A City on Mars

Last updated
A City on Mars
A City on Mars front cover.jpg
Author
LanguageEnglish
Genre Popular science
Publisher Penguin Press
Publication date
November 7, 2023
Pages436
ISBN 9781984881724

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? is a 2023 popular science book by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. It covers the current state of knowledge of space settlement given changes in the economics of space travel in the 2010s and 2020s, with a particular focus on challenges that the authors consider unresolved or underestimated. The book is illustrated with Zach Weinersmith's artwork; he is known as the creator of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal .

Contents

The book discusses challenges facing long-term human existence in space and encourages further research into solving these issues before long-term space settlement is attempted, as the technical barriers to increased space travel appear to be weakening due to advances from commercial space flight providers. Some of the challenges covered in the book include sex in space; pregnancy and childrearing off-Earth; space psychology; the effects of microgravity and deep space radiation on humans; agriculture and biosphere creation outside of Earth; space law; nation-building off-Earth; and the difficulties of supplying colonies. It also weighs the potential benefits from Lunar colonization, Martian colonization, and the construction of space stations against the ease of living on Earth, as even a hypothetically devastated Earth would be more habitable than other options in the Solar System.

Reviews of the book were positive, praising its humor and fresh viewpoint. It made 11th place on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardback nonfiction books. In 2024, the book won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work and the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.

Background

The book was written by married couple Kelly Weinersmith, an adjunct professor at Rice University in the BioSciences Department, and Zach Weinersmith, a cartoonist known for the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal . [1] The idea behind the book originated while the Weinersmiths were writing the 2017 book Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. The first chapter of Soonish is on cheap access to space, as the costs of raising mass to low-earth orbit using rockets had decreased dramatically from the 20th century. The Weinersmiths researched what the near future of space settlement might be like, inspired by statements from advocates of extraterrestrial colonization like Elon Musk who claimed that Mars colonies would be established in the early 21st century. They originally intended the book to cover topics like selecting a crew for space colonization, but as they researched they found that the challenges facing space colonization were more daunting than they expected, and that many of these challenges were ignored by popular depictions of space travel. [2] In A City on Mars, the two note that the majority of space literature is written by enthusiasts and advocates of space colonization, and compare it to a situation where all the books on beer were written by brewing companies. [1]

The book was published on November 7, 2023, by Penguin Press, a division of Penguin Books. [3]

Contents

The authors discuss common reasons proposed for space settlement, most of which they consider to be inadequate. The book argues that the overview effect, said to make astronauts more introspective and insightful, is insignificant or nonexistent, and that historians no longer support the Frontier Thesis that suggests exploring rugged frontiers like the American West creates hardy, productive, democratic citizens. It also argues that the political reasons for the original Space Race, which took place side-by-side with decolonization when the US and USSR competed to impress newly formed countries, are no longer relevant. [4]

The book argues that there are only two viable arguments in favor of space travel, the idea that spreading humanity outside of Earth could improve the species' odds of long-term survival, and the pursuit of space travel as a luxury investment for purely ideological reasons. [4] The book examines current plans for space settlement and their challenges, stating that either argument in favor of space travel requires further technological and social developments. The authors conclude that space settlement is unlikely to improve humanity's survival unless economic self-sufficiency could be achieved, which would require millions of settlers or incredibly advanced hypothetical robotics. They also conclude that space travel as an ideological pursuit would only be moral if it could be made safe, requiring further biological and ecological research to protect humans in space. It would also require aligning spacefaring nations on a new political and legal framework to avoid the risk of starting conflicts in space. [5]

Human physiology

The book summarizes current knowledge of the health impacts of prolonged exposure to low gravity and cosmic rays on humans, including muscle loss and back pain from the low gravity environment and eye damage from radiation. The longest any human has spent consecutively in orbit is Valeri Polyakov's record of 437 days, and the longest a human has been in deep space exposed to cosmic radiation without the protection of the Earth's magnetosphere was only 12 days, while a one-way trip to Mars with current technology would take six months. Return trips would have strictly limited launch windows due to the need for gravity assists, suggesting that even the fastest Mars missions would be lengthier than prior space stays. The book questions the survivability of such trips and their long-term impacts on the human body, including whether Mars colonists would be safely returned to Earth. [6]

