According to AARL.org, a trophy called the Elser-Mathes Cup was "…intended to mark the occasion of the first two-way Amateur Radio contact between Earth and Mars."
The American Radio Relay League website states:
The story of the Elser-Mathes cup appeared in the November 1969 issue of QST. In his article, "That Planet Mars QSO Cup," Col Fred Johnson Elser, W6FB, recalled meeting League founder Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, in the 1920s. He learned that Maxim had an interest in Mars and even owned a globe of "The Red Planet." Later...Elser was inspired...to offer "a unique trophy" for the first two-way communication with Maxim's "pet planet," Mars.
