Free Republic

The ideal Red Planet crewed site should be of high scientific value — allowing pioneers to search for signs of Mars life and investigate other intriguing questions — and also possess enough resources to help sustain expeditionary crews, scientists and engineers said. They came to these and other conclusions at the First Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars, which was held here Oct. 27 though Oct. 30 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. ... Nearly 50 locations on Mars were proposed as future locales for human landings. Those sites were all within 50 degrees...

For this issue, I interviewed science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury. At 85, he's lost none of his enthusiasm and optimism for the future of science and technology as well as for humankind. For Bradbury, space is not a business opportunity, but destiny. He feels we have to return to the moon and beyond. Without that continual push for exploration, humankind will cease to exist. Our thirst for immortality is what drives our desire to explore space. You can read more of Bradbury's views in "Last Byte," on page 30. But for an immediate take on space issues, turn to our cover...

Now that the gay lobby has successfully persuaded the Parliament of Canada to legalize same-sex marriage, the question arises: What will it do next? Will it retreat for a time into inactivity and wait for the public to bestow semi-respectability on the new condition? Or will it brazenly push the government to silence Christian churches that carry the gay-marriage conflict into the next federal election by removing their tax deductibility status? Or will it open a new campaign to prohibit all criticism of homosexual practice on moral grounds by deeming it an exercise in "hate"? Last week, eight days after...