When the first Mariner images of the real Mars were seen. The old "Earth-like" Mars died then, and while this is not widely recognized yet, the space programs of both the USSR and US fundamentally changed direction right then. Since 1964, it has no longer been possible for anyone except for the most obsessed escapists to hold the view of an Earth-like Mars, and though many of this personality type do seem to congregate here, as a part of the general population they are a very very small fringe group.

"Total Recall" was able to foster the suspension of disbelief necessary for entertainment because it showed a terra-formed Mars. But both "Red Planet" and "Mission to Mars", both of which attempted to some degree to show a "Mars-like" Mars, failed - I believe both recovered costs, but that's about it.

A good flim is about emotions, and the setting merely serves either as a distancing mechanism, or as a way of gaining the audience's attention, a method of involving them. And at the present time, not showing a "real" Mars now does neither, and actually interferes with the suspension of disbelief: most people have seen the Pathfinder images.

I suppose we'll be seeing how real Mars fares in the commercial sponsroship of Beagle. My estimate is that a long range Mars rover could be run on a commercial basis, and I would actually like to see NASA try to recover some of the taxpayers' money they have already spent on the Mars Exploration Rovers through the mechanism of selling exclusive 1 day image rights to some one media outlet. While some here talk the talk, will they walk the walk? Or would they simply howl like some 2 year olds throwing a tantrum at such a deal? I'd sure like to find out... Is Tam still in charge of this for NASA, or is somebody else running commercialization now?

Continuing, given "Total Recall", it might seem that a movie showing a terra-formed Mars could succeed. But since the filming of "Total Recall" it has been realized that Mars lacks much of a magnetic field - and since this is so, Mars also therefore lacks much defense against radiation: terra-forming Mars is damn nigh close to impossible. Given the savagery of media wars, and the money involved, you could be sure that the media conglomerates competing with the producer of any such product would do their best to drive that point home - thus hitting their competitors in the pocketbook as hard as they can -

Someday NASA is going to undergo a paradigm shift, and finally understand exactly how seroius a problem small to medium impacts present. In the meantime, NASA will continue to diminish, as it tries to rely for support on the always dminishing number of people who still "believe" in an Earth-like Mars.

Mars is not Earth-like; it is Mars-like, dammit.

ep