Just remember one thing Chris -- Eby keeps starting these verbal bouts here on this bbs by insulting not only me but the scientists I associate with. He starts them every single time -- almost like it is a planned thing. Orders?

So here we go....

From the New York Times - March 23, 2002, Saturday, Late Edition - Final

Life Inside Tall Tin Can in Utah Is All Mars

"...six recent pilgrims are practicing something even stranger
and more isolating -- living on Mars..."

"...They go outside in white canvas space suits trimmed in duct tape. Their helmets are made from plastic light fixtures and white bullet-shaped trash-can lids..."

"In their habitation module (the thing that looks like a silo), they sit with their laptops late into the cold desert night, typing up reports of simulated Mars disasters."

C'mon Chris! Trash can lid helmets? Duct taped spacesuits? Does this sort of stuff really capture your imagination? What about just sticking to Mars science?

Here are three things the MS can do instead of the stuff mentioned above:

1) Instead of spending all that cash on phoney Mars habitats and duct taped canvas space suits -- why not send your people to Antarctica and train them to do outdoor geology and astrobiology with the real "cold survivor" scientists already there? Mars isn't going to be anything like the Arctic. But Antarctica will difinelty give you a big hint. The habitat in Utah is useless to simulate any environment of Mars. No one beyond the fifth grade is going to buy this as real science.

2) Have some respect for planetary protection and why it is important to first examine the planet Mars for microbial life before sending humans and to see what effects any Martian life has on terrestrial ecosystems sequestered and tested in a module in Martian orbit.

3) Invest in a real Mars Habitat module - complete with 95% CO2 atmosphere, trace amounts of water vapor, simulated dust storms, simulated Martian UV etc... Then I think the Mars SIMS would be respectable. As they are now, it appears like cheap props for a Roger Corman "B" science fiction movie.