The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet whose harsh desert environment is based on theories of the astronomer Percival Lowell that were current the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment. This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.