It's the fruition of years of effort by avuncular Walt Disney-ish Dr. John Emery and his business partner Robert. Five middle-aged scientists and military men have been selected as the crew, led by Emery, (who designed the rocket), and pilot Colonel Graham (Lloyd Bridges). They elect to land, even though the ship was engineered for the Moon. As they descend akin to how one would back a truck up to a loading dock, we note that Mars has a thick cloud cover, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, all of which was known to be inaccurate at the time. Hugh O’Brian rounds out the cast.