This story originally featured on the MIT Press Reader. Exploration, habitation, and resource extraction all carry a risk of inflicting environmental damage in space, just as they do here on Earth.

What would it mean to abandon Earth wholesale? The proposition to throw one’s hands up and forfeit our planet is a seductive one — things are looking pretty irredeemably grim. As the world continues ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Scientists and science-fiction writers have long entertained the idea of "terraforming" Mars to ...