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Dalillama
Since: Jan, 2001
2015-01-25 16:09:39
Sounds like it may have been Ben Bova's Mars Life, part of the Grand Tour series. Could be one of the other ones in the Mars sequence, though.
Edited by Dalillama

Yo, another newb here. I remember the basic plot from a book I once read, but cannot remember the title. I think I managed to pull out every detail that I remember. Here it is:
It is a Science Fiction story. Man has colonized Luna (lunar colony is now seperate legal entity from Earth) religion of all sorts has gotten out of control on Earth, and now earth based science is stalling. Lunar science is still advancing at breakneck speed. That is just background. There is a small research expedition to mars. They have established a semi-permanent base/colony, but they still require regular resupply from Earth. Earth government is threatening to shut them down, when they discover remains of extinct Martian Civilization. Religious establishments and governments on Earth rail harder to get martian expedition shut down. Mars expedition leaders go to moon to ask for aid, lunar government says "yes, if you can proove that the ancient buildings are real and not natural formations". Foreward thinking religous leader has idea to go to mars, and declare that martians fit within canon. He dies, but just as he does, he finds what reveals the location of the martian graves. He dies before he can tell the others. Explorers get into fight, one falls down, and sees what religous leader saw, stops fight, and another discovery is made when an object impacts with martian surface, revealing microbial life under martian surface. The life dies quickly, due to exposure to environment to which it did not evolve. Explorers have idea to bomb surface of mars, putting dome over craters to let an atmosphere form and protect the microbes, letting them evolve and rebuild mars's environment. They call it the "Million Year Experiment". End
That's about all I remember. You guys got anything?
Edited by Bronze_Moose