Thread by @eleniravanis, Well, seems our white paper has caused a bit of a stir. [...]

Eleni Ravanis

eleniravanis

Well, seems our white paper has caused a bit of a stir.

I might compose a more in depth response in a few days, but essentially, it’s a shame Zubrin missed the point of our paper. It is quite possible to be pro human ventures to Moon/Mars AND for planetary protection!

It is also regrettable that Zubrin & others equate discussing ethical implications of space expl. to “an assault on space exploration”. I am personally saddened by the “it’s planetary protectionists vs explorationists!!” narrative. Space expl. has so much more nuance than that!

We tried to address some of that in our paper. We literally end by saying “Space exploration, instead of being the “final frontier,” can be a catalyst for a transformative change in how we consider our relationships to other forms of life, to land, and ultimately to each other.”

For what it’s worth, I consider myself very pro space exploration and humans to Moon/Mars

! Just not in any way possible, and not for any reason. That’s the nuance we try and get at in our paper (in which we nowhere state we are against human space exploration, just FYI).

Anyway: here’s our white paper to read and judge for yourself: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.08344 .

I had a great time working with my co-authors, our lead author @frankrtavares did a superb job! And I look forward to us hopefully working more on this in future

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