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Scientists Propose 'National Parks' On Mars

Posted by timothy on from the thinking-in-future-perfect dept.

colonist writes "Microbiologist Charles Cockell and astrobiologist Gerda Horneck want to turn seven areas on Mars into 'national parks', conserved in their pristine state. 'It is the right of every person to stand and stare across the beautiful barrenness and desolation of the Martian surface without having to endure the eyesore of pieces of crashed spacecraft scattered across the landscape,' they write. Cockell is not against colonization, though. He says that setting aside some areas for conservation would free up the rest of the planet for settlement."

4 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Who is this guy by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 4, Informative

    Charles Cockell, of the British Antarctic Survey, works on microbes growing in the extreme polar conditions. If you have an access to Nature, check his latest paper treating of "Ecology: widespread colonization by polar hypoliths". There's a summary available from BioEd Online for those (prolly 99% of the crowd here) who can't access Nature.

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  2. Re:well gosh, I'm glad that's settled, and by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 3, Informative

    The current batch of robot probes aren't causing any problems for anyone. The worst thing they leave behind is heat sheilds and parachutes, and the parachutes will be broken down in a few decades by UV radiation from the sun (no free oxygen -> no ozone).

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    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  3. Look towards home planet first. by stimpleton · · Score: 4, Informative


    Never mind Mars.

    The US *is currently* building a road in the Antarctic from their scientific base on the edge of the region too the Pole.
    They are *mining snow to fill in crevases*.

    The Man on Mars should be worried...

    Brown said phase one of the project -- filling huge crevasses with ice on the crevasse fields 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of McMurdo station -- has already been completed.

    Sir Edmund Hilary (the first man to climb Everest)has just walked part of it, and needless to say, has slammed the initiative.

    http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/news/ 2003/021003road.shtml/

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  4. Clayborne & Russell by Smiffa2001 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nice article. I for one am happy that this subject has been broached now as it is important. Might be a good idea for all those interested to read KSR's Mars Trilogy and the Clayborne-Russell arguments to get a real insight into the issues that (might probably) arise and be at stake.

    That said, I'd still love to see a human presence on Mars, as long as I'm one of em... ;)