10 thoughts on “Hope Remains”

  1. Actually, one of the things I admire most about Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” ‘verse is that there are no aliens. None. Everything is terraformed. Which can only mean one thing: we killed ’em all.

    BBB

  2. Which can only mean one thing: we killed ’em all.

    Or they were never there to begin with.

  3. On the life on Mars score, I tell people that on the remote chance that I buy a Powerball lottery ticket, and on the even more remote than getting struck by lightning chance that I win the big Powerball prize, my first telephone call will be to a sewage plant engineer named Gilbert Levin to get his thoughts on whether that amount of money would get a life sciences package to the surface of Mars.

    On the remote chance after that string of remote chances that life will be discovered on Mars, I will become immortal, another Newton, Galileo, etc, etc. On the other hand, Gilbert Levin may be awarded a Nobel Prize, and I will go down in history as the schlump who spent his Powerball swag on a rocket payload and didn’t even get his wife a fancy car.

    But mind you, if I won a Powerball payout, I have a pretty clear plan of what to do with the money.

  4. Paul, sounds more like you’re aiming to be Queen Isabella. But I digress …

    Actually, there are a lot of people who should hope that we don’t find life on Mars, if we ever want to colonize it ourselves.

    Why would that stop you? Personally, I plan on colonizing Venus, but if Mars if your thing, were you planning on letting a couple microbes put sand in your gears?

    If I find any lifeforms in Venus’ upper atmosphere I’ll collect them and send ’em back to Earth for study. I won’t go out of my way to be mean, but if they make any trouble for human colonization I’ll Darwin their ass. My ancestors out-competed lions, hyenas, sabre-tooths and Neanderthals, and I plan on continuing this fine tradition.

    Sure, those hippies can make a stink, but that’s why my spaceship has lasers.

  6. The oxidizing compound they found is a solid fuel rocket ingrediant, isn’t it? Any ISRU possibilities here?

  7. “Why would that stop you? Personally, I plan on colonizing Venus, but if Mars if your thing, were you planning on letting a couple microbes put sand in your gears?”

    I think the issue would not be the microbes, but the newly formed PETAM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Ares Microbes).

  8. You are absolutely right Rand. We would need to carefully preserve the alien habitat so it could be filmed, studied and analyzed. We would need to use thoroughly non-invasive techniques to protect them from us which will involve investing vast resources to transport to Mars not only study, but containment equipment. The aliens would need to be helped, understood, used as a mirror to see ourselves and protected from others and themselves; all while not disturbing them in any way. They would need their own watchdog NGO to make sure that none of the non-scientists, non-robots and non-NGO people did anything untoward. If it turned out they originated on Earth when it was colder, drier, and our–no their–atmosphere was richer in carbon dioxide–we would need to work on restoring their habitat here, repatriating them and paying vast reparations. In short, they could be the means of our redemption and salvation of our souls. Not colonizing is actually the key to equity here.

  10. New from Disney:

    The story of Ameboe Joe, the cute microbe on Mars. See how he and his single-celled pals band together and put their differences behind them in the face of the mysterious, dangerous invading strangers from another planet. Will they be able to find a way to communicate their desire to be left alone? Will they survive? Will Ameboe Joe manage to win the heart of Parimeesee Sue?

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