In 1877 Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli first saw lines on the surface of Mars. He drew sketches of what he saw. He called them canali or channels. They are popularly called canals. Many people believed that these canals were created by intelligent life and that Mars was inhabited. American astronomer Percival Lowell believed that there was an advanced civilization on Mars. No one knew for sure.
To be able to answer that question one first needs to determine the physical conditions of Mars. Did it have atmosphere, if so what kind? What was the temperature of Mars and could life live in its temperature range. Was there actually water on Mars and various other factors conducive to life as we know it?
The first attempt to find out what was going on was the launching of the Soviet Mars 1 in 1962. Mars 1 was directed toward the red planet hoping to see if there was any life on Mars. Unfortunately, the mission failed. Since then there have been many missions to either fly by the planet and collect data or actually land on the planet by Russia as well as other countries.
Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov was a Russian scientist who was the founder of astrobotany. Astrobotany is the study of plant life and interactions in space environments. For example: if plants can be grown in space or the possibility of plant life on other planets. As various hypothesizes were formulated and discarded new ones were developed. Scientists discussed the possibility of what types of life may be on Mars. What would plants look like in a Martian atmosphere? If there was intelligent life would it be friend or foe? Here is where fantasy begins.
Scientists can learn a lot from unmanned probes about our sister planet but they will not be able to tell the whole story. Science will then need to look into the possibility of man actually going to Mars to fully understand what Mars is all about. What will we find when we get there? What do the canals actually represent? Can man actually survive on Mars? What is necessary for humans to live and colonize the planet?
“Mars” was released in 1968 and was written and directed by Pavel Klushantsev. It is a Russian educational documentary/science fiction film. Klushantsev did several of these films in addition to regular science fiction movies. His most notable documentary style film was “Road to the Stars” or “Doroga k zvezdam” 1957. His best known science fiction movie was “Planeta bur” 1962.
The first part of “Mars” looks at what we know or at least new about Mars based on our scientific understanding as of 1968. The second part of the film then speculates on what we don’t know and dabbles into the realm of science fiction based on theories put forth by various scientists. And scientists can be as inventive as science fiction writers when it comes to the unknown.
It is an interesting, if dated, film. The second part of it is more fun since it take scientific imagination and presents it using miniatures and animation to visualize possible scenarios. It’s actually got some nice special effects. The highlight of the film is a Russian dog cosmonaut running around a Martian landscape in a canine spacesuit. It’s actually amusing as long as one doesn’t think about a dog alone on an alien planet fending for itself. Of course knowing that it takes at least seven to nine months to get to Mars, and any canine would not last that long in space without assistance, puts the idea firmly on the side of cinematic science fiction.