The authors also discuss hypothetical obstacles to long-term human settlement including potential complications of sex in space, pregnancy, and raising children in a low-gravity environment such as Mars or the even lower gravity environment of the Moon. The book speculates that artificial gravity could be used to mitigate these issues, such as by creating a banked racetrack (or "pregnodrome") to constantly accelerate humans downward to Earth-equivalent gravity. However, it notes that such a proposal would be impractical. [7]

Nature of proposed settlements

An Earth with climate change and nuclear war and, like, zombies and werewolves is still a way better place than Mars. Staying alive on Earth requires fire and a pointy stick. Staying alive in space will require all sorts of high-tech gadgets we can barely manufacture on Earth.

A City on Mars, Chapter 1

The book discusses the environmental hazards of extraterrestrial settlements and states that, even in the case of a doomsday event, Earth would be more habitable than other environments in the Solar System. It notes that Mars experiences giant dust storms and that Martian soil is tainted by perchlorates. To avoid these hazards, it suggests that human colonies might live underground in small habitats where mechanical accidents would be deadly, and that humans would need to consume alternative food sources like insects and make use of carbon recycling, including human waste reclamation. It notes that the Moon is also extremely difficult to settle, as its surface is covered in regolith and its environment lacks elements essential to human life like carbon and phosphorus. It suggests that giant rotating space stations could simulate Earth's gravity, but would be completely exposed to radiation, and would require immense amounts of mass to build, perhaps requiring materials to be mined from asteroids or the Moon. [8]

Space psychology is also explored, including the need for larger human settlements to be less selective than current space missions which carefully screen crew members. The book questions how average people would adapt to the hardships of space, and how it could be handled if someone became irrational and needed to be safely restrained or have their duties replaced. Similar cases involving settlements in Antarctica and the Biosphere 2 experiment, where eight people lived in a controlled ecosystem for a year, are discussed. The authors note that the Biosphere experiment's cost was tiny compared to the budget of the International Space Station, and suggests that hundreds of similar Biosphere-type experiments could be productively and cheaply run on Earth. [9]

Sociology, law, and politics

An illustration from the book, portraying a hypothetical Canadian occupation of a peak of eternal light. A City on Mars sample illustration.jpg
An illustration from the book, portraying a hypothetical Canadian occupation of a peak of eternal light.

The book also deals with the ethics of space settlement, including settlements which would deliberately place human lives in jeopardous situations. Some of the hypothetical scenarios discussed involve survival homicide and cannibalism, such as a situation in which food and air must be preserved by killing off some crew members or settlers. Existing precedents for survival homicides, such as US v. Holmes and R v Dudley and Stephens , are discussed alongside the likelihood that space settlements would operate under the laws of whichever nation's citizens were sent. [10]

The Outer Space Treaty is discussed, and the book suggests the treaty should be updated due to the advent of commercial space exploration in the 21st century. While the authors are skeptical of the economic viability of asteroid mining and other hypothetical methods of resource extraction in space, they suggest that if space did become economically important it might cause space exploration to become less peaceful. [11]

The authors argue that the governance style of space settlements, particularly small ones, would probably shift toward authoritarianism, given the strict control of machinery and mandatory recycling required for survival. While workers can leave an unpleasant company town on Earth, this is less feasible on a hypothetical small Mars settlement, where there may be no other place to go. They also suggest that settlements would require a substantial population, allowing for redundancy if people quit or die or machines break, since replacements could not be quickly sent from Earth. They further postulate that the hypothetical future technology needed to efficiently return resources from the Moon or asteroids to Earth could also be weaponized. [12]

Reception

Zach Weinersmith (right) and Randall Munroe (left) at a book tour event for the release of A City on Mars at the Strand Bookstore in New York City A City On Mars November 8 Tour cropped.jpg
Zach Weinersmith (right) and Randall Munroe (left) at a book tour event for the release of A City on Mars at the Strand Bookstore in New York City

A City on Mars won the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Related Work. [13] It also won the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. [14]

