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Scientists Propose 'National Parks' On Mars
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."
Someone is thinking ahead. For once. Refreshing to see.
There are, in fact, already treaties regarding space colonization. Just because it's not possible -yet- doesn't mean we should wait until it starts happening to consider how we want it to go.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Na they should be designated 'international historical parks' since any colonization on Mars would probably be by a multinational group.
These earth-like ideas of conservation don't map onto Mars and other planets *yet*. Roping off an area of Mars where the ships should not land!?! We're just starting to explore it. We don't yet know which areas are best to conserve and which are best to settle upon. Given that settlement could be an awfully boring and restrictive lifestyle, I'm sure that a lot will be conserved because of the harshness of the environment. Humans will have a hard-enough time preserving themselves in the Mars environment at first. I'm sure NASA's going to blow up a $25 mil. ship (or whatever amount of $) when they see it's accidentally heading for a conserved piece of land. I think these people's efforts would (in the meantime) be better applied here on earth. It's a novel idea for Mars but way too early. Let's not legislate Mars quite yet.
Kim Stanley Robinson tackled many of these issues in his Mars Trilogy. I couldn't beleive it when I saw this headline, I'm certain some of the thoughts from that series has affected a great many Mars enthusiast...
We might have Reds vs. Greens before we even go there...
Then here's an idea: how about we leave the entire thing off limits for another couple of centuries until we've had a chance to study it?
It's brand new. It's totally pristine. It contains applications of geology, meteorology, and maybe even biology that have never been seen before.
I'd be all for scientific expeditions to Mars, even long term ones, but I can't see the point in sending anybody there to live for any purpose other than science. Take a couple of centuries and watch the climate change without significant human interference. Humanity has waited millions of years to get there; a few centuries won't make any difference.
(Especially if you're talking about "terraforming" it. We don't have the slightest idea what's on that planet and we're already talking about making it look just like here. Please, please, please let the geophysicists and soil chemists and wind science guys have a good solid look at the place before you start changing its chemistry permanently.)