Barsoom . ... Credit Copyright: NASA,Viking Project Explanation: "Yes, I have been to Barsoom again ..." begins John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1913 science fiction classic "The Gods of Mars". In Burroughs' novels describing Carter's adventures on Mars, "Barsoom" is the local name for the red planet. ... This dramatic picture of a crescent Mars was taken by NASA's Viking 2 spacecraft in 1976. For more information about Earth dwellers' efforts to explore Mars, see The Martian Chronicle. ...