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Quote by Stewart Stafford

“A Martian Midsummer Night's Dream by Stewart Stafford On Mars's pristine ruddy hue, we tread, Above, stars as adamantine algae spread. Phobos and Deimos, twin moons fair, Primeval river beds form a spidery lair. Dust storms tower above dried-up seas, A vast red alien desert, shorn of trees. Oberon and Titania's gamesmanship spite, Quarrel deep in the Martian summer night. Puckish antics stir starry lovers' hearts true, As spells and dreams on tangled paths pursue. On Olympus Mons, Vulcan gods watch and scheme, Echoes of old wars fuelling plans extreme; A Wellsian tome of the tripod Martian foe, Of invasive seeds, spread to Earth to sow. In Valles Marineris, where canyons stretch away, Dead of night gives birth to coppery day. A frontier vision, both opaque and diamond clear, Magical flights of fancy on an untamed sphere. © 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

Quote by Stewart Stafford

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Stewart Stafford

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“What is really the Mars One project? It is to carry Frank Sinatra to the Mars, it is to carry Hamlet to the Mars, Gandhi to the Mars, Buddha to the Mars. It is a project of carrying our memories, our knowledge, our history, our everything to the Mars! It is not only a project of saving our future but also a project of saving our whole past!”

“It is triste to contemplate the winding down of the Universe into a cold, dark, lonely place, but we are a young species in a young Universe, with vast reaches of time before us. It is certainly true that there are countless worlds out there that could support life as we know it, and probably countless more that could support life as we don’t know it. It may be that the Universe is teeming with life waiting to make our acquaintance. Or, we may well be the first ones in our galaxy to make the leap to sentience. The vast distance between stars poses a severe barrier to individuals or even societies making the journey. Protoplasm is just too fragile and short-lived a medium to be up to the task of such voyaging. However, at a tenth the speed of light, the whole galaxy can be traversed in a million years. That’s a long time for protoplasm, but it is not a stretch to think of the data that makes us what we are—embodied perhaps in silicon or some other sturdy information-bearing material and reconstituted at destination—spreading throughout the galaxy, hopping from planet to planet along the way like Pacific Islanders in their canoes. If life—or complex life—is rare, it may well be our destiny to seed the Universe with an expanding wave of consciousness. But it is to be hoped that we will leave abundant worlds alone to develop their own destinies. There are worlds enough, and time.”