Mars Mars ( also known as Sol IV ) was the inhabited fourth planet of the Sol system . It was located near to the . ( ; ) Planetary data . Mars was a terrestrial planet about half of that of Earth ' s with a thin atmosphere . The red dish - orange color of the Martian surface was due to the presence of iron oxide , also known as hematite . ( ) Location . In the late 19th century , the orbit of Mars was depicted on a German map of the inner system . ( , " opening credits " ) In 2254 , the orbit of Mars was depicted on a map of the inner system , that was stored in the library computer . It was one of the records scanned by the Talosian s . ( , " production art " ) In 2267 , the orbit of Mars was depicted on " Chart 14A : The Sol System " that was stored in the " Enterprise " library computer . The chart was scanned by the probe " Nomad " in Auxiliary Control . ( , " production art " ) History . Before the invention of the telescope , Human s discovered Mars in the night sky . ( , " okudagram " ) Mars was a common topic of fantastic literature and scientific speculation . In 1947 , several members of the United States military thought Quark , Rom , and Nog were from Mars . Jeff Carlson and Faith Garland wondered if they might be able to have their honeymoon there . ( ) In 1996 , Rain Robinson had an newspaper article on display in her office showing a picture of a meteorite and asking if there was life on Mars . ( ) Eventually , fossils of insect s were found . ( , " production art " ) This planet was explored by unmanned NASA spacecraft in the twenty - two years that followed the launch of " Sputnik " in 1957 . ( , " okudagram " ; ) In 1997 , the NASA rover " Sojourner " became the first vehicle of its type to explore Mars ; the location later became a Mars Heritage Site . ( ) Having been completed in 2012 , the Millennium Gate served as a model for the first colony on the red planet . It pioneered many new technologies and scientific principles like a coverage by highly - reflective solar panels and being constructed as a self - contained biosphere . ( ) In 2032 , a manned Earth mission to Mars , the " Ares IV " , took place under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly . ( ; ) One of Tom Paris ' ancestors piloted the first orbital glider over the lower Martian plateau . By 2069 , an outpost at Utopia Planitia had been established . ( ; ) The Martian colonies were established in 2103 . The Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies were passed in or around this date . ( ) Two years later , Mars was visited by the Redjac entity who killed eight women of the Martian colonies . These colonies evolved into domed cities . ( ; ) In 2121 , , the son of Sean Sweeney Raymond and Kelly Kroells Raymond , was born in a settlement on Mars . ( ) " In an alternate timeline , created by Jonathan Archer being infected by interspatial parasite s , the Xindi destroy Earth in 2154 and then all other Human settlements , including Mars , Alpha Centauri , and Vega colony . " ( ) As of the mid - 2150s Humans installed a verteron array to redirect comet s toward the polar caps for the purpose of terraform ing . In 2155 , Terra Prime - under the command of John Frederick Paxton - moved the Orpheus Mining colony from Luna to Mars and hijacked the device in order to attack Starfleet Headquarters . Thanks to the efforts of Commander Charles Tucker III , the array fired harmlessly into the San Francisco Bay . ( ) In 2268 , James T . Kirk argued in favor of having Sargon and his companions take over the bodies of the crew , and emphasized the benefits that it might possibly have on mankind , he explained , " " they used to say if man could fly , he ' d have wings . But he did fly . He discovered he had to . Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn ' t reached the moon or that we hadn ' t gone on to Mars or the nearest star ? " " ( ) In 2274 , Mars served as the launch point for the colony ship . ( , " okudagram " ) In 2328 , this was the destination of several individuals via commercial transport s . Jeffrey Hanley traveled from Hubble Deep Space Station on the and Brian Muirhead from Cape Canaveral , Earth on the " Kogin " . ( , " okudagram " ) In 2363 , on stardate 40759 . 5 , the was commissioned at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards , from where she was also launched the following year , on stardate 41025 . 5 . ( , " dedication plaque " , , " set artwork " ) In that year , a painting of Mars and its moon , Deimos , was seen in guest quarters on the " Enterprise - D " . ( ) Prior to 2366 , the Daystrom Institute of Technology established a branch of their institute on this planet . In that year , Doctor Leah Brahms was a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the institute . She resided , with her husband , at the Quayle Canals Northeast , Utopia Planitia Gardens . ( , " okudagram " In an another alternate timeline , Mars of 2371 was affected by the death of Gabriel Bell in 2024 . " ( ) In 2372 , Captain Benjamin Sisko and Constable Odo planned for Joseph Sisko and Jake Sisko to take a transport to Mars to avoid being caught in Admiral Leyton ' s " coup d ' état " . ( ) The Kyrian s in 3074 believed that Mars was the home of the , and not Earth as was the truth . A backup version of The Doctor corrected this error . ( ) Political . As the first Human colony on Mars was established in 2103 , the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian colonies were an important step in the pursuit of individual rights . Among the first colonists were relatives of Jean - Luc Picard . ( ; ; ) Utopia Planitia was established along with the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in areosynchronous orbit above , where many famous vessels including the , the , and the were built . Mars was also an important part in the defense of the Sol system and the location of the Mars Defense Perimeter . ( ; " dedication plaque " ; ; " " ) Terraforming . Mars was the first planet to be