In the year 2002, Timothy Layard is enrolled as a Co-op student in the New Mexico college of Science and engineering, Las Cruces, N. M.

It is the beginning of a great adventure, climaxed by the first successful mission on Mars. Tim and his roommate go to Mars as members of the crew of the SS Latona, the first spaceship of surface-to-surface interplanetary flight — a flight made possible by the powerful Mark X rocket engine.

The hard work put into the building and perfecting of the Mark X; the hair-raising journey to Mars, knowing that the pioneer spaceship which landed on Mars first has never been heard of again; and the strange things they find on their arrival, all add up to a tremendously exciting, believable story.

Lee Correy has told the tale with such vivid realism that it is difficult to keep in mind the fact that we still don't know for certain whether or not there is water on Mars. And In the tine you come to the end of the hook it is strange to realize that the year 2002 has not already been....

Cover art by William J. Wagooner.