Q 01/05

Which Earth disease, carried to Mars by astronauts, kills almost every Martian in The Martian Chronicles?

A) Chickenpox

B) Measles

C) Smallpox

D) Scarlet fever

Answer · why

A) Chickenpox

Chickenpox reaches Mars with the first rockets, so the Fourth Expedition lands to find the cities silent and the Martians dead in their homes.

Q 02/05

Which NASA rover's touchdown site on Mars is named Bradbury Landing, after the author of The Martian Chronicles?

A) Opportunity

B) Spirit

C) Curiosity

D) Perseverance

Answer · why

C) Curiosity

Curiosity's touchdown spot got the name on what would have been Ray Bradbury's 92nd birthday, weeks after the author died in June 2012.

Q 03/05

A photograph of shadows burned onto a wall in which city inspired Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains?

A) Nagasaki

B) Dresden

C) Stalingrad

D) Hiroshima

Answer · why

D) Hiroshima

Hiroshima's preserved shadows became the story's burnt silhouettes of a family, left on one wall of their automated house.

Q 04/05

Which horror writer's doomed mansion does William Stendahl rebuild on Mars in The Martian Chronicles chapter Usher II?

A) H. P. Lovecraft

B) Edgar Allan Poe

C) Bram Stoker

D) Mary Shelley

Answer · why

B) Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher rises again on Mars as a trap for Stendahl's enemies, years after his own 50,000-book library was burned on Earth.

Q 05/05

What business does Sam Parkhill open on Mars in The Martian Chronicles, decorating it with glass from Martian ruins?

A) A hot dog stand

B) A gas station

C) A luggage store

D) A movie theater

Answer · why

A) A hot dog stand

A hot dog stand is Parkhill's bet on a hundred thousand hungry newcomers, but war breaks out on Earth and the customers never arrive.