Destination Mars
Encyclopedia
Destination Mars is a juvenile science fiction
novel
, the sixth in Hugh Walters
' Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series. It was published in the UK by Faber
in 1963 and in the US by Criterion Books in 1964.
Also published in German
by Schneider Buch as Der Chor der Verdammten ("The Choir of the Damned") in 1983, and in Portuguese
by Galeria Panorama in 1969 as Destino Marte.
is driven insane by strange 'voices' he hears on his radio. He is unable to record the voices as the Van Allen radiation belt
s wipe the magnetic tapes clean, so doubt is cast on his account.
U.N.E.X.A. (United Nations Exploration Agency) send their crack team (Chris Godfrey, Serge Smyslov, Morrey Kant and Tony Hale) to investigate. After landing on the planet's surface they find traces of an ancient civilisation, but then a disembodied Martian appears and demands its people be transported to Earth, where they will enslave the human race. One-by-one the crew are taken over.
This novel introduces the concept of the Ion drive, allowing continuous acceleration of one-fifth g
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, the sixth in Hugh Walters
Hugh Walters (author)
Hugh Walters was a writer of juvenile Science Fiction novels from Bradley in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
' Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series. It was published in the UK by Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
in 1963 and in the US by Criterion Books in 1964.
Also published in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
by Schneider Buch as Der Chor der Verdammten ("The Choir of the Damned") in 1983, and in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
by Galeria Panorama in 1969 as Destino Marte.
Plot summary
The first man to pass close to MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
is driven insane by strange 'voices' he hears on his radio. He is unable to record the voices as the Van Allen radiation belt
Van Allen radiation belt
The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. It is believed that most of the particles that form the belts come from solar wind, and other particles by cosmic rays. It is named after its discoverer, James...
s wipe the magnetic tapes clean, so doubt is cast on his account.
U.N.E.X.A. (United Nations Exploration Agency) send their crack team (Chris Godfrey, Serge Smyslov, Morrey Kant and Tony Hale) to investigate. After landing on the planet's surface they find traces of an ancient civilisation, but then a disembodied Martian appears and demands its people be transported to Earth, where they will enslave the human race. One-by-one the crew are taken over.
This novel introduces the concept of the Ion drive, allowing continuous acceleration of one-fifth g
Standard gravity
Standard gravity, or standard acceleration due to free fall, usually denoted by g0 or gn, is the nominal acceleration of an object in a vacuum near the surface of the Earth. It is defined as precisely , or about...
.