humanoid inhabitants
an ancient civilization on a drying planet
canals
sword
airships
a board game
These features are common to Edgar Rice Burrough's Martian series and to SM Stirling's Lords Of Creation series. Some of the ideas also appear elsewhere. The canals on a dying planet are legendary.
How does Mars come to be inhabited?
(i) There just are native Martians.
(ii) In Michael Moorcock's ERB pastiche, Michael Kane time travels to Mars at a time before Martians had migrated to Earth.
(iii) In Lords Of Creation, technologically superior aliens terraformed Mars and transplanted Terrestrial human beings to it.
(iv) In Poul Anderson's Technic History, extra-solar aliens colonize Mars.
(v) Martians existed but are now extinct.
(vi) In works by Anderson and others, Terrestrials colonize Mars and become the "Martians."
(vii) There are even versions of Mars that were never inhabited!
12 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Aline Chang-Lei, the Lady Marr of Syrtis (in "Honorable Enemies"), apparently came from the Syrtis region of Mars. And I still think she and Flandry would have been ideal for each other.
As we know from the Duke of Mars in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, humans also lived on Mars and had "ancestral estates" there.
I hope your point "v" soon becomes true, and humans soon start colonizing Mars.
Ad astra! Sean
Correction: I meant point "vi," not v.
Sean
Sean: Probably within our lifetimes, or our children's. Mars probably has enough gravity to bring children to full term; on the Moon, you'd need to get into a centrifuge on a regular basis during pregnancy.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! I wish that colonizing of Mars had started decades ago. I also believe that the opening of a new and real frontier would have been good for us on Earth, because people would have better things to do than falsely claiming to be women or indulging in whacked out politics. I hope that colonizing starts no later than 2028.
I see you agree with Anderson's view that the Moon's gravity is too low for women to carry babes' full term there. Orbiting an O'Neill habitat around the Moon might be a better way for pregnant women from the Moon to carry infants' full term at a standard one g.
With a gravity 38% that of Earth's, Mars does seem a much better bet for pregnant women to bring children to full term. Which is what Anderson thought as well.
Ad astra! Sean
We know that months at zero gee is bad for human health.
We are not going to know about the health effects of lunar or martian gravity until we have people living at those gravity levels for months. It is probably easiest to test lunar gravity at a moonbase and martian gravity in a rotating space habitat in earth orbit before risking well over a year at Martian gravity in a trip to explore Mars. I doubt anyone would want to risk a pregnancy at partial gravity before some pregnancies at partial gravity in other mammals have turned out well.
Then there is the issue of nearly closed cycle life support. Lets put some effort into variants of Biosphere 2. Get one to work for a few years on the surface of the Earth before trying to colonize Mars.
Kaor, Jim!
Agree, excessively prolonged existence in zero gee is bad for human health.
And I love that idea of rotating space habitats with rings simulating gravities at different levels, such as 1 Earth gee, half a gee, or one fourth gee, etc. And they should have been built long ago, replacing the absurdly antiquated ISS!
I am less sympathetic to yet more delays re sending manned expeditions to Mars. I get impatient with the idea of more studies taking years to complete before anything might be done--that has been NASA's approach and all we have gotten is bureaucratic sclerosis and ruinously costly budget overruns.
I suspect Elon Musk and many would be adventurers/explorers shares that impatience and are willing to take chances. If necessary, such explorers will sign legally binding waivers absolving all other persons of any responsibility for harm coming to them either on the journey to Mars or on the Red Planet.
Humans being what we are, if/when mixed expeditions are sent to Mars, we will have men and women having sex, meaning some of the women will get pregnant. And I still believe the gravity of Mars is better for that than the Moon's.
Robert Zubrin's books THE CASE FOR MARS and THE CASE FOR SPACE discusses many of the issues you raised in massive detail.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, 90% of the initial colonists at Jamestown were dead within five years... The English didn't consider that a reason for not colonizing Virginia.
The risk of dying within 5 years in England was a lot higher than it is now in England or N. America. I think the much reduced hazard anywhere from infectious disease has helped make people more cautious about other hazards.
However, there are still lots of people who do hazardous activities, so if the organizers of a trip to Mars are honest about the risk of dying and there are qualified people willing to go, don't stand in their way.
An objection to landing humans on Mars soon is that it would confuse matters about whether any life found there was native or introduced. Perhaps there should be robotic exploration controlled by humans in Mars orbit for a while before anyone lands.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
Mr. Stirling: Exactly! Danger did not stop past adventurers. Nor do I believe that will stop all current would be adventurers also willing to take chances.
Jim: I also suspect that many would be adventurers are BORED with the prospect pf a safe, tame, risk averse life--and hence willing to accept risks. I agree, any of them who are qualified should go, as long as their eyes are wide open as regards the dangers of space.
I still say no to yet more delays about humans landing on Mars. For one thing human scientists on Mars can investigate far more deeply and intensively than the miserable little robotic rovers NASA has been sending there for decades.
Ad astra! Sean
The much reduced light speed lag in controlling robotic probes from Mars orbit would allow much faster exploration than exploring with robots controlled from Earth. At what point do we decide the question has been settled and we might as well allow anyone to land on Mars if they want to (and someone can pay for it).
I saw a video by Feynman which argued that taking off from Mars and then returning all the way to Earth would be a whole 'nother problem.
Kaor, Jim and Paul!
Jim: I still disagree while also agreeing it would be much quicker to maneuver such rovers from ships orbiting Mars. But SpaceX plans to send ships loaded with supplies that will land on Mars. Next comes manned ships. Enough, no more endless waiting!
Paul: Zubrin discussed such issues in detail in his books. He does not believe it will be intolerably difficult to leave Barsoom and return to Jasoom.
Ad astra! Sean
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