to prevent... a being with gills, for example, from being a most superior person." 

Percival Lowell (March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916)

Quote borrowed from 
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"From the Hill: The Story of Lowell Observatory" by Rose Houk. 

I love the idea of a "most superior person" being a "being with gills"! That is perhaps my favorite of all the quotes attributed to Percival Lowell that I have been able to find on the internet.

Lowell's admiration for the imagined superior beings of Mars was based on his observations between 1894 and 1905, and before him of Giovanni Schiaparelli (in 1877) of what appeared to be a network of 30-mile wide irrigation channels on the surface of Mars.

Alien romance authors might be interested to read that Lowell's idea of a dying, drying planet --inhabited with water infrastructure engineers and planners whose ingenuity, imagination and foresight surpassed that of (his) contemporary public works departments, (but who ultimately might need to raid their neighbors)-- is said to have inspired early science fiction authors such as H G Wells ("War of the Worlds"); Robert A, Heinlein ("The Red Planet"),  Ray Bradbury ("The Martian Chronicles"), and Edgar Rice Burroughs ("The Gods of Mars"), and more.

It might have inspired the Tom Cruise movie "Oblivion". Tom's character did not have gills; he wasn't an alien, but his alien masters certainly wanted Earth's water.

Percival Lowell wrote three books about Mars: "Mars" (1895), "Mars And Its Canals" (1906), and "Mars As The Abode Of Life" (1908).

Some are available on project gutenberg. Not a lot of people seem to know that.  (Before Percival Lowell was interested in Mars, and in finding Planet X --which turned out to be Pluto-- he was fascinated by Japan and Korea). Apparently he took his portable telescope on his travels.

Lowell wrote "The Soul of the Far East", and "Noto An Unexplored Corner of Japan" (1891), which are available on Project Gutenberg. (No doubt the local Japanese were surprised by the latter title), also "Occult Japan, or The Way of the Gods" (1894). There were other books, and at his death, he left an unpublished manuscript entitled "Peaks and Plateaux in the Effect on Tree Life."

I wonder whether Lowell's ideas may have inspired the study of dendrology by his erstwhile friend, astronomy site-hunter and colleague, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, who left Mars Hill to found the Steward Observatory in Tucson ( bad weather and mosquitoes notwithstanding).

More stellar quotes from Percival Lowell:

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell#Quotes

http://www.azquotes.com/author/47211-Percival_Lowell  Quotes  

One of my favorites is on Progress: ".... if nature abhors a vacuum, mankind abhors filling it."

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Review of FROM THE HILL: THE STORY OF LOWELL OBSERVATORY by Rose Houk

Third edition

ISBN 069284454-6  or 9780692844540

Copyright Lowell Observatory

I purchased this beautiful little softback from the Lowell Observatory gift shop, primarily because I did not think I'd remember all the stories that the Lowell Observatory guides (astrophysics students and astronomrs) told about Percival Lowell and his lonely, nocturnal associates. I was fascinated to hear that Percival Lowell's theories about highly intelligent life on Mars (based on the "canals"... which were called "canali" by Giovanni Schiaparelli, the first astronomer to see the marks on Mars.)  As a sfr author and a blogger, I was intrigued that many of the science fiction "greats" were inspired by Percival Lowell's views on Mars. In my opinion, the best quote by Percival Lowell in Rose Houk's excellently written book is "There is nothing in the world, or beyond it, to prevent... a being with gills, for example, from being a most superior person."  According to the copyright page, the only people who may quote anything from this book, are people who write reviews (of the book).  Hence, I'm reviewing it, and in my view,  it is appropriate to award it 5 stars.

FYI this blog is not an Amazon affiliate, and the Amazon price offered for the 47 page 2nd edition,( instead of 50-page third edition bought at the Observatory) probably benefits no one except the predatory Amazon... and whoever purchases it.

Enjoy the eclipse responsibly! (Through special eyewear or in reflection or on The Science Channel).

Rowena Cherry

Taking the High Road To Mars

Perhaps I am taking the "low" minded road.  I've been torn all day between blogging about The Naked Man Festival in Japan... as an example of exotic Festivals around the world that might be used as inspiration for world-building; or about Innovations that every science fiction author has freely given away in their work, only to see it also appear in someone else's work; or about sex.

I'm plumping for sex. Or rather, abstinence therefrom.

http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars144.html

You should follow that link.

The scientists'  "Recommendations include the possibility that male and female astronauts on a mission to Mars, should fly in separate space craft."

The scientists presuppose that both space craft will land safely. I think... if I were organizing the expedition,
and I really felt that the astronauts could not be induced to abstain from sex, and if hibernation were not to be a viable solution, I'd send along some deep-frozen embryos on the males' space ship, and some deep frozen semen on the females' space ship, just to hedge my bets.

The scientists' concerns stem from real life experiments aboard the Mir, and isolated in the Antarctic, and they conclude that "rape, murder, the monopolization of female astronauts by one or two high ranking males" are highly likely, and would be absolutely beyond the power of NASA (or the Russian space agency) to control.

Possibly Doria Russell was on to something, in THE SPARROW, when she sent Jesuits on space missions. What would be the calming effect and influence of an astronaut man --or woman-- of God on such a mission?

On the other hand, why not sent a latter day Noah's Ark? If there are to be three males and three females, why shouldn't they be stable and happily married couples? One of the consultants suggests that we send married couples, but the scientists worry about divorce.

Maybe, a different demographic would be a good idea. I'm just throwing this out. If sex is such a potential problem, what about a gay couple, a lesbian couple, and a straight couple? Wouldn't that be the perfect team for a long term, one-way, colonizing mission to Mars?

There must --surely-- be qualified couples.

If you are interested in SFR, you really should (IMHO) read this study.
http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars144.html

As for naked men, I don't know whether a .mp3 audio podcast can be shared via a Blogspot blog, but if it can be, here's the internet radio show I did yesterday with bestselling author Sally MacKenzie about her Naked Duke, and soon to come Naked King, and also with Mia Marlowe about her thoroughly distracted Duchess (Distracting The Duchess) who was expecting a nude model suitable to pose as Cupid, but a definite Mars revealed himself to her instead.

Have a great week.

Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/