Mars: the Red Planet from Pre-Telescopic Observations to Perseverance

A concise history of Mars from the earliest pre-telescopic observations to the robotic probes of the Space Age.  Humanity's fascination with the Red Planet goes back to antiquity. Its movements were studied and predicted by the ancient Babylonians and Maya. It has featured in more science fiction than any other planet, real or fictional. Spacecraft like SpaceX's Starship might soon make science fiction into science fact.This 12,000 word eBook short read describes how our views of Mars have changed over the last two centuries - from the home of beings possibly more advanced than ourselves to a lifeless world as desolate as the Moon, and to the modern view of a world where water was once abundant and life might possibly still exist.