Blue Sky on Mars
The cover of the album features an image by Viking 1, the first spacecraft to land on Mars; the album's liner notes include additional imagery of the planet's landscape as taken by the spacecraft on July 20, 1976. The text on the cover was done by fantastic artist Roger Dean, best known for his work on album covers for bands such as Yes. The album's title comes from the tour in the film "Total Recall".
RD-0214
On 19 May 1971 a Proton launched the Mars 2 probe to Mars. The orbiter was identical to the Venera 9 bus, and the lander was the first man made object to reach the surface of Mars.