A Mars a Day

This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of Mars. It was obtained by NASA’s Viking 1 minutes after the spacecraft landed July 20, 1976.
Image NASA/JPL-Caltech

Viking 1, a robotic US spacecraft, was launched on 20 August 1975 and successfully landed on Mars in 1976, where it operated for over six years. Today, the questions are all related to Mars in fiction.

One

The 2015 Ridley Scott film The Martian starring Matt Damon was based on a novel of the same name by what American author?

Two

What novel, and who was the author, featuring Mars or Martians also features Horsell Common, near Woking, Surrey?

Three

On Mars’s largest moon, Phobos, there is a regio, Laputa Regio, which is named after …’s Laputa because of his ‘prediction’ of the two then undiscovered Martian moons, which his Laputan astronomers had discovered
— Wikipedia

The above quote from Wikipedia refers to an area on Phobos, the largest Moon of Mars, which is named after the fictional ’Laputa’. From what literary work, first published in 1726, does ‘Laputa’ originate and who was the author of it?

Four

In the 2008 remake of a 1951 film, Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu. Name the actor who portrayed Klaatu in the original 1951 version and the title of both films?

Five

Who wrote The Martian Chronicles (1950)?

Good luck! I’ll post the answers later today.

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Author: Quizologist

As a retired trivia writer, editor and quiz compiler, I wholeheartedly agree with Bertrand Russell’s quote: “There’s much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.” Trivia of all sorts has always fascinated me, and for many years, I’ve written and compiled trivia for various media, including traditional TV and radio quiz shows, newspapers and magazines, apps, and other digital platforms.

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