First off, I have my own concerns about back contamination - and there´s nothing nutty about them, they are shared by those who work professionally in Mars robotic exploration. Slingin shit at me like some chimp in a zoo is not going to work.

One way that I differ from Barry is that I agree with Rummel that explosive welding will liekly be sufficient to handle the back contamination threat. That said, Barry´s concerns are quite reasonable and sane, and if anything the jump and shout nonsense spewed by some Mars nuts is clear proof of their own insanity. The constant character attacks you folks engage in are an outrage, and remind me of Nazi tactics.

As far as manned exploration of Mars (and later hopefully some kind of development) goes, you people just don´t seem to understand that we´re going to have to use robots first to make sure that it is safe to go. This is going to take time, and the best way to use that time is to do our best to prevent the next major asteroid or comet impact from happening.

I am sorry that the real Mars differs from the one of your imagination, but there is little I can about that, except to try to prevent you from confusing others. If it´s any consolation, I used to imagine Mars in a very similar way. But then of course I grew up.

ep