Zubrin to Debate Park in DC! Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Zubrin to Debate Park in DC!
# 4899 bymach25@... on Jan. 30, 2004, 3:14 a.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
Zubrin to Debate Park in DC!
January 29, 2004
For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org.
debate Dr. Robert Park on the subject of the value of human planetary
exploration. Zubrin is the nation's foremost advocate of human
Mars exploration, Park is the foremost opponent. The debate, which
promises to be quite spirited, will be held at the Ethics and Public
Policy Center, 1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 900 Washington, D.C.
20005, starting at 6 PM, with refreshments available starting at 5:30
PM.
On the following evening, Dr. Zubrin will present a talk to the
National Geographic Society entitled "Mars on Earth"
discussing the possibility for near-term human Mars exploration and
the work that the Mars Society is doing to further that goal at its
human Mars exploration operations research stations on Devon Island
in the Canadian high Arctic and in the American southwestern desert.
The talk will take place at National Geographic Society headquarters,
Gilbert Grosvenor Auditorium, 1600 M St. NW, Washington DC. Friday,
Feb 6, at 7:30 PM. The Society's museum will also be open, 6-7:20
PM, for a viewing of the exhibition "Mars:2K4." Ticket price for
the event is $14 for NGS members, $16 for non members. Tickets can be
ordered by phone at 202-857-7700, purchased online at
nationalgeographic.com/lectures, or bought in person from 9-5 on any
weekday at NGS headquarters or 45 minutes before the event at the box
office.
The Ethics and Pubic Policy Center is a Washington DC think tank
concerned with technology and science policy issues. Its flyer for
the Zubrin/Park debate reads as follows:
"Worlds Beyond Our Own"
A Discussion of President Bush's New Vision for Space Exploration
Thursday, February 5, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Ethics and Public Policy Center
1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20005
President Bush has given NASA a new mission: to return to the Moon
and "to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own." How
realistic is the president's plan and his timetable? Is it worth the
money? Should it have been more ambitious? Is NASA up to the task?
For that matter, why should we send humans into space at all? The
Ethics and Public Policy Center has invited two distinguished
commentators to analyze President Bush's new plans for NASA and to
present their observations and reflections on these and other
questions.
Dr. Robert Zubrin is among the foremost advocates of human space
exploration. In the early 1990s, Dr. Zubrin developed for Lockheed
Martin a plan to put humans on Mars within ten years. This plan,
detailed in Dr. Zubrin's 1996 book The Case for Mars, would use
Martian resources to make a mission to the Red Planet much more
affordable than NASA had previously estimated. An engineer by
profession, Dr. Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society, an
international organization that supports the exploration and
settlement of Mars.
Dr. Robert Park is one of the leading critics of manned spaceflight.
Known for debunking bad science, Dr. Park has argued that human space
exploration is costly and dangerous, especially when compared to
robotic missions. In his 2000 book Voodoo Science, Dr. Park argued
that robots can act as "extensions of our frail human bodies," and
that cheap and quick robotic missions will allow scientists to
become "virtual astronauts." A physics professor at the University
of Maryland, Dr. Park heads the Washington office of the American
Physical Society.
We will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 5 with a cheese and
wine reception at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1015 Fifteenth
Street, N.W. Suite 900. The conversation will begin at approximately
6:00 p.m.
RSVP to Kasey Cook by phone, 202-216-0855 x206, or e-mail,
kcook@....
For further information amount the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org.