For almost as long as I can remember, Mars has haunted my imagination. It started with the War of the Worlds, to which I was introduced at the age of ten. We were played Jeff Wayne's musical version in music, and soon after, my father bought me the original novel. (He also owned a record of the infamous Orson Welles radio version). The tripods were terrifying, as were the octopoid Martian's need for human blood. The twist at the end, the martian's destruction by Earthly Bacteria, was just masterful. This novel was more than an example of early science fiction; it was a fable, a myth, with all the resonance that implies.
The next great Martian myth I came to know was Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. Even in the late eighties, 1999 ( the date of commencement) seemed far off and magical, and yet close enough to seem as if we might visit this world. Bradbury's Mars is that of dream, fantasy and the dusty past. The Martians, also slain by terrestrial germs, retire, but the Earthmen, one by one, also fall into the enchantment of the place.
The early 1990s were a sad time for human space travel (the fortunes of which have really never been good since the end of the Cold War). It took Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy to revitalize Mars. His Mars was based upon the Viking data, and felt like a real place. The story -- told over three novels -- was of the colonization and terraforming of a new world. The people who achieve this, especially this first hundred explorers, are perhaps a little wiser than us. In the new world, they rethink economics and their relationship with the environment. Humanity, in short, grows up a little.
Where does the Martian dream stand today? For now, with robots and a renewed hope for the discovery of some form of microbial life. But underneath the present picture are archaeological layers of human hopes and dreams.
Books:
Bradbury, R. (1950) The Martian Chronicles. New York.
Robinson, K.S. (1992) Red Mars. London.
Robinson, K.S. (1993) Green Mars. London.
Robinson, K.S. (1996) Blue Mars. London.
Wells, H.G. (1898) War of the Worlds. London.
2 comments:
Sooner or later, there has to be a return to space exploration, but perhaps that won't happen until the next budding superpowers take a more central role in world politics. And if that happens, will the space research be done for the right reasons, whatever those are?
Nigel
I think a lot depends upon us building a better civilization here on Earth first. Human expeditions to Mars are long term, and in many ways Utopian projects that depend upon a relatively stable parent civilization.
In the early 21st century, the kind of world that has come to be is almost solely focused upon the short term. Also, too high a proportion of our populations, even in developed nations, live hand to mouth, so it's understandable that such projects are often regarded with suspicion.
Unfortunately, the powers that be seem clever enough to recognize trouble ahead (resource shortages, global warming, etc.), but are not wise enough to really think there might be ways to solve these problems.
I think that each and every one of our problems is at least potentially soluble, but only at the cost of a profound transformation in our civilization. Once this has occurred, then human mission to Mars may even seem inevitable. (I leave open to discussion about what and how such transformations might occur).
In many ways, it's only entrenched opinions and habits that prevents these sorts of transformations from occurring.
All of this may seem too far off for those of us who would like humans to Mars NOW. But it's really crucial to step back and see one's activities NOW as potentially affecting the future, for good or ill. Long-term planning is the first good habit we might learn.
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