Person attributes
Other attributes
Dr Christopher P. McKay (born 1954) is an American planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, studying planetary atmospheres, astrobiology, and terraforming. McKay majored in physics at Florida Atlantic University, where he also studied mechanical engineering, graduating in 1975, and received his PhD in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982.
McKay has done research on planetary atmospheres, especially those of Titan and Mars, and on the origin and evolution of life. He is a co-investigator of the Huygens probe, the Mars Phoenix lander, and the Mars Science Laboratory. He has also done field research on extremophiles in places such as Death Valley, the Atacama Desert, Axel-Heiberg Island, and the ice-covered lakes of Antarctica. McKay is the principal investigator for the proposed Icebreaker Life project, an astrobiological mission to Mars. In 2015, he received the Nevada Medal.
McKay argues for a moderately biocentric stance in the ethics of terraforming, arguing that we should first scrutinize a planet such as Mars in order to find out if any microbial life exists before taking the first steps towards terraforming, and what if a native alien life is discovered in a little known niche or dormant on Mars, we must remove all terrestrial life and modify Mars to support the global spread of this alien life on Mars. He held a series of public debates with Robert Zubrin, who takes a moderately anthropocentric stance on the ethics of terraforming.
