Month: May 2026

NASA Mars Recruitment Posters

NASA Mars Recruitment Posters for Explorers: Art by NASA

Born in Chicago, Illinois in September of 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer of adventure, fantasy and science fiction series. He was the fourth son of Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs and Mary Evaline Zieger , both of whom were from Warren, Massachusetts.

Edgar Rice Burroughs is best known for the twenty-four books of the “Tarzan” series and the eleven-volume Barsoom series with the early sci-fi hero John Carter, a Civil War veteran from Virginia who becomes a warrior on the planet Mars. Created in 1911, the character of Carter has appeared in short stories, novels, comic books, television shows and films, most notably Andrew Stanton’s 2012 feature film “John Carter”, that marked the 101st anniversary of John Carter’s first published appearance.

Burroughs’s first novel of the Barsoom/Carter series, “Under the Moons of Mars”, was written between July and September of 1911; it was serialized in Frank Munsey’s monthly pulp magazine “The All Story” from February to July in 1913. After the publishing success of Burroughs’s “Tarzan” series, “Under the Moons of Mars” was published as a hardcover edition in October of 1917 by A.C. McClurg & Company under the title “A Princess of Mars”.

John Carter was the lead character in Burroughs’s first novel of the Barsoom series. He featured most prominently in five of the following volumes: “The Gods of Mars”, “The Warlord of Mars”, ‘The Swords of Mars”, “Llana of Gathol”, and “John Carter of Mars” published in 1964, fourteen years after Burroughs’s death. As a secondary character, Carter appeared in the fourth volume “Thuvia, Maid of Mars” and the ninth volume “Synthetic Men of Mars’.  A volume, entitled “John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten” by sci fi author Geary Gravel, was released by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in September of 2021.

Homages to Burroughs’s character John Carter and his world of Mars have appeared in works by such science fiction writers as Alan Moore, Robert A. Heinlein, Charles Stross, Philip José Farmer, and Harry Turtledove. In 2020, Altus Press released an authorized  “Tarzan”novel entitled “Tarzan: Conqueror of Mars” written by Will Murray. In the novel, Tarzan finds himself marooned on Barsoom and seeks John Carter’s help to return home.

The Karnak Temple

 

Photographer Unknown, (Inside the Karnak Temple in Luxor)

Consisting of more than one hundred hectares, Karnak is an ancient temple precinct in Egypt located on the east bank of the Nile River in modern-day Luxor, formerly Thebes. The largest sector is the central portion which is dedicated to Amun-Ra, considered to be the supreme creator, the god of fertility and life.

In the southern central sector is a precinct dedicated to the goddess Mut, wife of Amun-Ra, the primal mother goddess who is associated with the waters from which everything is born. She was a patron deity of Thebes along with her husband Amun-Ra and their son Khonsu, god of the moon.

North of the central area is a precinct dedicated to Montu, the falcon headed god of war and embodiment of the conquering vitality of the Pharaoh. The ancient god Montu was the manifestation of the sun, Ra, whose scorching destructive effect caused him to be considered initially a warrior; he was eventually given status as a god of war.

To the east of the central sector, there is an area that was dedicated to Aten, the solar disc. The deity Aten was the focus of the monotheistic religion established by Amenhotep IV who worshiped Aten as the creator, the giver of life, and the nurturing spirit of the world. Horemheb, the last Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, reestablished the priesthood of Amun and destroyed the temple area of Aten. A prolific builder, Horemheb constructed the Second, Ninth and Tenth Pylons of the great Hypostyle Hall in the precinct of Amon-Ra at the Temple of Karnak.

The last major building program at Karnak was under the reign of Nectanebo I, a king of the Thirtieth and last Dynasty of Egypt. He built a large enclosure wall around the site along with another temple. He also started, but did not complete, a new pylon at the western entrance of Karnak. The rulers of foreign descent who took control of Egypt continued work at Karnak, creating a series of burial catacombs dedicated to Osiris, god of the underworld. When Rome seized control of Egypt in 30BCE and maintained control for a six hundred year period. Structual work at Karnak ceased when Rome established power, ending a span of two thousand years of construction. .