 What is the Martians' orientation toward water?
Illustrated by WOOD My agent was the one who got me the job of going along to write up the first trip to Mars. Trip time is supposed to take 260 days (that's one way), so we're aimed toward where Mars will be (had better be, or else). A pilot, co-pilot, navigator and biochemist. I've met all but the pilot (he's very busy today), and they seem friendly enough. He keeps bent low over a welded-to-the-wall (they call it the bulkhead, for some reason or other) table, scratching away with a ballpoint pen on the maps, and now and then calling numbers over a microphone to the pilot. The inertial gravities didn't bother me so much as the gyroscopic spin they put on the ship so we have a sort of artificial gravity to hold us against the curved floor. He passed my room on the way to the galley (the kitchen) for a cup of dark brown coffee (they like it thick) and told me that we were almost past the Moon. They'd have to cover it so I could look out the viewing screen, and they still need it for steering or something. October 3, 1960 Also, I am one of the first five men in the history of the world to see the opposite side of the Moon, with a bluish blurred crescent beyond it that Pat said was the Earth. The back of the Moon isn't much different from the front. As to the space in front of the ship, well, it's all black with white dots in it, and none of the dots move, except in a circle that Pat says is a "torque" result from the gyroscopic spin we're in. Actually, he explained to me, the screen is supposed to keep the image of space locked into place no matter how much we spin. I told him I hoped it didn't mean we'd land on Mars upside down. I can't say I was too impressed with that 16 x 19 view of outer space. There's just no awesomeness to it, no sense of depth or immensity. With Martian rime, Venusian slime, And a radioactive hoe. He says it may prove to be environmentally accurate, but that I should stick to prose. I saw Mars on the screen today. It seems to be descending from overhead, but Pat says that that's the "torque" doing it. Actually, it's we who are coming in sideways.
 They fear it due to its ability to disintegrate their bodies
 They fear it due to its ability to disintegrate their bodies  They utilize it to grow an army within their population  They desire it to fuel their underground Martian ecosystem  They are both curious and reluctant to understand its potential