Astrobiology Wiki:New editors: Difference between revisions
→Robert Walker
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===Robert Walker===
[[Image:Robert Walker.jpg|thumb|thumb|200px|right|Photo of myself]]
Hi, I founded this wiki after I got blocked as an editor in Wikipedia (see [[Astrobiology:Background to this encyclopedia|background to this encyclopedia]]). I trained as a mathematician and have a long term interest in astronomy and space missions, and many related areas of science including of course astrobiology. A few years back I developed an interest in planetary protection for robotic and human missions to Mars and other planets in our solar system. I've been blogging about this for some time on my blog on Science 2.0 and quora, and wrote a book [http://robertinventor.com/booklets/If_humans_touch_Mars.htm Touch Mars? Europa? Enceladus? Or a Tale of Missteps?]. For several years I used to edit Wikipedia in various areas including planetary protection, and astrobiology. Now that I've been blocked, I plan to work on new wikis instead. This is one of them.
My own views on the planetary protection debate are that we should send humans to the Moon first, where we can learn about sustainability in space, and about effects of forwards contamination in a place where the effects are limited and comparatively easy to contain. I think we should explore Mars from orbit and do a thorough astrobiological survey before we consider whether to send humans to the surface, and what precautions to take. I think it is premature to try to do this at such an early stage in our understanding of the astrobiology of Mars (if any) that we have to take precautions for any concievable astrobiology, before we know what is there.
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