[RockinRight]

Alarmist article from the Guardian. Personally, I think we SHOULD terraform Mars (preferably through private sector, that's another day's topic however) and here's reasons why:

Mars is similar to Earth in many ways-day length, has seasons, has water

Mars would be a New "New World"

Mars has most of the resources already to become Earthlike, and those it does not exist in comets nearby

By the time we have colonies established on Mars, our technology should make terraforming relatively easy (although time-consuming and somewhat costly)

It would be damn cool.

Instead of Red States...we'd have an entire Red Planet!

[RockinRight]

For your space ping list, Kevin.

[dfwgator]

Good excuse to post one of my favorite XTC lyrics:


Welcome to the garden of earthly delights.
Welcome to a billion Arabian nights.
This is your life and you be what you want to be.
This is your life and you try it all.

This is your life and you be what you want to be
Just don't hurt nobody, 'less of course they ask you
In the garden of earthly delights.

[RightWingAtheist]

I say keep the red planet red, for now. There's still precious little we know about it, and I prefer for us to explore every nook and cranny of the planet before we try to modify it.

[The_Victor]

'The idea of terraforming Mars is extreme, but it is not cranky - that is the truly horrible thing about it,' said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. 'If it was just a silly science-fiction notion, you could laugh it off. But the idea is terribly real. That is why it is dreadful. We are mucking up this world at an incredible pace at the same time that we are talking about screwing up another planet.'

The left would rather the universe be void of mankind.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

We ARE on our way to the planet MARS.

Amazing.

.

[plain talk]

Exactly. Mars is the natural choice for terraforming. Only question is how to do it. Seems it would be a daunting challenge.

We are mucking up this world at an incredible pace at the same time that we are talking about screwing up another planet.'

ha ha ha ha ha. What an idiot.

[boris]

We could drop an ice comet or asteroid on it.

The real problem is a martian colony--with or without terraforming--would cost trillions. While fighting the terrorists, where does the money come from? I don't see it anywhere.

--Boris

[NCSteve]

"We are mucking up this world at an incredible pace at the same time that we are talking about screwing up another planet."

I suggest suicide, Mr. Murdin. The universe is obviously hopeless so you have nothing more to live for. Bye bye, now.

[beezdotcom]

We're not even being allowed to terraform THIS planet - what makes anybody think we'll ever get the chance on Mars?

[No.6]

'If it was just a silly science-fiction notion, you could laugh it off. But the idea is terribly real. That is why it is dreadful. We are mucking up this world at an incredible pace at the same time that we are talking about screwing up another planet.'

... said Mr. Murdin, as he threw out his fast-food lunch and headed off to drive to the airport in his Escalade to fly to an environmental conference in Buenos Aires focussing on how the developed world uses too many resources.

/rolleyes

[Pete'sWife]

The Genesis Device?

[JasonC]

Of course we will terraform Mars, and millions of people will live there. The only real question is when we will have the technology and capital for it. It will create wealth on a scale of tens of trillions of dollars, minimum. All these gossamer quibbles by green wackos will not stop such a freight train.

[AD from SpringBay]

John Carter of Mars bump?

[Little Ray]

I just love it - morons dedicated to preserving the "pristine" environments of lifeless or near lifeless balls of rock. This would be funny if it wasn't sad. These folks are living proof that the "intelligentsia" needs purging. Cutting 'em off from public funding would be a start - cutting 'em off from oxygen with a rope would be even better!

[AbeKrieger]

Let's make sure we protect as yet-undetected alien microbes, but keep the ripping of unborn human children out of the womb "safe" and legal.

I'd rather save an Earth-baby.

[COBOL2Java]

In addition, two different groups of scientists yesterday revealed they had found traces of methane in the Martian atmosphere. The gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be a byproduct of Martian microbes living in the Red Planet's soil.

Beans on Mars! Who knew?

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

We may really be Martian in origin.

[DoctorMichael]

Sounds like a good idea to me, as long as we can leave the Muslims and Neaderthals behind.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Hearty guffaws! They can't even get a rover unstuck from a sand dune!

[citizen]

Just started reading Robinson's RED-GREEN-BLUE MARS again.

Great trilogy that covers it all: How to get there, how to terraform, automated machines & constructins, the in-fighting & squabbles [the "Reds" want to leave Mars alone], the influences of the mega-corps on Earth, the pressures to get it done and relieve over-population on Earth, the amazing transformation from dusty, cold, lifeless planet to domed cities and eventually open-air societies, so much more...