Help us find and improve next week's Connection Finder profiles: Mars in Opposition

+19 votes
554 views

This coming week, the featured example profiles will be connected to Mars, which will be directly opposite the Sun in Earth's sky and at its brightest on October 13th.

We're searching for the best and most interesting profiles of people who are related to the planet Mars to feature in the Connection Finder. Could you help?

Here are a few ideas of what we're looking for and some we're getting started on:

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature everyone mentioned (we only have room for eight per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (730k points)
edited by Abby Glann

Actually, Isaac Asimov is connected, but Galileo Galilei isn't.

Another Italian of interest to the subject would be Giovanni Schiaparelli - he doesn't have a profile, but his brother has one, and connected. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs - is connected, has profile picture, bio could do with some TLC.  Didn't just write Tarzan - wrote Mars-based fiction as well : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom

 

Oh, Isabelle, it's been one of those mornings. I've fixed the post.

And Melanie, I have Edgar on my personal list, but didn't want to throw too many suggestions out at once in case there were more good options. I think he'd be great to include!

Galileo's son married -- maybe someone could look at him for a connection.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Gamba

He also had three siblings who survived infancy.

Alexander Bogdanov (Russian) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov

Kurt Vonnegut Jr - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Kurd Laßwitz (German) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurd_Lasswitz

"Cyril Judd" - actually two people : Judith Josephine Grossman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Merril  and Cyril Kornbluth  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_M._Kornbluth

Frederik George Pohl Jr - is connected, has bio (but could do with some TLC), needs profile pic.

Robert A. Heinlein - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Arthur Charles Clarke (English) - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Philip K. Dick - is connected, has bio, needs profile pic.

How about https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Huygens-5 ?
 

From wikipedia:

The first person to draw a map of Mars that displayed terrain features was the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens.

Philip K. Dick - is connected, has bio, needs profile pic.

.

Someone has added a picture. 

If we went back to B.C. times, I'd suggest any of the ancient Romans, as it's the Roman god of war that it's named after. Likewise, Aristotle is mentioned as making scientific observations of the planet as well as Ptolemy.

But going forward, Tycho Brahe did measure the diurnal parallax of Mars, which led to one of the earliest discoveries of that time.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brahe-29
And Christiaan Huygens was the Dutch Astronomer who created the first map of Mars with actual features.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Huygens-5

** Sorry... late to the party - he's already mentioned.
I was going to suggest Giovanni Schiaparmarelli too. I looked him up and he made some important Martian observations during the Great Oppositiion of 1877. The article states that he names what he saw Italian "Canali" which was mistranslated to the English word, "Canal"

Schiaparelli has a profile now: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Schiaparelli-6

Schiaparelli described canali, meaning CHANNELS, but the American Percival Lowell misinterpreted the Italian word and decided they were CANALS.

18 Answers

+15 votes
Asaph Hall discovered Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hall-17927

Percival Lowell reported seeing canals on Mars:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lowell-462
by Mark Burch G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
edited by Mark Burch
Those are good ones, Mark!
I added Asaph Hall's wife and children, and his wife is now connected so there are a lot of branches connecting him to the main tree. He would be a good connection anchor.
+15 votes

Percival Lowell was the astronomer who is largely responsible for the mistaken notion that there were canals on  Mars, and that these canals were evidence of intelligent life on Mars.

His profile is mostly based on Wikipedia, but it is illustrated with a photo and he is well-connected in Connection Finder.

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
Good one, Ellen. You and Mark think alike!

Mark hadn't edited his post yet to add Lowell when I posted. cheeky

Scott, the profile for Lowell has the Notables project as profile manager, but it does not have the project box. Does the project intend to manage the profile? If not, I suppose we could add him to the United States project.
I'm OK either way - For now, just to clear the error, I'll put the project box on it, but if US wants it, send me a trusted list request and we can transfer ownership. Good catch.
Thanks, Scott. US doesn't need to manage him.
+10 votes
Edgar Rice Burroughs could be added to the list for several of his novels were set on Mars:The Princess of Mars, Tje Gods of Mars, etc. though I believe his Tarzan novels were more famous.
by David Hughey G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
Nominated yesterday.
+13 votes

William Herschel calculated in 1784 the inclination of the Mars axis as 25°. Nowadays it is known as 25.19°. He should be in the collection I think 

Giovanni Domenico Cassini described the poles of the Mars. But he is not connected yet. 

by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Jelena Eckstädt
Not genealogy related, but images from NASA's Cassini Spacecraft are some of my favorites!

