My Mars, Seven Pillars.

My Mars is the Woomera rocketry range 500km North of where I live where, most recently, the secret British stealth drone Taranis stretched his wings. Named for the Welsh God of Thunder, did he know that the last time the British brought thunder to this remote and beautiful desert it was in the Antler series of surface nuclear tests in 1957 at a place called Maralinga? 
My Mars is the moment when Lawrence turns back to rescue Gasim during the crossing of the Nefud and what he says upon his return.
My Mars is Gunga Din sounding his bugle from atop the Thuggee Temple, alerting the approaching highlanders to an impending ambush, even though it means his doom.
My Mars is the Pyramid Mine and the secret it conceals and Quaid who rebelled against himself to activate it.
My Mars is the sound of thousands of spears beating on thousands of shields brief moments before the final assault on Rorke's Drift.
My Mars is the Great Trunk Road, where a boy can be both a pawn and a player in the Great Game. And it is the Ox and Bucks light Infantry, the Red Bull on the Green Field who were a promise to Kim by a lost father.  Which was the regiment of my grandfather who was lofted on wings one dark night to capture a bridge named Pegasus.
My Mars is just within the threshold of The Room in Tarkovsky's Stalker because ultimately everything that we want whether it should be or not, is in that room.
These are my Seven Pillars. Will you go with me to Mars?