re: "The snows of Olympus"
Clarke took the name of the book form Nix Olympica as well...
I have a correction: "Mariner 8's Centaur main engine shut down and the upper stage of the rocket, along with Mariner 8, fell into the Atlantic about 560 km north of Puerto Rico."
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mariner.html