September 19
Space.Com

Arthur C. Clarke: Mars Has the Munchies

Mars has a case of the munchies. That is, the red planet is spotted with vegetation with some sort of life feasting on the foliage. So says Arthur Clarke, the noted sci-fi writer and space visionary, making the claim during a recent conference on the space elevator.

Clarke was keynote speaker at the 2nd annual international conference on the space elevator, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sir Arthur beamed into the gathering by satellite link on September 13.

When asked what destination he'd like to travel to via the space elevator, Clarke said he was "ready and willing" to journey over to the red planet.

"Mars is the obvious place," Clarke said. "I'm now quite convinced that Mars is infested with life. Mars orbiter photographs show huge areas of vegetation. I don't think there's any doubt anymore on that. And where there's vegetation, they'll be something nibbling on it," he said.

Just as the audience was chewing on Clarke's Mars life view, he added yet another bit of speculative advice - this time on cold fusion.

"It's not cold. It's not fusion. It may be tepid fission or something," Clarke said. "Don't laugh…but there's something going on there. A number of reputable groups have succeeded in generating small amounts of energy that, apparently, are not easy to account for. So I think there's something there."