ABSTRACT
In Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy, a group of one hundred scientists is sent on a mission to Mars to explore the planet and build the first human settlements. Well before the scientists even reach Mars, they concoct a variety of plans that envision a much more intense and long-term presence on Mars than initially intended. Physicist Sax Russell, one of the key characters, unfolds a plan to modify the planet’s atmosphere in order to make it breathable by introducing genetically engineered, oxygen-excreting microorganisms. Covering a period from the 2020s to the 2210s and encompassing over 2,300 pages, the trilogy takes the reader through a metamorphosis of Mars from its familiar rocky surface (Red Mars) to a planet covered by plants, mosses, trees, and even animals (Green Mars) and finally to a planet with vast oceans, not unlike the Earth (Blue Mars). Scientists execute mass-scale projects―for example, excavating huge areas of land to prepare an intricate system of canals, lakes, and seas, and bringing into orbit around Mars a “soletta,” a gigantic sail made of nanomaterials that reflects sunlight, to heat up the atmosphere. These projects are paralleled by other forms of engineering targeted at human bodies (e.g. life extension through gene-repair treatment) and ways of living (e.g. architecture, economics). Gradually, however, this colonial-scientific narrative morphs into something less familiar. Whereas the initial designs are based on experiences from Earth, the longer the scientists live on Mars, the more they become aware of a unique “spirit of place” that needs to be understood and cherished. What began as a more or less controlled process of terraformation (creating Earth-like environments on other planets) gradually transforms into areoformation (Ares being the Greek name for Mars) in which the planet and humans themselves transform in unforeseen ways. Under the spiritual leadership of the biologist Hiroko Ai, a group of renegade scientists work on an emergent, intuitive science of “areology” attuned to the unique circumstances on Mars. Epitomized by an unidentified narrator’s claim that “terrain is a powerful genetic engineer” (Green 13), areology is a science of interaction and transformation, tempering the hubris of terraformation and human enhancement.
