Carl Sagan’s Cosmos ~ Blues for a Red Planet

Carl Sagan with a mock up of the Viking Mars Lander

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the fifth episode of Carl Sagan’s highly acclaimed PBS documentary series – Cosmos: Blues for a Red Planet.

Percival Lowell

Is there life on Mars? Dr. Sagan takes viewers on a tour of the red planet first through the eyes of science fiction authors, and then through the unblinking eyes of two Viking spacecrafts that sent thousands of pictures of the stunning Martian landscape back to Earth in 1976. 

Though based on older Mars missions, Sagan’s analysis still holds true.

Martian Fighting Machines 

This episode of Cosmos also follows the career of a young boy, Robert Hutchings Goddard, who was inspired by H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds”, to one day blaze a trail to the red planet.

Robert H.Goddard

Carl Sagan devoted an entire chapter regarding Goddard titled “Via Cherry Tree, to Mars" in Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science published in 1979.

This thirteen part series is available on DVD along with its companion book from Amazon.com.

Carl Sagan's COSMOS ~ Blues for a Red Planet



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