Mars Global Surveyor will conduct mapping operations at Mars more than 30 years after America's first reconnaissance mission reached the mysterious red planet. Since then, an entire generation of scientists have spent their careers attempting to unlock the secrets of Mars by analyzing data transmitted back to Earth by NASA's robotic explorers. These efforts resulted in a tremendous expansion of knowledge compared to what was known on that fateful October evening in 1938 when fictitious Martian invaders declared war on America during Orson Welles' broadcast of War of the Worlds. However, many questions remain unanswered. The data returned from the Surveyor mission will yield valuable insights into these mysteries.