First Landing is a 2002 science fiction novel by Robert Zubrin that tells the story of the first manned space expedition to Mars.[1][2] Zubrin is the head of the Mars Society, an organization lobbying the real world NASA to send astronauts to Mars. The plan used to accomplish their mission in the book is the same one advocated by his group.in the novel, the explorers discover bacterial life on Mars and are abandoned due to political circumstances