MUSK WANTS ONE MILLION HUMANS ON MARS TO SUSTAIN A COLONY. 2/4: For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet Hardcover – May 18, 2023 by Matthew Shindell (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Mars-Human-History-Planet/dp/0226821897/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Due to its vivid color and visibility, its geologic kinship with Earth, and its potential as our best hope for settlement, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars surveys the red planet’s place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.
National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell describes how historical figures across eras and around the world have made sense of this mysterious planet. We meet Mayan astrologer priests who incorporated Mars into seasonal calendars and religious ceremonies; Babylonian astrologers who discerned bad omens; figures of the Scientific Revolution who struggled to comprehend it as a world; Victorian astronomers who sought signs of intelligent life; and twentieth- and twenty-first-century scientists who have established a technological presence on its surface. Along the way, we encounter writers and artists from each of these periods who take readers and viewers along on imagined journeys to Mars.
By focusing on the diverse human stories behind the telescopes and behind the robots we know and love, Shindell shows how Mars exploration has evolved in ways that have also expanded knowledge about other facets of the universe. Captained by an engaging and erudite expert, For the Love of Marsis a captivating voyage through time and space for anyone curious about Curiosity and the red planet.
1997 MARS PATHFINDER
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you ever felt like escaping to your own desert island? |
| 0:04.0 | Jane Gaskin did exactly that, trading in the family home to begin a new life in the |
| 0:09.1 | tropics. |
| 0:10.1 | But she soon discovers that Paradise has its secrets. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Alice Levine, and this is the price of Paradise, |
| 0:18.0 | the island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. Wish you were here. Follow the price of Paradise Now, wherever |
| 0:26.7 | you listen to podcasts. I'm John Batchew with Matthew Schindell. His new book is for the love of Mars, a human history of the red planet. |
| 0:36.0 | The medieval world inherits the understanding of the ancients and then astrology. |
| 0:42.0 | But I go to one note of clarity. |
| 0:46.8 | In Baghdad and Damascus, Matt informs us, |
| 0:50.3 | between the 10th and the 16th century, |
| 0:52.4 | which is the Dark ages in the West, an age of |
| 0:56.0 | feudal superstition. They're very careful observations of the planets and the |
| 1:01.4 | stars. And that this sure looks of the |
| 1:05.0 | questions of the planets and the stars. This sure looks like science. |
| 1:06.0 | Is that agreed upon that what was going on in Baghdad and Damascus was scientific observation? |
| 1:12.0 | Yeah, you know, we used to pretty much solely talk about a renaissance happening in Europe later. |
| 1:20.0 | Now it's pretty common for historians of science to talk about an earlier |
| 1:24.2 | renaissance that happens in the Islamic world where all of this ancient |
| 1:28.5 | knowledge in addition to knowledge that is being brought from different corners of the Islamic Empire. |
| 1:36.9 | You know, there are libraries built, there's a large translation movement, and then there is |
| 1:42.1 | original astronomical work being done as well. |
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