It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I was desperately searching through our kitchen, looking for peanuts to eat while I watched the Curiosity landing on Mars. I found the peanuts and, no doubt thanks to my help,  Curiosity safely touched down and began exploring the martian landscape.

I’m not a huge space nerd but even so, I found myself completely wrapped up in the mission and I got a sense of what it might have been like watching the moon landings. I can’t help but wonder if we’ll see humans walking on Mars in my lifetime. That would be something special.

The Curiosity landing also inspired me to write an as yet unpublished first contact story set on Mars – Bottled Lightning. It’s very much a character piece and Curiosity doesn’t actually make an appearance but it was the landing that got me thinking about Mars as a setting for the story.

[One Year on Mars by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 5th August 2013]