Marooned on Mars is a juvenile science fiction novel written by American writer Lester del Rey.

Marooned on Mars was commissioned[citation needed] as one of the first five volumes in Winston Science Fiction, a series of 35 novels published in the 1950s for a readership of teen-aged boys.

The plot device that makes the story possible is the use of nuclear rockets drawing their power from "cans of plutonium" and using an acidic liquid propellant.

In the foreword, "Tomorrow’s World", the author comments on how the development of liquid-fueled rockets points to missions to the Moon and establishment of a lunar base in the near future.

After spending two weeks on Earth for testing, Chuck Svenson returns home to the Moon to prepare for his part in the first expedition to Mars, as the ship's radar operator and communications technician.

While they wait to take off Jeff receives a message telling him that the Mars expedition's take-off date has been moved up to enable the ship to avoid a flock of meteors that lunar radar has detected.

In spite of everything Governor Braithwaite can do, Chuck has been replaced on rocket ship Eros by a slightly older man, Lewis Wong.

With its six-man crew and one stowaway on board, the ship blasts off from the Moon and the pilot Nat Rothman quickly puts it onto a Hohmann transfer orbit that will take the expedition to Mars.

Dr. Sokolsky discovers plants, which explains why the thin atmosphere contains oxygen: they can replace the tanks on their spacesuits with battery-operated compressors and spend more time outside the ship.

As a means of boosting morale, Chuck and Dr. Sokolsky are sent on a two-day hike to check out one of the canals, finding that it is actually a vine-like plant growing in a broad band across the planet's surface.