Robert Zubrin

Robert Zubrin
Photo of Zubrin by the Mars Society
Born	(1952-04-09) April 9, 1952 (age 72) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Rochester (BA) University of Washington (MS, PhD)
Known for	Mars Direct Mars Society The Case for Mars Energy Victory
Spouse	Hope Zubrin
Scientific career
Fields	Aerospace engineering
Institutions	Martin Marietta Pioneer Astronautics

Robert Zubrin (

He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission. The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. A modified version of the plan was subsequently adopted by NASA as their "design reference mission". He questions the delay and cost-to-benefit ratio of first establishing a base or outpost on an asteroid or another Apollo program-like return to the Moon, as neither would be able to provide all of its own oxygen, water, or energy; these resources are producible on Mars, and he expects people would be there thereafter.^[5]

Disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the success of his book The Case for Mars (1996), as well as leadership experience at the National Space Society, Zubrin established the Mars Society in 1998. This is an international organization advocating a human mission to Mars as a goal, by private funding if possible.

Early life and education

Zubrin was born in New York City's

Zubrin was awarded his first patent at age 20 in 1972 for Three Player Chess.

Zubrin holds a B.A. in

Zubrin's inventions include the nuclear salt-water rocket and co-inventor (with Dana Andrews) of the magnetic sail. Zubrin is fellow at Center for Security Policy.^[9]

During his professional career, Zubrin was a member of Lockheed Martin's scenario development team charged with developing strategies for space exploration. He was also "a senior engineer with the Martin Marietta Astronautics company, working as one of its leaders in development of advanced concepts for interplanetary missions".^[10] During his time at Martin Marietta, he drafted ideas for a potential single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft, and developed the Black Colt. However, he would eventually leave Martin Marietta to co-form Pioneer Rocketplane with Mitchell Burnside Clapp, an aerospace engineer from the US Air Force, due to a perceived lack of interest in reducing launch costs at larger aerospace firms.^[11] In his book, Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization, Zubrin would write about how both large aerospace firms, and the US Government, would fail to reduce the costs of spaceflight.

In 1998, Zubrin founded the Mars Society, and in the following years, was able to attract large amounts of public interest to potential human colonisation on Mars. The work of the Mars Society was successful enough as to encourage the US Government to not cut funding for several Mars rover missions. ^{[citation needed]}

Pioneer Astronautics

In 1996 Zubrin founded Pioneer Astronautics (formerly Pioneer Invention), a research and development company committed to developing innovative technologies to further space exploration and improve life on earth.^[12] The company relied primarily on small business research contracts and tackled a large variety of space-relevant problems. ^[13]

On 13 July 2020 Voyager Space Holdings announced its acquisition of Pioneer Astronautics.^[14]

Pioneer Energy

In 2008 Zubrin founded Pioneer Energy, a research and development firm headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado. The company's focus is to develop mobile Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) systems that can enable CO₂-based EOR for both small and large oil producers in the United States. The company has also developed a number of new processes for manufacturing synthetic fuels.^[15]

The ethics of terraforming

Dr. Zubrin is known as an advocate of a moderately anthropocentric position in the ethics of terraforming. Discussions of the ethics of terraforming often^{[citation needed]} make reference to a series of public debates Zubrin has held with his friend Christopher McKay, who advocates a moderately biocentric position on the ethics of terraforming. For example, a written account of some of these debates is available in On to Mars: Colonizing a New World, as a joint article, "Do indigenous Martian bacteria have precedence over human exploration?" (pp. 177–182)

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2022)

Books

• ISBN 978-0684835501
• ISBN 0-471-13561-5
• From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Precursors and Early Piloted Exploration Missions (1997).
  ISBN 978-0877034261
• From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Base Building, Colonization and Terraformation (1997).
  ISBN 978-0877034285
• Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization (1999).
  ISBN 978-0874779752
• Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Mars Society (1999), co-edited with Maggie Zubrin.
  ISBN 978-0912183138
• Mars On Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic (2003).
  ISBN 978-1585423507
• ISBN 978-0441008599
• On to Mars: Colonizing a New World (2002
  ISBN 978-1896522906
• The Holy Land (2003).
  ISBN 978-0974144306
• Benedict Arnold: A Drama of the American Revolution in Five Acts (2005).
  ISBN 978-0874779752
• On to Mars 2: Exploring and Settling a New World (2005
  ISBN 978-1894959308
• ISBN 1-59102-591-5
• How to Live on Mars (2008).
  ISBN 978-0307450111
• Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism (2011).
  ISBN 978-1594035692
• Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future (2013).
  ISBN 978-1101617861
• The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility Prometheus Books (2019)
  ISBN 9781633885356
• The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future (2023)
  ISBN 978-1736386064
• (To be released 20 Feb, 2024) The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet (2024)
  ISBN 978-1635768800