Critical reception was positive. W. M. Akers wrote in The New York Times that the book was "exceptional" and "hilarious", praising it as a needed check on expectations of space settlement coming any time soon. [15] Christie Aschwanden in Undark said the book was "deeply researched", informative, and interesting. [16] Kim Kovacs of BookBrowse thought that A City on Mars was deeper than the average pop science book, with its humor helping let laypeople follow along with the cutting edge of space technology. [17] Kirkus Reviews called the book "a romp" with a lot to offer. [3] Chris Lee of Ars Technica praised the book for raising the risks of not taking seriously the political structure of a future space settlement, writing "do you really want to create a group of hungry, disgruntled miners that are also able to sling very large rocks at the Earth?" [18]

A City on Mars made 11th place on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardback nonfiction books. [19]

Related Research Articles

The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human exploration and colonization of Mars. It was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and its principles are based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human missions to Mars as feasible as possible. The Mars Society generates interest in the Mars program by garnering support from the public and through lobbying. Many current and former Mars Society members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space colonization</span> Concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth

Space colonization is the process of establishing human settlements beyond Earth for prestige, commercial and strategic benefits. This is in contrast to space exploration for scientific benefits. Colonialism can involve exploitation of both resources and people by a distant entity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terraforming</span> Hypothetical planetary engineering process

Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable for humans to live on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space settlement</span> Type of space station, intended as a permanent settlement

A space settlement is a settlement in outer space, sustaining more extensively habitation facilities in space than a general space station or spacecraft. Possibly including closed ecological systems, its particular purpose is permanent habitation.

<i>The Case for Mars</i> Robert Zubrin book on potential colonization

The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must is a nonfiction science book by Robert Zubrin, first published in 1996, and revised and updated in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of the Moon</span> Settlement on the Moon

Colonization of the Moon is a process or concept employed by some proposals for robotic or human exploitation and settlement endeavours on the Moon. Often used as a synonym for its more specific element of settling the Moon, lunar or space colonization as a whole has become contested for perpetuating colonialism and its exploitive logic in space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space and survival</span> Idea that spacefaring is necessary for long-term human surrvival

Space and survival is the idea that the long-term survival of the human species and technological civilization requires the building of a spacefaring civilization that utilizes the resources of outer space, and that not doing this might lead to human extinction. A related observation is that the window of opportunity for doing this may be limited due to the decreasing amount of surplus resources that will be available over time as a result of an ever-growing population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artificial gravity</span> Use of circular rotational force to mimic gravity

Artificial gravity is the creation of an inertial force that mimics the effects of a gravitational force, usually by rotation. Artificial gravity, or rotational gravity, is thus the appearance of a centrifugal force in a rotating frame of reference, as opposed to the force experienced in linear acceleration, which by the equivalence principle is indistinguishable from gravity. In a more general sense, "artificial gravity" may also refer to the effect of linear acceleration, e.g. by means of a rocket engine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of Mars</span> Proposed concepts for human settlements on Mars

In the colonization of Mars humans would inhabit Martian territory and exploit resources there, possibly enabling the settlement of Mars. Most Mars colonization concepts focus on settling, but colonization is a broader ethical concept, which international space law has limited, and national space programs have avoided, instead focusing on human missions to Mars for exploring the planet. Exploitation of native resources might include in situ resource utilization to produce consumables like propellants and life support gasses which would otherwise need to be imported from Earth. Currently there are only proposals for Mars colonization and no humans have yet lived on or visited Mars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of Venus</span> Proposed colonization of the planet Venus

The colonization of Venus has been a subject of many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still discussed from both a fictional and a scientific standpoint. However, with the discovery of Venus's extremely hostile surface environment, attention has largely shifted towards the colonization of the Moon and Mars instead, with proposals for Venus focused on habitats floating in the upper-middle atmosphere and on terraforming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of the asteroid belt</span> Proposed concepts for the human colonization of the asteroids

Asteroids, including those in the asteroid belt, have been suggested as possible sites of space colonization. Motives include the survival of humanity, and the specific economic opportunity for asteroid mining. Obstacles include transportation distance, temperature, radiation, lack of gravity, and psychological issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terraforming of Mars</span> Hypothetical modification of Mars into a habitable planet

The terraforming of Mars or the terraformation of Mars is a hypothetical procedure that would consist of a planetary engineering project or concurrent projects aspiring to transform Mars from a planet hostile to terrestrial life to one that could sustainably host humans and other lifeforms free of protection or mediation. The process would involve the modification of the planet's extant climate, atmosphere, and surface through a variety of resource-intensive initiatives, as well as the installation of a novel ecological system or systems.

