Ever since humans looked up at the stars, they noticed that a few of them were different from others.

They moved.

These moving points of light were planets, and one of those points of light was of course the

planet Mars.

This first observation of Mars by early humans slowly and inexorably led to

landing robots on the surface of the planet. Learn more about our exploration of

Mars on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Curiosity Stream.

If you're interested in Mars, then Curiosity Stream is a must.

They might have more shows about Mars than they do on any other subject.

They have countdown to impact, which is about the Perseverance Rover which just landed.

They also have seven minutes to touchdown, drilling for Mars quakes, packing for Mars, water on Mars, and a hunt for Martian life.

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As I mentioned in the introduction, the exploration of Mars can be considered to have begun in prehistory.

As far as we know, every civilization was aware of Mars and was able to track its position in the sky.

The first written mention of Mars was by the Egyptians and

even then they were aware of a retrograde motion which is sometimes when the

planet appears to move backwards in the sky which is caused by the Earth passing the slower planet in its orbit.

The Samarians, Greeks, and Romans all associated Mars with their gods of war.

The ancient Chinese associated it with the element of fire. Beyond tracking the point of light in the sky, there wasn't much more that ancient people could really do.

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