New Martian Writing

If you've enjoyed my writing about space over the years, I invite you to subscribe to my new substack newsletter, titled 'Mars for the Rest of Us', where I've been posting weekly essays on topics around Mars exploration.

Here are two recent free posts:

• Musk on Mars: a timeline of Elon Musk's shifting public commitments to Mars settlement.

• A Primer on Long-Duration Life Support: an overview of the state of the art in regenerative life support, and technology gaps for Mars.

And some recent paywalled ones:

• Is Mars Habitable? — could any terrestrial organism survive on Mars today?

• Eyes and Bones — the health hazards of microgravity, as they stand in 2026.

• New Evidence for Old Life on Mars — the very strong case that Mars used to harbor life.

• Artificial Gravity — on the practicalities and impracticalities of using spin gravity on a Mars mission.

• The Mystery of Non-Targeted Effects — spooky 'action at a distance' in radiation biology and its implications for a Mars-bound crew.

Of course, I will continue writing here on all sorts of topics. But the substack is a way to earn some cheddar while converting five years of Mars notes into what I hope are some interesting and informative short articles.

A monthly subscription to the newsletter costs $5. I do everything I can to make it a good value!

I hope to see longtime readers there!