The Martian Way - Story Notes

Story Notes

• There were originally no female characters in The Martian Way, but Galaxy editor H. L. Gold insisted that one be included. Asimov complied by giving Richard Swenson a shrewish wife. It wasn't what Gold had in mind, but he accepted the story anyway.
• When Asimov wrote The Martian Way in 1952, it was thought that the fragments making up Saturn's rings might be over a mile in diameter. It is now known that none of the ring fragments are more than a few meters in diameter.
• The final journey back to Mars is described to be under constant acceleration (except for brief shutdowns for rest) which took five weeks, with the acceleration being well above the comfortable threshold for human beings. However, even with the maximum distance possible between Mars and Saturn, the constant acceleration and deceleration required to make such a journey in five weeks would have been below 1 m/sec2.