Mars

Mars (or Sol IV) was the inhabited fourth planet of the Sol system. It was located close to the asteroid belt and had two moons, one of which was Deimos. 

Planetary data
Mars was a terrestrial planet about half of that of Earth's radius with a thin atmosphere. The reddish-orange color of the Martian surface was due to the presence of iron oxide, also known as hematite. 

History
Due to its similarity with Earth, scientists believed Mars might hold life as well. In the early years of space exploration, various theories and projects were made to justify this. Eventually, scientists from Earth discovered microscopic evidence of ancient life on Mars in 1996 in the form of insects. Larger fossils were discovered later on. 

In 1947, several members of the United States military thought Quark, Rom, and Nog were from Mars. Jeff Carlson and Faith Garland wondered if they might be able to have their honeymoon there. 

The 1970s was the beginning of the Mars projects. These projects, both manned and unmanned, explored the planet. 

In 1997, the NASA rover Sojourner became the first vehicle of its type to explore Mars; the location later became a Mars Heritage Site. 

In 2032, a manned Earth mission to Mars, the Ares IV, took place under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly. 

Having been completed in 2012, the Millennium Gate served as a model for the first colony on the red planet. It pioneered many new technologies and scientific principles like a coverage by highly-reflective solar panels and being constructed as a self-contained biosphere. By 2069, Utopia Planitia was colonized. The Martian colonies were established in 2103. Two years later, Mars was visited by the Redjac entity who killed eight women of the Martian colonies. 

As of the mid-2150s Humans installed a verteron array to redirect comets toward the polar caps for the purpose of terraforming. In 2155, Terra Prime - under the command of John Frederick Paxton - moved the Orpheus Mining Colony from Luna to Mars and hijacked the device in order to attack Starfleet Headquarters. Thanks to the efforts of Commander Charles Tucker III, the array fired harmlessly into the San Francisco Bay. 

In 2254, Mars was seen on a map depicting the inner Sol system. This map was scanned by the Talosians. 

Mars was featured in a nonsense two-line poem that Charlie Evans forced Spock to recite in 2266: "Saturn rings around my head, down a road that's Martian red."

In 2267, Mars was seen on a chart depicting the Sol system. This map was scanned by Nomad. 

In 2268, James T. Kirk argued in favor of having Sargon and his companions take over the bodies of the crew, and emphasized the benefits that it might possibly have on mankind, he explained, "they used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon or that we hadn't gone on to Mars or the nearest star?"

In 2274, Mars served as the launch point for the colony ship SS Artemis. 

By the mid-24th century. the Daystrom Institute of Technology was founded on this planet. One of its graduates was Leah Brahms, who later returned to the institute as a professor in theoretical physics. 

In 2363, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) was commissioned at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. (Star Trek: The Next Generation, set artwork)

In 2364, the Enterprise-D was launched from the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. (, set artwork)

In that year, a painting of Mars and its moon, Deimos, was seen in guest quarters on the Enterprise-D. 

In 2372, Captain Benjamin Sisko and Constable Odo planned for Joseph Sisko and Jake Sisko to take a transport to Mars to avoid being caught in Admiral Leyton's coup d'état. 

In 2376, Lieutenant Tom Paris mentioned that one of his ancestors flew the first orbital glider over the lower Martian plateau. 

The Kyrians in 3074 believed that Mars was the home of the USS Voyager, and not Earth as was the truth. A backup version of The Doctor corrected this error. 

In an alternate timeline, Mars was wiped out by the Xindi following their destruction of Earth in 2154.

Mars of 2371 was affected by the death of Gabriel Bell in 2024.

