The observation of the chronicle of transformations of the picture that we have for planet Mars is the object of our research. Our text results as a course that approaches Mars, through the enrichment of different organizational structures of information, which we have named stairs. These so called stairs consist of a methodological forming tool of our research, which we invented during the writing of the text: aiming to use, understand and classify the information, of concerning each period as well as possible, as a schematic and metaphoric way to represent how we understand the transformation of the gleam into a landscape. The network/complex of these stairs constitutes a whole (escalator) scale of the planet’s recognition, making where the word “objective” lose its weight, through refutations, doubts, completions, reinforcements and confirmations. This staircase leads gradually humans from the distance of the naked eye, then telescope, aerostat and spacecraft to the zero distance of landed panoramic pictures. As the image of the planet is expanding, the scale of pictures is changing, as happens during the architectural design (architectural scales: the larger the scale is, the more detailed the object of design is) we have the impression that the planet approaches humans and that humans approach the planet, without changes occurring to the relative position of the point of reference benchmark (Earth) and the object of research (Mars). The viewpoint, through which the transformation of the red gleam is examined, is dependant of each epoch’s scientific capacities and based on both theoretical approaches and experimenting observations, in association to the respective means of observation (naked eye, telescope, aerostat, spacecraft and landing spacecraft). The observation of Mars planet and the translation of the scientific findings from the stage of the red gleam gradually enters the notional domain of landscape.

The basic text of our research on the chronicle of the approach to planet Mars is completed by:

·         the picture supplement – an effort of bringing the text into images

·         the explanatory memorandum/legend, concerning the icons and the colors that were (we) used in the entire research, as additional organizing elements

·         the tables – a kind of initial record of the chronicle of informative points (climate, atmosphere, pedology, water) listed according to the means of observation (naked eye, telescope, balloon, spacecraft and landing spacecraft) and the possibilities that these provide

·         the questionnaires, which reveal the image that a sample of today’s quotidian people have for Mars and

·         the map of stairs and steps – a trial of mapmaking our own approach to Mars, aiming to present our viewpoint summarily, in a condensed way.