THE DUSTY RED PLANET HAS FASCINATED US
FOR CENTURIES. EVEN AS WE LEARN MORE, ITS
MYSTERIES KEEP US IN SUSPENSE.Then and Now
Early, blurry views of
Mars inspired stories
of canal-building
aliens. While intelligentcivilizations never
flourished there, rovers
such as Curiosity (right)
now drive the search
for microbial Martians.Our
Obsession
With
MARS
BY NADIA DRAKE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG CUTLER AND SPENCER LOWELL38 PERCIVAL LOWELL, LOWELL OBSERVATORY ARCHIVES (ABOVE); MOSAIC OF 57 IMAGES BY NASA/JPL/MICHAEL RAVINE, MALIN SPACE SCIENCE SYSTEMS