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" Humans are possessed, to some degree, with the power of foresight. Yet we so often learn things the hard way, through disaster. "
David Grinspoon
Disaster
Some
Way
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" As long as we can imagine a better path, of course we are obligated to seek it. This is why unwarranted pessimism about our future is actually irresponsible. "
David Grinspoon
Better
Why
Path
" In my Ph.D. thesis, written in 1989, I discussed the fact that when a civilization develops the technology to prevent catastrophic asteroid impacts, it marks a significant moment in the evolution of the planet. "
David Grinspoon
Technology
Fact
Evolution
" It turns out one of my dad's best friends was Carl Sagan when I was little. They were both Harvard professors. "
David Grinspoon
Dad
Out
Little
" I think that an advanced planetary civilization will modify their own planets to be more stable, to prevent asteroid impacts and dangerous climate fluctuations. "
David Grinspoon
Own
Civilization
Dangerous
" 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
Active
Been
Boston
" Why should we consider defining intelligence as something global and as something that hasn't actually yet appeared on Earth? It may be useful for envisioning the future of our own civilization and any others that may be out there among the stars. It might give us something to strive for. "
David Grinspoon
Intelligence
Future
Earth
" 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
You
Understanding
Life
" There's something cool about being involved in new missions to other planets. "
David Grinspoon
Cool
Something
Planets
" As a young planet, Venus was losing hydrogen rapidly to space. The oceans boiled off, and after some period of time, perhaps 600 million years, there was no surface water. "
David Grinspoon
Time
Years
Losing
" Fixing global warming is more important than astronomy. "
David Grinspoon
Astronomy
Global Warming
Important
" Time and time again, our species has escaped existential threats by reinventing ourselves, finding new skills not coded in our genes to survive new challenges not previously encountered. "
David Grinspoon
New
Challenges
Finding
" When you think about alien intelligences making art, you then have to think about what art is and how bound up it is in the nature of consciousness. Why do we make art? And what can we expect to have in common with other creatures in universe? "
David Grinspoon
Art
Nature
Think
" If you were on the surface of Venus, assuming you could see the Sun, which, you know, would be hard because it's so cloudy there, but the Sun would actually rise in the west and set in the east. And, it would do so very, very slowly, because the planet rotates incredibly slowly. "
David Grinspoon
Rise
Know
Cloudy
" The more we look at the kinds of soils and the nature of the atmosphere and the polar caps, it all adds up to tell us that some liquid, which we very much believe was water, did flow in abundance on Mars in the past. "
David Grinspoon
Look
Water
Flow
" Literally, my earliest memory, my earliest vivid memory, is the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Yeah, I was in fourth grade, and I was just so captivated. And I think you'll find a lot of space scientists of my generation will say the same thing. Apollo was a big event for them. "
David Grinspoon
Think
Moon
Memory
" Earth is going to lose its oceans in the future, just as Venus did in the past. How long planets retain their oceans is a function of distance from the sun, all other things being equal. "
David Grinspoon
Sun
Past
Long
" Radiation is one of the important factors in evolution. It causes mutation, and some level of mutation is actually good for evolution. "
David Grinspoon
Important
Evolution
Good
" What I wonder most about the Anthropocene is not when did it start - but when, and how, will it end? Will it end? Or is it possible that our own growing awareness of our role on Earth can itself play a pivotal role in shaping the outcome toward one that we would desire? "
David Grinspoon
Wonder
Start
Earth
" I think a lot of people interested in space exploration tend to hear stories about the great missions, how they work technically, what we learned. But they don't really hear the story of what it takes to get a mission from scratch to the launch pad and into space. "
David Grinspoon
Work
Great
People
" We're pretty sure there's plenty of organic material on Pluto. The atmosphere is largely methane, and in sunlight, methane builds organic molecules. We see reddish stuff on the surface that we think is organic material. "
David Grinspoon
See
Pretty
Sunlight
" I will defend the NASA Earth Science Division with everything I've got. "
David Grinspoon
Earth
Division
Science
" My high-school friends and I felt part of a community of smart, forward-looking space and technology freaks. "
David Grinspoon
Community
Smart
Space
" What I'm interested in is the conversations going on about the Anthropocene and what it means to view ourselves as a part of Earth's geological history. "
David Grinspoon
View
Earth
History
" 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
Life
System
Well
" The hallmark of the human species is great adaptability. "
David Grinspoon
Hallmark
Species
Great
" I intend to apply the perspective of astrobiology, which is a deep-time way of looking at life on Earth, towards the question of the Anthropocene. What does the human phenomenon on Earth look like viewed from an interplanetary perspective? "
David Grinspoon
Earth
Life
Perspective
" Mars does not have an atmosphere and does not have a magnetic field today, so the planet doesn't have the protection from radiation that our atmosphere and magnetic fields provide us on Earth. "
David Grinspoon
Earth
Mars
Protection
" 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
Bright
Mars
Planet
" Mars does not belong to 'America,' nor to Earth, nor to human beings. "
David Grinspoon
America
Belong
Earth
" Astrobiology is the science of life in the universe. It's an attempt to scientifically deal with the question of whether or not we're alone in the universe, looking at the past of life, the present of life, and the future of life. It's an interdisciplinary study incorporating astronomy, biology, and the Earth sciences. "
David Grinspoon
Past
Alone
Future