Here, have a reality check from a science fiction author!

Art from the cover of Robinson's Red Mars, obtained here. 

Sci fi author Kim Stanley Robinson reflects on Elon Musk's vision of travel to Mars. Spoiler alert: He thinks the plan is unrealistic. Read about it in Why Elon Musk's Mars Vision Needs 'Some Real Imagination' (interview by Eric Roston)

I love Mars. Love love love. My first experience reading science fiction was the Young Astronaut series, about--guess what?--colonizing Mars. I made great grades in science for years because of those books. (They are every bit as cheesy as they look, by the way.)

We can't help but be attracted to Mars. Given enough time and resources, it really could be a second home--not as hospitable as earth, but close enough to reach, and viable. The moon...well, the moon doesn't have enough atmosphere to make intensive terraforming possible, and it's just less exciting. Robinson makes a good case for a Moon base, though.

Infecting Mars

Image from Space X, via this Quartz article. 

Did you know that Tesla founder Elon Musk is making plans to send human beings to Mars?

Really. He is. Right now! See? Read this article.

I know it seems like science fiction--or at least something far down the road, considering how big a mess we've made of Earth itself. And clearly we are not going on a field trip to Mars next year. Even if he is successful (and that's a HUGE if), it's going to take a lot of time. But considering how far he's come with Space X, we should probably take Musk seriously.

Which leads us to Mars. This article invokes the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (which is apparently really cool) to claim that Musk's mission might not be ethical, or even legal. The United Nations has pledged to take measures so that we don't contaminate other planets with microbes. (Since human beings are walking bacteria factories, that makes a lot of sense to me.)

I still think it highly unlikely that Mars contains sentient life, or even animal life. We're not going to arrive and be greeted by Ylla. But we have found evidence of running water on the planet. And we're pretty sure that some Antarctic fungus could survive there. The presence of microbial life on Mars is looking...well, if not likely, then at least more and more possible.

"Don't mess up," you optimists say. "Just don't go around contaminating and killing things on Mars, and we'll be fine." But I'd like to remind you that we have a crummy track record, as colonizers, for keeping native populations alive. Remember those woodcuts from 17th century England? "Come to Jamestown! Fertile earth! Uninhabited land!"

Uninhabited! Sometimes we blunder through the places we explore and destroy people and animals and plants in truly accidental carelessness. And sometimes we are blind to the damage we cause, because this blindness suits our purposes. I'm not so sure we would recognize life on Mars, even if it were staring us in the face--at least, not at first.

So I want to ask you, because this is a question that comes up over and over in science fiction: What obligation do we have to the life of other planets? Is terraforming a "dead" planet okay? (How do we recognize a dead planet?) Is it all right to contaminate or replace microbes? Plants? Animals? People? Why, or why not?

Your next stop, the Twilight Zone!

No, seriously, you're entering The Twilight Zone today!

I'm out at a doctor's appointment. I need you guys to help the substitute hook my laptop up to the innovation station, get the projector started, and then play the two episodes of The Twilight Zone that you'll watch in class today. The sub has the specific lesson plans, and you can get Mr. Dehram, in room 220, to help with unlocking my computer, in case it gets locked (which will probably happen). Basically:
-Watch "Time Enough at Last."
-Talk about it. Use the discussion questions.
-Watch "The Star."
-Talk about it. Use the discussion questions.

Both episodes are online. The web addresses and discussion questions are on today's handout. Now, if only there were a way to put that handout online, so you didn't have to type in the whole url to get to the episode...

But wait! Look at THIS!

There's your link to today's assignment. Have fun, guys!

-Mrs. Swan