Bremen Human Space Exploration Seminar

Guest:  Dr. Sean McMahon

Mars is a blank canvas on which human beings have long projected their hopes, fears, and dreams. Two visions of Mars, somewhat in tension, predominate today: 

(1) Mars is a playground for scientists, a geological time capsule whose ancient landscapes may yield fossils or even living microbes; and 

(2) Mars is a new frontier to be colonized by billionaire libertarians. But Mars does not belong exclusively either to scientists or to the tech bros: it belongs to all of us — and to future generations. Here, drawing on recent work on “exogeoconservation”, I discuss how Mars can be valued and protected as part of our common heritage without hindering either scientific or economic progress.

Dr. Sean McMahon is a senior academic and research scientist in the School of Physics and Astronomy and the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, where he co-directs the UK Centre for Astrobiology, leads the Planetary Palaeobiology Group and runs the UK’s first MSc programme in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences. Trained in planetary geology, microbiology, and palaeobiology, he has published more than sixty papers on habitability, early life on Earth, fossilization, and the search for life on Mars and beyond.

Bremen Human Space Exploration Seminar

The seminar will take place every second Thursday at 2 pm CET/CEST at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) from 2025 during the lecture period. 

The invitation for the seminar will be send via email to all registered members of the space-exploration mailing list. You can register for the invitation here.