"The Shadow of Olympus"

Emmett M. Smith

November 20, 2012

Read the scifi novel "The Shadow of Olympus" if you want to know what humans should be doing- exploring and coloniozing Mars. Humanity has all of its eggs in one basket now. A large asteroid impact or a nuclear war could destroy civilization on this planet. Also, without a new frontier, technological, economic and social progress on Earth will stagnate. Look what the exploration and colonization of the western hemisphere did for European civilization from 1492 to 1882.

Comments:

woodrob: 11/21/2012 12:27 CST

I agree with exploration, but I hope we treat other organisms we encounter better than the Europeans treated Native Americans.

Ian Miller: 11/24/2012 11:58 CST

Exploring and colonizing Mars appears popular, but to do that, I think we must first develop better propulsion systems. Chemical rockets are simply too inefficient, which means so much of the launch is expended carrying the weight of further fuel, which in turn means the cost of a useful load is prohibitive.