Guests: Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith; Topics: The Weinersmith book, “A City on Mars” which provides a hard and realistic look at space settlement and our ability to carry it out but for what purpose.
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We welcomed Dr. Kelly Weinersmith the program to discuss the new book written with her husband, Zach, “A City On Mars.” Zach talked with us the last half of the program. Once again, please use the tags as a guide and summary to the topics discussed on this program. The tags are repeated below for your convenience.
Tags: Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith, “A City On Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have w really thought this through,” space settlement, asteroid mining, space medicine, closed loop eco systems, near term possibilities, needed biology development, Moon is carbon poor so not life sustaining, unknowns for babies in space, unknown for procreation in space, lunar water, LCross Mission, lunar resources for propellant, radiation, microgravity, Musk and the Moon, chapter on settlement myths, 1g space settlement, on the job training, design verification, Biosphere experiments, space settlement economics, Biosphere 12, history from Eisenhower forward, Apollo budget, good or bad investment, settlement has no economic imperative, lava tubes, spinoffs, space exploration, legal and regulatory concerns, Paul Spudis and the economic value of the Moon, stress economic development argument.
“A City On Mars” has spurred controversy as it calls into question space settlement, plausible settlement timelines, questions the potential economic value of it and even questions if we should do it based on a variety of reasons including scientific, engineering, and humanity focused reasons. Lots of listeners participated in the discussion with both Kelly and Zach, both with calls and emails. Kelly and Zach were challenged by listeners on many of their positions and statements as I believe it would be fair to see that most of The Space Show audience sees settlement as essential. At one point during the discussion, I attempted to clarify Kelly’s position which I believe is that while the Weinersmith’ s are saying no to settlement at this time, should breakthroughs or new developments arise that answer their objections, including human procreation and biology in space, then it would be easier to support settlement. Kelly said he was optimistic such advances or breakthroughs would take place but though the timelines would be much longer than talked about within the space community. I forgot to ask her if she thought a breakthrough was the same as serendipity. I recall many earlier Space Show programs where we talked about planning based on serendipity which was not a solid planning point. Is planning or anticipating based on a breakthrough different? How?
Please listen to the arguments put forth by Kelly and Zach and post your replies on our blog for this program. Their book is very entertaining and informative. I strongly suggest you buy and read it, even if you disagree with their premise about settlement. It was a true delight to read plus most entertaining.
Please post your comments/questions for Kelly and Zach on our blog associated with this archive page. You can reach Kelly and Zach through me plus Kelly can likely be reached through her adjunct faculty page in the BioSciences department at Rice University.
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