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/images/index.html
+14 votes

I can't resist mentioning David Bowie, because of his emblematic song Life on Mars? .

by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (566k points)
Ziggy Stardust!
And Ziggy's band was the Spiders from Mars.
+7 votes
There's no profile that I could find, but the leader of the Viking orbiter/lander program (which if I remember correctly was the first space vehicles to land on Mars) was Thomas A. Mutch (1931-1980).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Mutch

The Viking 1 lander was named the Thomas Mutch Memorial Station in honor of him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1

The Wikipedia page doesn't have much information, but considering his DOB and the likelihood of available records, there's a decent chance we could find family and a possible connection.
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

Now has a profile, Mutch-429, and some ancestors; ready for folks who are good with Scottish or Nova Scotian records to flesh out and add more relatives.

Nice work, Sharon! I actually started hunting for this earlier and saw the profile... then I saw a parent, and it was kind of fun to go back a bit later and see the work you did. I didn't want to step in and mess with things till you had things stabilized, but from what I could see, it looked great!

HA - Sharon, it looks like David Archibald's ancestors were already on WikiTree, including his father, mother, and a connection. The links should update tonight.

I updated the biography on David Archibald and made the connections, so I had almost nothing to do to get him connected. Thanks for your hard work on this! smiley

You're welcome! It was fun to see what I could figure out.
+7 votes
If we're stretching things just a little, how about the inventor of the famous breakfast drink TANG!

Dr. William A. "Bill" Mitchell invented Pop Rocks, Cool Whip, and you guessed it, TANG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Mitchell

Sadly, he doesn't appear to have a WikiTree profile yet...
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+10 votes

We could feature Franklin Clarence Mars, founder of food and petcare giant, Mars, Inc.  Brands offered by the company include Mars, Milky Way, Galaxy, Orbit and Starburst.

by Greg Lavoie G2G6 Pilot (371k points)
+6 votes
How about Ursula K. Le Guin?  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kroeber-15
by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
edited by Carol Baldwin
+7 votes
Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Vonnegut-1

Buzz Aldrin, The Mission to Mars https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Aldrin-2 (and this profile could use some serious work)
by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

I nominated Vonnegut yesterday.

-

Edward Eugene Aldrin Jr, aka Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo astronaut, and proponent for Mars colonisation, is still alive

I follow him on stalkbook aka spambook aka the book of faces.

Hi Melanie,

Looks like two of us missed your nominations! I don't see them in this posting. And as for Buzz Aldrin, I know he's still alive. The request was for Mars-related and didn't say dead. Buzz Aldrin has a profile on WikiTree. Thanks!
I'd love for Kurt Vonnegut to be featured! I 2nd (3rd, 4th?) him. :)

We cannot even discuss the genealogy of living persons, so we could not feature one.

Also :

Alexander Bogdanov (Russian) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov

Kurt Vonnegut Jr - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Kurd Laßwitz (German) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurd_Lasswitz

"Cyril Judd" - actually two people : Judith Josephine Grossman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Merril  and Cyril Kornbluth  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_M._Kornbluth

Frederik George Pohl Jr - is connected, has bio (but could do with some TLC), needs profile pic.

Robert A. Heinlein - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Arthur Charles Clarke (English) - is connected, has bio, has profile pic.

Philip K. Dick - is connected, has bio, needs profile pic.

+7 votes
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. He is connected.
by Elizabeth Viney G2G6 Mach 6 (64.3k points)
+5 votes
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Franklin-2495 is very well profiled- the next ESA rover to Mars is named for her

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin_(rover)
by Frances McCarthy G2G6 Mach 2 (24.1k points)
+4 votes
Michel Gauquelin (1928-1991) was a pscyhologist in  France who attempted to put astrology on a scientific basis through his special studies of correlation between personality and cosmic influences. One of the strongest results was the Mars Effect with military professionals and sports champions.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gauquelin-3

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Gauquelin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_effect
by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (293k points)
edited by N Gauthier
+4 votes
Actor, M. D. starred in a 2015 science fiction film called "The Martian" adapted from a 2011 novel by A. W. ... see links for full names :)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1083982/?ref_=tt_ov_wr
by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (293k points)
+4 votes
Right now, Mars is in astrological opposition to the Sun which occurs every year or so, but yesterday (Tuesday), Mars was at it's closest approach to Earth, that will not occur again until 2035.

The minimum distance the two planets can be from one another is about 33.9 million miles. Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years in 2003 - and won't be that close again until 2287.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-watch-mars-close-approach-opposition-earth-2035-night-sky/
by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (293k points)
+4 votes

Wikipedia has a nice page of fiction writers at Mars in Firction

by Doug McCallum G2G6 Pilot (531k points)
+4 votes
I started a WikiTree profile on Stanley G. Weinbaum. He was the author of "A Martian Odyssey" and "Valley of Dreams", both of which are set on Mars.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Weinbaum-22
by Nicolas LaPointe G2G6 Mach 1 (10.1k points)
+2 votes

C.S. Lewis also wrote a Martian novel, Out of the Silent Planet. But I'd pick Bradbury and Burroughs as the #1 and #2 choices among the writers (with Wells as a third, if you want that many authors).

by Richard Hill G2G6 Mach 9 (94.9k points)

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