The novel “The Sands of Mars” by Arthur C. Clarke was published for the first time in 1951.

Martin Gibson is a famous science fiction writer but has never traveled in space. Finally, he has an opportunity and leaves on the Ares, a starship that will be reach the Martian colony. First he has to go to “Space Station One”, in Earth’s orbit, where interplanetary trips start.

When he embarks on Ares, Martin Gibson is assigned Jimmy Spencer, a astronaut in training, whose task is to help him to settle in space and to answer his questions. The relationship between the two of them isn’t always easy but eventually they become friends. It’s also thanks to Jimmy Martin that he gets interested in the future of the Martian colony more than he imagined.