A science-fiction story, Transit of Earth, written by Arthur C. Clarke many years ago, was reprinted in OMNI magazine in 1984, simply because the basic premise of the story occurred; the story could have happened. The astronomical part of the story is fact; once every century, Mars, Earth, and the Sun are perfectly aligned in a transit that is predictable. The transit took place in 1984, right on time; that part of the story is true, but the rest of it is fiction, which could have happened, but did not. For the fictional story to become reality, there would have to have been an actual landing on Mars by a spaceship inhabited by people whose task, in part, would have been to observe and report on the transit. Such an expedition was prevented by the turmoil of the times and the financial cut…