President of The Mars Society(1), Robert Zubrin, joined Richard Hoagland in a discussion about the new Space Initiative. Specifically, the two were critical of plans to cut funding to the Hubble Space Telescope, which Zubrin called "one of the greatest scientific instruments," of all time. A bill, House Resolution 550(2), has been introduced to save the Hubble program, and both guests urged contacting congressional representatives(3) to push for support of it.
In the second half of the show, Zubrin laid out a plan for the terraforming of Mars, which he said could be accomplished in 50 years. The plan entails building factories to produce fluorocarbon gases which would increase global warming on the planet and raise the average temperature. Zubrin sees the colonization of Mars, not so much as a back-up plan for Earth, but rather as a creation of "a new branch of human society," that embraces spacefaring as a way of life.

1. http://www.marssociety.org/
2. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:hr550ih.txt.pdf
3. http://www.enterprisemission.com/help.htm

The New World

NASA announced today the discovery of a mysterious planet-like body, which has been unofficially named "Sedna."3 times farther away from Earth than Pluto, it is now the most distant known body in our solar system. Click on the artist's conception (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt) to view larger, or here(1) to read more details.

1. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/planet_like_body.html

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Monday March 15, 2004