Mars & Space Exploration

Hosted byGeorge Noory

Mars & Space Exploration

Highlights

  • Hoagland Refutes Article
  • The Mars Direct Plan
  • About the show

    President of The Mars Society, 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, has been introduced to save the Hubble program, and both guests urged contacting congressional representatives 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.

    In the first hour, Hoagland reacted to the recent Space.com article War of the Words. Calling it "a hit piece of political slander," Hoagland refuted the allegations about his career and credentials and has posted documentation on his website defending himself (see this email exchange and article titled NASA Running Scared).

    Bumper Music