Few authors have shaped our collective imagination of Mars like Kim Stanley Robinson. His Mars Trilogy \u2013 Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993), and Blue Mars (1996) \u2013 remains a towering achievement in science fiction, weaving science, politics, and environmental philosophy into an epic vision of what Mars colonisation could look like.<\/p>\n
But three decades later, with Mars once again capturing the public imagination \u2013 not through literature, but through the ambitions of billionaires \u2013 I asked Robinson a simple, pressing question: Do you really believe that humans will eventually go to Mars? Or is this whole conversation a distraction from the far more urgent task of saving Earth?His answer was clear: \u201cMostly the latter. Given the situation on Earth, Mars is largely a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sobering stance from the author most associated with a detailed and optimistic vision of Mars. While he acknowledges that space exploration has profound value \u2013 \u201cSpace science is Earth science,\u201d he said, quoting a classic NASA line \u2013 the idea of sending humans to Mars is another matter entirely.<\/p>\n
He draws a parallel with Antarctica: a barren, inhospitable place populated by rotating teams of scientists, largely ignored by the wider world. \u201cIf we had small scientific teams on Mars, it would be similar,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019d stay a few years, cycle in and out. But it wouldn\u2019t be glamorous. It would be research. Quiet. Dangerous. Necessary, but not revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of colonising Mars \u2013 the Muskian vision of a \u201cmulti-planetary species\u201d \u2013 is, in Robinson\u2019s words, \u201cbad science fiction\u201d. He explains: \u201cWe can\u2019t breathe the air. We can\u2019t touch the soil. The surface is laced with perchlorates \u2013 salts deadly to humans. You\u2019d have to live underground, in radiation-shielded bunkers. Like a Motel 6 in a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
We do not know what long-term exposure to Mars, which has just 37% of Earth\u2019s gravity, would do to human biology, fetal development, or mental health.<\/p>\n
When I asked Robinson whether he would, in hindsight, have rewritten the Mars Trilogy for our more climate-anxious era, he replied firmly: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change a thing.\u201d But he did acknowledge that his recent work, The Ministry for the Future, is in some ways a rewriting of the Mars Trilogy \u2013 only this time, the project isn\u2019t terraforming Mars, but healing Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mars books were about building a better society on another planet,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Ministry is about doing that here, now, under pressure, in crisis.\u201d Even in Blue Mars, the message was never \u201clet\u2019s escape Earth\u201d: it was the opposite. The Martians return to a ravaged Earth and say: \u201cMars can\u2019t save you. We\u2019re a mirror. If we can build a just society here, so can you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few authors have shaped our collective imagination of Mars like Kim Stanley Robinson. His Mars Trilogy \u2013 Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[2584,18,19,17,67253,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-107585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-book","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-kim-stanley-robinson","13":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}