This two-in-one package features a story of a space disaster victim’s meeting with the actual Medusa and an evocation of mountain climbing on Mars

Meeting With Medusa – THE CLOCK WAS COUNTING BACKWARD

A hundred seconds to entry. For better or worse, he was committed. In a minute and a half, he would graze the Jovian atmosphere and be caught irrevocably in the grip of the giant.

The countdown was two seconds late – not all bad, considering the unknowns involved. Beyond the walls of the capsule came a ghostly sighing that rose steadily to a high-pitched screaming roar. The noise was quite different from that of re-entry on Earth or Mars; in this thin atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, all sounds were transformed a couple of octaves higher. On Jupiter, even thunder would have falsetto overtones.

Green Mars – BREATH RASPS OVER KNOCKING HEARTBEATS

Holes in the ice have been broken with ice axes; the rock below is good rock, lined with vertical fissures. A chunk of ice whizzes by, clatters on the face below.

Only the fixed rope makes it possible for Roger to ascend this pitch., it is so hard. Another chunk of ice flies by and both of them curse.

The sun disappears behind the cliff, leaving only the streetlamp light of the dusk mirrors. Arthur peers up at them as Marie stuffs their packs with new rope. “Beautiful”,  he exclaims “They have parhelia on Earth, too, you know – a natural effect of the light when there’s ice crystals in the atmosphere. It’s usually seen in Antarctica – big haloes around the sun, and at two points of the halo these mock suns. But I don’t think we ever had four mock suns per side. Beautiful!”