If the real goal is to fly to Mars, there is no reason at all to go via the moon.

ECONOMIST: Human spaceflight

So it was to everybody's disappointment that Mariner 4, the first space probe to fly past Mars (in 1965), revealed a place with a surface that appeared to have been static for billions of years.

ECONOMIST: Martian chronicles

That's a proposed mission that would send a robotic airplane to Mars to fly over the surface looking for the chemical signs of life.

NPR: Revisiting the Viking Missions to Mars

Our mission, as it's planned, is to fly over some of the oldest terrain on Mars, very highly magnetized crustal material that dates back to the beginning of Mars, 4.6 billion years ago.

NPR: Revisiting the Viking Missions to Mars

The proposals are due April 1 of this year, and the Langley Research Center in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and with Lockheed Martin, with the Draper Lab and Aurora Flight Sciences, is proposing a robotic airplane to fly over the surface of Mars, about a mile above the surface.

NPR: Revisiting the Viking Missions to Mars

In addition to the myriad letters, fan sites and blogs, a group of Mars fans dispatched a plane towing a "Renew Veronica Mars" banner to fly over the CW offices.

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