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From the editor

This month

January

Welcome to the January issue

of BBC Earth. This month

we’re on a mission to Mars

(page 60), where former PayPal

entrepreneur and SpaceX

founder Elon Musk reckons

there could be a human colony

within the next decade. NASA

is more cautious. It takes nine months to travel there,

and you have to wait for the planets to align to return

• so an astronaut’s tour of duty to Mars could take
  them away from Earth for two or three years. Essential,
  then, to test their physical and psychological reactions
  to being isolated with just a few others in extreme
  conditions. Dr Beth Healey travelled to Antarctica to
  experience a similar environment (page 67). She tells
  us about her eye-opening year on ‘white Mars’ and
  how strange it was coming back home and picking up
  the threads of her life.
  Back on Earth, we’ll be climbing to the roof of the
  world for a rare glimpse into a hidden enclave in the
  Indian Himalayas; hearing about a collaboration

between musician Nitin Sawhney and Chris Packham

to compose a symphony to make animals sing and

dance; hacking through the jungle to find out more

about the amazing evolution of the flying squirrel; and

asking how you define when an animal is truly extinct?

We don’t have to cross the globe to know that planet

Earth is an incredible place. Joe Shute shows this in

his piece (page 26) about the feather – an everyday

object that rarely gets a second glance, but which is

fascinating, functional and intricate in its beauty.

If, like me, you loved Planet Earth II, turn to our

round-up on page 132 to relive some of the scenes that

got the biggest reaction. I can’t think of another TV

programme with so many funny, surprising, touching

and only-watch-through-your-fingers moments

that was both uplifting and thought-provoking. Being

glued to it and reading tweets about it at the same time

added to the entertainment and

made it a communal experience,

which is a rare thing these days.

Will we ever look at the world

the same way again?

FEEDBACK

Let us know what you

think of BBC Earth

magazine by emailing

bbcearthmagazine@

therivergroup.co.uk. This

magazine is yours, even

more than ours. Help us

plot its destiny. Thank

you for joining us, and

see you next month.

LIFE ON ‘WHITE MARS’

067

Cover photograph: Natu re Pictu re Li bra ry. Th is page: Dr Beth Hea ley