The Martian Virus

"Just what kind of harm a Martian virus could cause to Earth is unknown, but if history has any lessons to teach, there could be cause for concern." This is the type of question physical sciences professor Andre Meyers grapples with in his novel, "Mayan Mars." This is just a review of the novel but it got me thinking about the dangers we could be facing when discussing research on Mars. Are we immune to Martian biology? Is there some virus on the planet that has kept it from evolving like Earth? Just thought this was an interesting read.

Is space good for us?

After reading this article about sci-fi and the views different shows/books/stories take on what living in space will be like, I was reminded of Bernie's brief lecture in class on life in space. The problem is this: say that a civilization like ours, a civilization that advances to the point where it is technologically possible to send colonies to far distant planets, does so. Say we send out a hundred colonies (which, over time and assuming there would be many volunteers, is not that many). And say that we have a 98% failure rate and only two colonies of those hundred make it to their destinations and settle their planets. It takes them a hundred years, or more, to do this. Eventually, however, they overcome all the hazards of establishing themselves on a new planet, and they advance, and eventually they do the same thing and send out ships. The same 98% failure rate goes for them, and for the colonies they send out who eventually send colonies of their own, etc. And this is assuming we're the only ones doing this--what if there was another, alien civilization who did the same thing?
In any case, the point is that, given the laws of exponents, if this was done then in 10,000 years or a little more the galaxy would be saturated with intelligent civilizations. But this is not the case. Thus, either we are the first in the galaxy to come to this point, or, there have been other civilizations who have come as far as we have and, for whatever reason, failed to go into space. This could be because, like we are currently doing, they destroyed their planet/themselves and eventually died off catastrophically. Or it could be because they simply decided that going into space was not to their benefit-- as some people on earth are indeed thinking, as evidenced by sci-fi shows like Cowboy Bepop and Firefly. Will our society, as a whole, reach a point where space exploration is no longer a factor in our vision for the future?
I suppose this is possible, but I'd point out that even if these TV shows have a pessimistic view of life in space, they are still assuming that in the future life for people will be in space.
Also, the article points out that very rarely does science fiction predict the future--as much as it has informed how we think about where humanity will go, sci-fi writers are generally trying to comment on the present day, not argue for what they think human destiny is. This is perhaps why it is somewhat of a moot point that sci-fi is, after all (by its very name) Fake Science. Shows that try to stick to real physics (like Firefly, wherein there is never any sound in space, as opposed to Star Trek where the photon torpedoes always fire with a futuristic laser-gun bling noise) are to be admired, but a sci-fi author, concerned more with getting her point across than with being accurate, will always pick and choose the facts and fiction that work best for her story's agenda. Therefore, it is in fact not a very good idea to try and form an idea of what the future will really be like, or about people's view of it, by looking at science fiction.

Interesting

I found this article that is promoting riding the current public trend to send humans to Mars by increasing funding to a department of NASA (HEDS) that could be able to turn the robotic program into a springboard for human exploration by finding landing sites and beginning to prepare the way.

Pondering life on Mars

Here is a nice article by Sir Patrick Moore that appeared in the New York Times online. He talks about how Mars, if we find evidence of life, will prove that life will exist in the universe when it can--assuming, as well, that Mars at some point has had suitable conditions for life. If we don't find life, we'll still be wondering. It's all pretty neat to think about. I'm not sure if people will be able to read the article unless they're subscribed, so in case you can't access it, here's an excerpt:

We may be virtually certain that many planets moving around other stars are similar to Earth in size and mass, and that many of their parent stars are of a solar type; after all, our Sun is a very ordinary star. It follows that in the galaxy there are vast numbers of planets that are suitable for life of the kind we can understand – that is to say, carbon-based life. (I do not propose here to discuss truly alien life-forms; that would lead into totally uncharted waters!) The vital question, then, is this: will life automatically appear upon a world where conditions are tolerable, and will it then develop as far as its environment permits? If we could find just one world that does support life, we would be entitled to claim that life must be widespread all over the universe. And to me, it seems that the clue may be given to us by our near neighbor, the red planet Mars.

(Sir Patrick Moore, "Is Life Elsewhere?" New York Times Online, March 25, 2007)

Mars over the centuries

Here is a short description of how Mars has been viewed by different cultures over the centuries. As one might expect, the planet Mars, due to its red color, has usually been connected with warriors and warfare. I think it would be interesting to study how much of this continuity is due to cultural dissemination and how many cultures arrived at this symbolism independently of each other.

Martian Literature

I found this interesting article about why we refer to "humans" and life on Mars as Martians while we do not do the same for Saturn (Saturnians). The obvious answer for this class would be "well duh, Saturn and Venus don't have atmospheres, they can't support life." You know, all the important stuff Bernie has taught us. But what about the people who don't know these things? Why does Mars provide such a great breeding ground for fiction? I like the quick over views of each novel or series and might even read some of them (if I ever get out of school and finally read for fun again).

Avatar Mars

Former video game heavy weights are set to develop a whole Mars based virtual environment through their company Avatar Reality. The company, led by Kazuyuki Hashimoto, former chief technical officer of Square and an ex vice president of technology at Electronic Arts tells reporters that unlike most of their former endeavors this is not a game. Participants will be able to explore the vast world in real time and interact with other "players" through personalized avatars. Also partnered with the company are former president of Nintendo of America Minoru Arakawa, and Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris.

For more information go to: www.avatar-reality.com