terraformed by Humans . Colonists originally dwelt within domed cities while the verteron array was used to redirect comet s and asteroid s towards the Red Planet to impact in the polar caps . This freed carbon dioxide and released it into the atmosphere , increasing the planet ' s temperature and water volume . By 2155 , conditions in the lowlands of the Martian surface were sufficiently altered to allow Humans to roam freely without heavy environmental suit s ( though one would still have to dress warmly for the near - arctic surface temperatures ) . ( ) Literature . Mars was often featured in science fiction stories of the 20th century . In the 1950s , the science fiction magazine " Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder " featured several stories referencing Mars , e . g . , " " This Island Mars " " and " " Strange Martian " " . In 1953 , Benny Russell met a vendor in Harlem who found " men from Mars " to be unrealistic . After Douglas Pabst told Russell an Africa n - American in charge of a space station was " not believable , " Herbert Rossoff angrily retorted " " And men from Mars are ? " " ( ) Other references . A product known as " Mars Toothpaste " , based on the name of the Roman god , was manufactured on the fourth planet of the System 892 in 2268 . ( ) Appendices . Background information . An illusory version of Mars was originally to have featured in the first " Star Trek " pilot , , with " an almost fairybook vine - covered cottage on one of the rural can - farms of Mars . " The first draft story outline for " The Cage " included not only that description but also made mention of frequent Martian " hay rides , " such as Barth races that the " Colonists Grange Society " was planning , as well as " a fifty - mile sled ride down the Great Slopes " on the evening after the Barth races . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 57 - 58 ) In a filmed but deleted Kirk voice - over which originally introduced the second pilot , Mars was mentioned by Kirk as one of multiple " specks of dust " while the " Enterprise " was on a heading out of the Milky Way Galaxy . ( " Where No Man Has Gone Before " ( Rare and Unaired Alternate Version ) , TOS Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) During the early days of " Star Trek " , new writers repeatedly pitched story ideas that sent the " Enterprise " to Mars . In , Gene Roddenberry stated , " " We have instructed all of our writers that Mars must be avoided . It ' s not far - out enough for us . Our time period is 200 years from now . By that time , Mars will already have parking lot problems from Human colonists . " " ( ) The remastered versions of show the prominent red planet familiar from the original opening sequence to bear striking resemblance to Mars . Indeed , the producers used real photographs of Mars as textures for this computer - generated shot , showing a large canyon , which was in fact one of the most famous landmarks on Mars : " Valles Marineris " , the deepest and longest canyon in the entire Sol system . Furthermore , the large cloud formation lies directly over the " Tharsis plateau " , which is a region of increased cloud formation on Mars , too . If the producers really intended the planet to be Mars remains unknown so far . However , the color of its atmosphere glows pink near the day - night boundary , which would contradict this theory , as the Martian atmosphere appears blue during sunrise and sunset . On the other hand , this change of color could be a byproduct of terraforming . In , Mars was shown without any visible surface features besides the poles . Whether intentional or not , this is very similar to the planet ' s appearance during a global dust storm . In the first draft script of , Mars was referred to as having particularly rough sandstorms , and Travis Mayweather was established as never having visited the planet . This was changed , during the episode ' s development , to Mayweather instead mentioning the rough conditions sure to be encountered while " flying through an ion storm at warp two . " A scene description in the final draft script of referred to " the red majesty of Mars . " In another description from the same script , the planet ' s north polar cap was described as a " serene arctic vista " . According to " " , ( p . 32 & " United Federation of Planets I " ) , Mars ( or Sol IV ) was classified as a K - class planet . In 2030 , " Aries I " , the first manned Earth ship landed on the planet . In 2103 , the United Martian Colonies , the uniglobal government of Mars , was founded . Utopia Planitia was the seat of government . The first flag of the UMC was based on a painting of a bullfighter on velvet . In 2161 , Mars was a charter member of the United Federation of Planets . In 2378 , Humans were the dominant species on the planet and there were 133 . 8 million inhabitants living on Mars . Points of interest were , , and the Utopia Planitia fleet yards . According to the , Mars orbits Sol with a mean distance of 228 million kilometers . Furthermore , it is stated , " " Earth scientists first discovered microscopic evidence of ancient life on Mars in 1996 . " " On this last point , the authors wrote , " " and ( ) were filmed in August 1996 , just a few days after NASA ' s historic press conference announcing the discovery of possible microfossils in a Martian meteorite . Since that episode was set in late 1996 , the " Voyager " art department put a large photo of the microfossil ( with the caption " take me to your leader " ) as well as a newspaper clipping describing the finding into Rain Robinson ' s laboratory . scenic artist Anthony Fredrickson also commemorated the discovery by putting the code number ALH84001 on the mines laid by the " Defiant " in ( DS9 ) . ALH84001 was the code number of the meterorite in which the possible microfossil were found . " " Apocrypha . In the " " novel " " , Boothby was identified as a Mars native , an homage to Ray Walston ' s role as the title character in .