Course Correction

“The surface area of Mars is exactly as large as the land area of the Earth. A thorough reconnaissance will clearly occupy us for centuries. But there will be a time when Mars is all explored; a time after robot aircraft have mapped it from aloft, a time after rovers have combed the surface, a time after samples have been returned safely to Earth, a time after human beings have walked the sands of Mars. What then? What shall we do with Mars?”

— Carl Sagan. Cosmos, Chapter V, p. 138

Fire arrows propelled through the use of gunpowder are known to have been used in the Siege of Yuzhang. Rockets developed from this technology. It will be ironic, poetic, and just when – more than a millennium and a century later – instead of a legacy of dropping bombs on cities we are dropping cities on a planet named for the god of war.