This year Mars and the earth will be extraordinarily close — on August 27 the earth will sweep closer than 35 million miles to Mars. It’s enough to give earthlings Mars Fever. Not since the deep ice of the last glaciation swept across much of cold northern Europe and North America, not since the wooly rhinoceros ran through southern France, not since modern man’s close relative Neandertalensis dominated the caves of western Europe, not for more than 59,000 years has Mars been so near the earth.