Remembering E. Benn-dire, first human to set foot on Mars

Mars art by Don Dixon

Buried in the April 2011 issue of Locus, the magazine of the science fiction and fantasy field, "This Month in History" columnist Terry Bisson remembers the first human to set foot on the Red Planet:

“April 3, 2143. Mars hero mourned. E. Benn-dire, the first human to set foot on the red planet, dies at 112 in her Cairo townhouse. The 2066 voyage of the Alexandrian, financed and filmed by Al Jazeera, made “Ben-dere” and her crew international celebs.”

According to the Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World (2003), in the Arabic language, the word "Cairo" means "victorious" and is the same name used for the planet Mars.