If I were a member of the Mars Society, I'd be looking for a new leader, or looking to form a new organization. This seems like a very unprofessional press release to me (but hardly out of character for Bob Zubrin). Does he really imagine that this is going to win support for any cause associated with him?

I agree that O'Keefe's decision was a mistake, and that the robotic mission was a waste of money. I also think that he should have left earlier, and let someone else make that decision, because he was obviously unable any longer to deal with risk after the trauma of Columbia. But that doesn't justify this kind of vicious, personal attack on a good man.

Also, this is simply wrong:

Alone among space advocacy groups, the Mars Society responded the former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's stupid and cowardly decision to desert the Hubble with forthright opposition, exposing as fraudulent the technically illiterate oaf's claims that a mission to Hubble was more dangerous than missions to the Space Station...

There was nothing fraudulent about it. It was true then, and remains true, that a Hubble mission is in fact riskier than an ISS mission. O'Keefe's mistake wasn't in believing that it was riskier, but rather in believing that it was too risky. He was wrong, but that doesn't mean that we should pretend that the risk isn't greater. I agree with Mike Griffin's decision to go forward (and think that, if anything, it's late--he could and should have made it much sooner), but only because we are continuing to fly Shuttle for ISS. It certainly wouldn't have been worth keeping Shuttle alive just to fix Hubble.

In the meantime, Bob might want to invest in a Dale Carnegie course.

Unfortunately, this kind of vicious rant seems to be fairly typical of Zubrin these days. That man seems to have a lot of rage over not being taken seriously or NASA not taking every idea he ever had about what they should do and implementing it immediately.

Sad.

Dale Carnegie course?

I'd recommend a good psychotherapist instead. Zubrin is too far removed from reality. Why don't I favor efforts Mars colonization? Well, one reason is Zubrin's book The Case for Mars is so far out of touch with reality it isn't even funny. The fact that Zubrin, rather than listening to others and trying to improve his ideas, simply attacks like a playground bully. The contrast with Gerry O'Neill could not be stronger. Gerry became the leading spokesman for ideas that we are not close to realizing. As this became apparent, Gerry shifted to promoting research and development, even starting the Space Studies Institute to fund and promote work on space colonies. Does anyone remember Gerry ever making outbursts like Zubrin routinely does?

While the Mars Society has some good ideas, I could never bring myself into drinking the "Cult of Saint Bob" Kool Aid.

"That man seems to have a lot of rage over not being taken seriously or NASA not taking every idea he ever had about what they should do and implementing it immediately."

See also: Jerry Pournelle.

As for Hubble: I never felt that the "let the Hubble die" plans were anything more than a political ploy. "Look, we're so starved for budget that we can't even afford to fix the Hubble," says NASA.

> That man seems to have a lot of rage ...

Not really surprising. He just lost at least two of the three Phase 2 SBIR contracts he was trying to get at NASA. That's something like $1.2 million flushed right there.

What's really surprising is that NASA keeps funding him *at* *all.* Not only for the wacky rants like this one, but for the fact that in ten years, his company apparently hasn't commercialized a single one of the dozens of technologies developed under the SBIR program. Which is odd, since that's the *point* of the program. Leads to some interesting speculation...

One of these days Zubrin is going to spin so far out of control that he's going to burst open like a pinata. Except what will come out won't be toys but insanity in a hyper version of his bilious rants. Really, it's sad. Here's a guy that could have used his enormous energies and intelligence to become a cross between Peter Diamandis and Gerry O'Neill. Instead, comments like 'technically illiterate oaf' about O'Keefe just show that Zubrin's emotional modulation circuits haven't graduated from the sandbox stage.

I'm not sure how a decision, regardless of who makes it, concerning a piece of inanimate "hardware" can be cowardly. Stupid I get, but cowardly?

Yea well Zubrin drinks his own pee.

I've seen Keith Cowing say some pretty nasty things about people on his website. But Zubrin's comments were excessive.

Well Bill I wasn't going to say anything about that, Keith thinks I have some vendetta against him as it is. But since you brought it up, yes Keith has often times (IMHO) gone overboard in the manner of his criticism of certain people. But with that said, Zubrin is in a class by himself when it comes to that sort of thing and he makes Cowing look like a saint.

You just can't resist the urge to post something about me, can you Cecil?

No more than you not being able to resist quoting yourself being quoted.

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2006/10/accepting_risk.html

Like Zubrin you take yourself entirely too seriously Keith, though to a much lesser degree than Crazy Bob.

And yet, Cecil, you just can't seem to fight the urge to read my website - the one you have soooooo many issues with.....

When you're in charge you don't get the luxury of just slagging people at whim - it's not just you but the people you are implicitly responsible for.

Being grown-up sucks, sometimes.

On the other hand if you're mature, responsible and can avoid sounding like a complete zealot you can make things happen which is a nice reward for not blasting words with blithe disregard for their impact long-term.

"When you're in charge you don't get the luxury of just slagging people at whim..."

Indeed so. The sorts of things that politicians get in trouble for are the sorts of things that average schmoes like most of us say with little consequence. I'm sure most of us have called better people worse things than Zubrins "cowards" and "frauds," or Allen's "Macaca" or whatever the latest verbal diarrhea from Kerry might happen to be. But the difference is... those folks are politicians.

This is a difference not to be overlooked: it's not just lunacy or bad judgement that raises eyebrows... it's lunacy or bad judgement married to power and influence.