Because today is Red Planet Day, our Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is Mars. If you decide to write a post based on this week’s prompt, be sure to go back here and share your link so everyone can see how you interpreted things! Here’s what I did with it…

So I was curious about why today is considered Red Planet Day. Why do we have a day on the calendar devoted to a planet that humans have yet to set foot on? I mean, if it’s a preemptive thing, I guess that’s NASA setting long term goals. Maybe the plan is to have the first manned mission to Mars arrive on November 28 of some future year. Seems awfully specific, though…

But no… November 28 is Red Planet Day because it commemorates the day NASA launched the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1964. Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to perform a successful flyby of Mars and sent back the first clear images of the planet’s surface.

I guess that means this is the mission that provided us with the much debated “face” on the Martian surface. I could be wrong about that. There have been a number of satellites that have flown by Mars to get newer and better pictures of the surface. I remember the first time I saw that picture of the Martian face and it freaked me out when I was a kid. turns out it’s not a face at all… Just a coincidence in the way the light hit a pile of rocks.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week and shared your links! Please visit their blogs, give them a follow, and take a look at how they interpreted the prompt.

1. gigglingfattie

Be sure to come back on Wednesday for the next Sunday Scribblings prompt! Encourage other bloggers to challenge themselves with the prompt! Remember that there are no rules for what you write, other than responding to the prompt! You can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, biography, instruction… it’s all up to you!