http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/ppresults.html

The results are rather surprising given the harsh criticism of Zubrin's article at http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/nothreat.html published in the PR.

The replies were at
http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/caution.html
http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/hazardous.html
http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/safescience.html

Zubrin's response to those is at
http://www.planetary.org/html/news/opinions/zubrinresponse.html

I'm quite willing to provide all the links available unlike Barry because I'm quite willing to debate all the issues raised. If Barry was anything but a psuedoscientist he could respond technically to Zubrin's last message.

I'm much relieved to see that most of the PS is not buying what Barry's selling although I am slightly puzzled by the prevailing opinion that Earth life would be more durable on Mars than Mars life on Earth. I personally think both would be like fish out of water. If both existed they would likely get creamed by the home team. Martian life should withstand the harsh Martian environment far better than Earth life and Earth life would make far better use of resources and out compete Martian life by being more efficient at using Earth resources since they would not have to support all the extra celllular machinery Martian life would have to have to survive on Mars.

It also appears Zubrin's common sense arguments carried a lot of weight. The opinions seem at least midway between Zubrin and his critics if not closer to Zubrin. The fact that he was jumped on for making statements not far off published expert opinions may have reduced the weight his critics opinions carried. Rummel and particulalry Race came off as rather shrill turf protectors to me. Nealson's comment on Zubrin's acquaintances was one of the rare glaring errors in his article given most people interested in Mars should be well aware of Zubrin's exobiologist acquaintances. Their over reaction was rather obvious to any familiar with the report at
http://www.nas.edu/ssb/mrsrmenu.html. To be fair I think this over reaction came from viewing Zubrin's comments as an attack on them rather than an attack on the likes of Barry which is how I viewed it. It was clear however from Zubrin's additional comments that at least some of his criicism was aimed NASA's PP team for giving the likes of Barry more credibility than deserved.

Regards,
Mark