A photograph depicting a Martian sandscape, signed and inscribed by feted British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), as "The Sands of Mars. / Ath C Clarke" along the top and bottom edges. The NASA photograph, (P-22668), is in brilliant color with a gloss finish and has extensive printed information verso related to the Viking 1 space mission to Mars. Expected minor surface wear including gentle corner wrinkles and a few tiny closed tears found along the right edge. Isolated minor stains verso. Else near fine. 11" x 8.5."

Sir Arthur C. Clarke is considered one of the greatest science fiction and futurist fantasy writers of the twentieth century, alongside Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. Clarke's photograph caption "The Sands of Mars" was also the title of his first published novel, released in 1951. In Clarke's "The Sands of Mars," humans have landed on Mars but are still evaluating its viability as a space colony. Early settlers plan to implode the larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, to serve as a second warming "Sun," and scientists are growing oxygenating plants to improve the planet's atmosphere. Clarke envisioned "The Sands of Mars" ten years before Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin reached outer space and nearly twenty years before the first moon landing.

Thus over the course of his lifetime, Clarke was able to witness the fruition--either partial or complete--of many of his most far-fetched ideas, including the exploration of Mars. NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology launched the Viking 1 space probe in late August 1975, and the probe completed the first successful landing on Mars eleven months later, in late July 1976. The Viking 1 mission generated massive amounts of scientific data which painted a rather grim picture of Mars. Unlike in Clarke's novel, where vegetarian kangaroo-like creatures lived, the real Mars was revealed to be a wasteland of orange sand, volcanoes, and meteor craters. Its thin atmosphere, high sulfur soil content, and extreme cold made it devoid of living organisms.

The same year that Clarke published "The Sands of Mars," he also wrote a pulp fiction short story called "The Sentinel." Material from "The Sentinel," along with other novelized material from the 1960s, was incorporated into the 1968 screenplay co-written by Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick for "2001: A Space Odyssey." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's seminal movie about space exploration, "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released one year prior to the Apollo XI moon landing, and a full ten years before the "Star Wars" franchise began. The movie normalized the idea of space travel, exploration, and colonization, and also introduced disturbing dystopian tropes, like malignant artificial intelligence, into mainstream popular culture. "2001: A Space Odyssey" proved hugely influential.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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