FUTURE HISTORY JOURNAL Summer/Autumn 1998 Introductory Letter Dear Reader, The quest for Mars, more than any other planet, offers the best opportunity to resolve the questions of parallel evolution and the reality of earlier life in our solar system. Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream-the fabric of legends, gods, and mystery. Even the Apostle Paul in speaking to the Greek philosophers made reference to "the temple" of the "unknown god" on the Aeropagus or "Mars hill." The planet most like ours in daily time cycle and formerly possessing vast water systems on the surface has until recently been thought impossible to reach, let alone to explore and inhabit. The latest information from Mars about claimed discoveries of earlier life interacting with earth is so powerful and so provocative that, in effect, space scientists have already entered into a redefinition of "life." The fact that NASA, the European, Japanese, Russian, and other government organizations are speaking about life even in the past tense brings to all peoples of the planet a new perspective on the universe in which we live. Plans for a Mars base to become a reality will be possible with minimum refinements in existing technologies. Should NASA or a consortium of space-faring governments begin to make serious plans for a pioneering colony on Mars, there are infinite possibilities that can lead to the establishing of a habitat of long duration. The fact that water is believed to exist on Mars already means that we will be able to live there and utilize Mars and other space resources for the benefit of earth. It is a good location for the investigation and eventual mining of the asteroid belt and a stepping stone to the high frontier, like Jupiter’s moon Europa, which has also shown intriguing features of possible life. And there always exists the possible interaction with "cosmic cultures" who see that we are willing to be genuine peacemakers amongst the stars as we expand our civilization. The recent findings of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) on the "Face on Mars" should not dissuade us from looking for other clues of earlier life around the important sites of the pyramids of Elysium and other Mars locations that hold positive proof for the end of Earth’s exclusive terrestrial age. Western civilization as we know and value it today was born in expansion, grew in expansion, and exists preferably in a dynamic expanding state as it enjoys the utilization of limitless space resources as part of its cosmic identity. Mars still invites humanity to experience reality beyond myth and to develop its powers to understand what the Greek and Roman poets really meant when they taught that we are "the progeny" of the gods (see Acts 17:28), or, simply put, the frontier that opens before our eyes is not the final frontier but the opening to a cosmic Magna Carta of interconnecting realms in sharing what Christ taught on the nature of "the House of Many Mansions."