Political
As the first Human colony on Mars was established in 2103, the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian colonies were an important step in the pursuit of individual rights. Among the first colonists were relatives of Jean-Luc Picard. Utopia Planitia was established along with the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in geosynchronous orbit above, where many famous vessels including the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), the USS Voyager, and the USS Defiant (2370) were built. Mars was also an important part in the defense of the Sol system and the location of the Mars Defense Perimeter. ( dedication plaque; ; Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual)

Terraforming
Mars was the first planet to be terraformed by Humans. Colonists originally dwelt within domed cities while the verteron array was used to redirect comets and asteroids towards the Red Planet to impact in the polar caps. This freed carbon dioxide and released it into the atmosphere, increasing the planet's temperature and water volume. By 2155, conditions in the lowlands of the Martian surface were sufficiently altered to allow Humans to roam freely without heavy environmental suits (though one would still have to dress warmly for the near-arctic surface temperatures). 

Literature
Mars was often featured in science fiction stories of the 20th century. In 1953, Benny Russell met a vendor in Harlem who found "men from Mars" to be unrealistic. After Douglas Pabst told Russell an African-American in charge of a space station was "not believable", Herbert Rossoff angrily retorted "and men from Mars are?"

Other references
A product known as "Mars Toothpaste", based on the name of the Roman god, was manufactured on the fourth planet of the 892 system in 2268. 

People

 * Alfonse Pacelli
 * Helene Pacelli
 * Salvatore Pacelli
 * Lydia Romaine
 * Mira Romaine
 * Simon Tarses

Locations

 * Carl Sagan Memorial Station
 * Martian colonies
 * Martian Colony 3
 * Utopia colony
 * Paul Institute of Mars
 * Starfleet Technical Services Academy
 * Utopia Planitia
 * Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

Related topics

 * Ares IV
 * Fundamental Declarations of the Martian colonies
 * Mars Defense Perimeter
 * Orbital glider
 * Starfleet Technical Services Academy
 * Verteron array

Appearances and References

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Behind the scenes
An illusory version of Mars was originally to have featured in, with "an almost fairybook vine-covered cottage on one of the rural can-farms of Mars." The story outline for "The Cage" includes not only that description but also makes mention of frequent Martian "hay rides," such as Barth races that the Colonists Grange Society is planning, as well as "a fifty-mile sled ride down the Great Slopes" on the evening after the Barth races. (The Making of Star Trek, pp. 57-58)

During the early days of Star Trek, new writers repeatedly pitched story ideas that sent the Enterprise to Mars. In, Gene Roddenberry stated, "We have instructed all of our writers that Mars must be avoided. It's not far-out enough for us. Our time period is 200 years from now. By that time, Mars will already have parking lot problems from human colonists." (, p. 40)

The remastered versions of Star Trek: The Original Series show the prominent red planet familiar from the original opening sequence to bear striking resemblance to Mars. Indeed, the producers used real photographs of Mars as textures for this computer-generated shot, showing a large canyon, which was in fact one of the most famous landmarks on Mars: "Valles Marineris", the deepest and longest canyon in the entire Sol system. Furthermore, the large cloud formation lies directly over the "Tharsis plateau", which is a region of increased cloud formation on Mars, too. If the producers really intended the planet to be Mars remains unknown so far. However, the color of its atmosphere glows pink near the day-night boundary, which would contradict this theory, as the Martian atmosphere appears blue during sunrise and sunset. On the other hand, this change of color could be a byproduct of terraforming.

In, Mars was shown without any visible surface features besides the poles. Whether intentional or not, this is very similar to the planet's appearance during a global dust storm.

Star Trek: Star Charts
Mars (or Sol IV) was classified as a K-class planet. In 2030, the first manned landing by an Earth ship was made by the Aries I. In 2103, the United Martian Colonies, the uniglobal government of Mars, was founded. Utopia Planitia was the seat of government. The first flag of the UMC was based on a painting of a bullfighter on velvet. In 2161, Mars was a charter member of the United Federation of Planets. In 2378, the dominant species were Humans, and there were counted 133.8 million living on Mars. Points of interest were, , and the Utopia Planitia fleet yards. (Pg. 32, "United Federation of Planets I")

Apocrypha
In the Star Trek: SCE novel Aftermath, Boothby was identified as a Mars native, an homage to Ray Walston's role as the title character in .