[kaikai]

Kim Stanley Robinson has written and spoken about how unrealistic his Mars books are given the information we now have about Mars, specifically the perchlorates in the surface and the lack of nitrogen. They were written in the 90s, and his more recent books like Aurora and Ministry of the Future better represent his current view that Earth is precious, and we’d better commit to it.

[hinkley]

Perchlorate will definitely increase the amount of water required per occupant, since at a minimum you’re talking washing EVA suits in the airlock and then treating that water to remove perchlorate, which is not easy.

I don’t recall changes in Aurora and haven’t read Ministry yet. Misplaced my copy in the house somewhere.

[MarkusQ]

His Mars books were unrealistic given what we knew _when he wrote them_.

[hinkley]

The airship defying physics to survive a storm is a deux ex machina that could easily be edited out without materially affecting the story. It’s a black spot on the rest of the series to be sure, but the story isn’t predicated on it at least.

[marcellus23]

We can do both.