Mars Beckons

A Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer traverses the vast physical and cognitive distances between earth and Mars, offering an informed vision of the future of Martian exploration. "Mars Beckons" is a fascinating synthesis of myth, history, politics, and high technology, written with the momentum of a grand adventure story.

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer John Noble Wilford traverses the vast physical and cognitive distances between earth and Mars, offering an informed vision of the future of Martian exploration. MARS BECKONS is a fascinating synthesis of myth, history, politics, and high technology, written with the momentum of a grand adventure story.

On the 20th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, President George H.W. Bush stood atop the steps of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and proposed a long-range human exploration plan that included the successful construction of an orbital space station, a permanent return to the Moon, and a mission to Mars. This enterprise became known as the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). The president charged the newly reestablished National Space Council with providing concrete alternatives for meeting these objectives. To provide overall focus for the new initiative, Bush later set a thirty-year goal for a crewed landing on Mars. Within a few short years after this Kennedyesque announcement, however, the initiative had faded into history the victim of a flawed policy process and a political war fought on several different fronts. The story of this failed initiative was a tale of organizational, cultural, and personal confrontation by key protagonists and critical battles. Some commentators have argued that SEI was doomed to fail, due primarily to the immense budgetary pressures facing the nation during the early 1990s. The central thesis of Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative suggests, however, that failure was not predetermined. Instead, it was the result of a deeply flawed decision-making process that failed to develop (or even consider) policy options that may have been politically acceptable given the existing political environment.

An examination of how the daily work of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers was organized across three sites on two planets using local Mars time. In 2004, mission scientists and engineers working with NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) remotely operated two robots at different sites on Mars for ninety consecutive days. An unusual feature of this successful mission was that it operated on Mars time—the daily work was organized across three sites on two planets according to two Martian time zones. In Making Time on Mars, Zara Mirmalek shows that this involved more than a resetting of wristwatches; the team's struggle to synchronize with Mars time involved technological and communication breakdowns, informal workarounds, and extra work to support the technology that was intended to support people. Her account of how NASA created an entirely new temporality for the MER mission offers insights about the assumptions behind the organizational relationship between clock time and work. Mirmalek, herself a member of the mission team, offers an insider's view of the MER workplace and community. She describes the discord among MER's multiple temporalities and examines issues of professional identity that helped shape the experience of working according to Mars time. Considering time and work relationships through a multidisciplinary lens, Mirmalek shows how contemporary and historical human–technology relationships inform assumptions about the unalterability of clock time. She argues that the organizational connection between clock time and work, although still operational, is outdated.

This essay collection explores the life and work of science fiction doyen Ray Bradbury from a variety of perspectives. Noting the impact of the Southwest on Bradbury, some of the essays analyze Bradbury's southwest metaphors: colonial pollution of a pristine ecology, the impacts of a colonial invasion upon an indigenous population, the meeting of cultures with different values and physical aspects. Other essays view Bradbury via the lens of post-colonialism, drawing parallels between such works as The Martian Chronicles and real-life colonialism and its effects. Another essay views Bradbury sociologically, analyzing border issues in his 1947 New Yorker story "I See You Never," written long before the issue of Mexican deportees appeared on the American literary horizon. From the scientific side, four essays by astronomers document how Bradbury formed the minds of many budding scientists with his vision. On August 22, 2012, the Martian landing site of the Curiosity rover in the Gale Crater was named "Bradbury." This honor shows that Bradbury forms a significant link between the worlds of fiction and planetary science.

The book addresses the idea of colonizing Mars as a possible solution to the problems of overpopulation, depletion of natural resources and global warming facing the Earth. Humanity has reached a critical point in its existence where resources and space are becoming increasingly scarce. The colonization of Mars offers a new frontier for human growth and expansion. Although the technology to accomplish this is still in development, experts predict that the day when humans can live and thrive on Mars may not be far off. Mars colonization should not be seen as a miracle solution to our planet's problems. It should be seen as one piece of a larger puzzle, along with efforts to address the root causes of the problems we face on Earth. It is important to approach Mars colonization with a responsible stewardship mindset, recognizing the ethical obligations that come with venturing into unknown territory. Only in this way can we ensure that Mars colonization does not repeat the mistakes of past colonialism and exploitation. It is up to humanity itself to forge its own future and destiny. If we are able to take the necessary steps to successfully colonize Mars, we will be able to ensure our existence and guarantee our survival for generations to come.