New Mars Forums

I went to the conference in Colorado, at great personal expense, in 2000(?), and had one of the worst weeks of conflict in my entire life.

I argued strenously that Mars should NEVER be terraformed, as it represents a 4 billion year old planetary surface, and said right to Zubrin that Terraforming would be akin to "the burning of the library at Alexandria". To which Zubrin completely freaked out, lost his cool, and told me that I was out of line.

I was one of three people who raised their hands when asked if their primary interest was biology at that conference.

At the time I proposed that before we even considered terraforming we should use a multiply deployed robotic exploration system to gather as much data as possible, for which I was accused of being intellectually lazy in my presentation.

For all the heat I took, when Joel Achenbach wrote his book Aliens Among Us, though he mentioned a controversy existed at the conference he made no mention of me and did not seek me out.

Well...

now we have a recent multiply deployed robotic exploration system having made headlines

and for all the Greens talk of their affinity for life, the recent discovery of formaldehyde on Mars (a major indicator of extant life), all the terraforming plans come off to me as no less selfish than the idea of setting up condos for the ultra-rich in Yellowstone Park.

So to all those people who got on my case in Colorado, who said I was offbase, anti-exploration and intellectually lazy....

well...

hahahahahahahahahahaha
(in case you're wondering, that was the last laugh)

looks like my degree in environmental science will be far more applicable to Mars than your astronautic engineering wet dreams!

By the way, if you still plan to terraform, expect a fight.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(ok so that was really the last laugh)