Science

Space has potential – we need to look up | Letters


I don’t agree with Philip Ball’s thesis (Life on Mars? Sorry, Brian Cox, that’s still a fantasy, 27 May) – ever since I studied planetary geology in the 1970s I have been excited by the idea of terraforming – if you read Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy you will find it eminently plausible. It’s not about leaving this planet because we have trashed it and starting to do the same on another planet, but about us having overcrowded it so badly that we have to move a large chunk of the population to a new planet where we can revive a dormant landscape into a new paradise. It is all about vision and political will – if we could get all the fanatical warlords on Earth just looking up at the potential of space – we can do it. That is how we will get the drive and the money to start the colonisation of Mars, just like the exodus to the New World in the 17th century.

Yes there will be thousands of people who want to take the one-way trip, and yes there will be various religious fanatics and self-serving people among them; but the survival difficulties on Mars will be such that they will be forced to cooperate. And this time we will not be subjugating an indigenous population or an existing biosphere; we will be creating our own new one. CO2 to warm Mars will be generated by introducing plants and a new greenhouse effect from our activities. Just imagine!
Jan Miller
Holywell, Flintshire

In an otherwise excellent article, Philip Ball posits nuclear fusion as transformative for the energy economy – if it becomes viable. Well, a sizeable nuclear fusion reactor with a long working life is already viable and contributing cost-free to the energy economy from the safe distance of 93m miles. The good news is that the device is providing us with a continuous colossal superabundant supply of usable energy in vast excess – roughly 10,000 times more than the current extravagant energy consumption of humankind. All we have to do is collect, store and distribute it.
David E Hanke
Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire

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