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It will be a long time, if ever, before we get to study Earth-like planets orbiting around other stars, so really, the study of Venus and Mars is the best opportunity that we have, and can imagine having anytime in the future, to understand the evolution of Earth-like planets.
David Grinspoon -
Ever since the environmental movement was sparked by photos of the whole Earth taken by astronauts onboard Apollo Lunar Modules, I've seen planetary exploration as an extension of a reverence and care for Earth.
David Grinspoon
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The planet Mars - crimson and bright, filling our telescopes with vague intimations of almost-familiar landforms - has long formed a celestial tabula rasa on which we have inscribed our planetological theories, utopian fantasies, and fears of alien invasion or ecological ruin.
David Grinspoon -
There are other planets besides the Earth and Mars. I'd like to remind you that studying Venus is vital to understanding life elsewhere.
David Grinspoon -
What if life is not carbon-based? Can life exist as a gas or a plasma? Could planets or stars in some sense be alive? What about an interstellar cloud? Could life exist on such a small or large scale, or move so fast or so slowly that we wouldn't recognize it? Could you have an intelligent virus?
David Grinspoon -
It's OK to pursue speculative ideas because we don't want to be too cozy and safe and assume that we know everything about life in the universe. However, we have to be rigorous and careful and honest and logical and scientifically meticulous when we speculate.
David Grinspoon -
Among the plausible niches for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, the clouds of Venus are among the most accessible and the least well explained.
David Grinspoon -
The reason you see so many volcanoes on Venus is partly due to the fact that there's virtually no erosion there. So on Venus, you're seeing features, some of which are hundreds of millions of years old on the surface. On Earth, we do not see any surface features nearly that old - you only see much more recent features.
David Grinspoon
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Through space-based climate studies, my colleagues and I have learned that a stable and comfortable climate is not something to take for granted.
David Grinspoon -
There's something cool about being involved in new missions to other planets.
David Grinspoon -
Mars does not belong to 'America,' nor to Earth, nor to human beings.
David Grinspoon -
You cannot study other planets without referring to Earth and without applying the techniques and the insights of Earth science. And you cannot really do a good job understanding the Earth without the insights from planetary exploration.
David Grinspoon -
It's quite possible there's as much lightning on Venus as on Earth.
David Grinspoon -
I'd like to jump a couple hundred years into the future and work with the scientists who are getting back the first information from our probes to planets orbiting nearby stars.
David Grinspoon
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I don't see it as coincidence that the great acceleration of the Anthropocene influences on Earth came during the same decades as our first exploration of the other planets.
David Grinspoon -
It turns out one of my dad's best friends was Carl Sagan when I was little. They were both Harvard professors.
David Grinspoon -
Even as a kid enthralled with science fiction, I wondered about the role of people in the long-term evolution of the Earth, the far future and the fate of humanity.
David Grinspoon -
Earth is a stunningly lovely planet for so many reasons. Among these is the wondrous presence of curious, artful, inventive humanity.
David Grinspoon -
It's one of the big mysteries about Venus: How did it get so different from Earth when it seems likely to have started so similarly? The question becomes richer when you consider astrobiology, the possibility that Venus and Earth were very similar during the time of the origin of life on Earth.
David Grinspoon -
The story of our species is one of overcoming existential risk through new forms of cooperation and innovation.
David Grinspoon
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The mature Anthropocene begins when we acquire the ability to live sustainably and become a lasting presence on this world.
David Grinspoon -
Radiation is one of the important factors in evolution. It causes mutation, and some level of mutation is actually good for evolution.
David Grinspoon -
I'd been politically active ever since my parents wheeled me in a stroller in a 'ban the bomb' march in Boston in 1963.
David Grinspoon -
We don't know that Venus had oceans, but there's every reason to believe it did.
David Grinspoon