The ethics of terraforming has constituted a philosophical debate within biology, ecology, and environmental ethics as to whether terraforming other worlds is an ethical endeavor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zach Weinersmith</span> American cartoonist

Zachary Alexander Weinersmith is an American cartoonist and writer, best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). Outside of SMBC, he has worked on a sketch comedy series, a podcast, and multiple other webcomics. With his wife Kelly Weinersmith, he has co-authored the 2017 book Soonish and the 2023 book A City on Mars. He illustrated the 2019 book Open Borders by economist Bryan Caplan, and wrote the 2023 children's book Bea Wolf, a loose adaptation of Beowulf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotating wheel space station</span> Space station concept

A rotating wheel space station, also known as a von Braun wheel, is a concept for a hypothetical wheel-shaped space station. Originally proposed by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1903, the idea was expanded by Herman Potočnik in 1929, and popularized by Wernher von Braun in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars to Stay</span> Mars colonization architecture proposing no return vehicles

Mars to Stay missions propose that astronauts sent to Mars for the first time should intend to remain there. Unused emergency return vehicles would be recycled into settlement construction as soon as the habitability of Mars becomes evident to the initial pioneers. Mars to Stay missions are advocated both to reduce cost and to ensure permanent settlement of Mars. Among many notable Mars to Stay advocates, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been particularly outspoken, suggesting in numerous forums "Forget the Moon, Let’s Head to Mars!" and, in June 2013, Aldrin promoted a crewed mission "to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species". In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040. The Mars Underground, Mars Homestead Project / Mars Foundation, Mars One, and Mars Artists Community advocacy groups and business organizations have also adopted Mars to Stay policy initiatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpaceX Mars colonization program</span> Proposed human Mars program by SpaceX

SpaceX Mars colonization program is a planned objective of the company SpaceX and particularly of its founder Elon Musk to colonize Mars. The main element of this ambition is the plan to establish a self-sustained large scale settlement and colony on Mars, claiming self-determination under direct democracy. The main motivation behind this is the belief that the colonization of Mars allows humanity to become multiplanetary and therefore secures the long-term survival of the human species in case of Earth being rid of human life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars habitat</span> Facility where humans could live on Mars

A Mars habitat is a hypothetical place where humans could live on Mars. Mars habitats would have to contend with surface conditions that include almost no oxygen in the air, extreme cold, low pressure, and high radiation. Alternatively, the habitat might be placed underground, which helps solve some problems but creates new difficulties.

The future of space exploration involves both telescopic and physical explorations of space by robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight. Near-term physical exploration missions, focused on obtaining new information about the Solar System, are planned and announced by both national and private organisations.

Kelly Weinersmith is an American biologist, writer, and podcaster. She is a member of the faculty at Rice University in the Department of BioSciences, and an alumni collaborator with the Parasite Ecology Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is co-author, with her husband Zach Weinersmith, of popular science books Soonish (2017) and A City on Mars (2023).

References

  1. 1 2 Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , Introduction
  2. ↑ Kuthunur, Sharmila (November 8, 2023). "'A City on Mars' is a reality check for anyone dreaming about life on the Red Planet". Space.com . Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "A City on Mars". Kirkus Reviews . May 27, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , 1. A Preamble on Space Myths
  5. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , Conclusion: Of Hot Tubs and Human Destiny
  6. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , 2. Suffocation, Bone Loss, and Flying Pigs: The Science of Space Physiology
  7. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , 3. Space Sex and Consequences Thereof
  8. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , Part II: Spome, Spome on the Range: Where will Humans Live Off-World?
  9. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , 4. Spacefarer Psychology: In Which the Only Thing We're Sure of is That Astronauts are Liars; Part III: Pocket Edens: How to Create a Human Terrarium That Isn't All That Terrible
  10. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , Nota Bene: Space Cannibalism From a Legal and Culinary Perspective
  11. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , 12. The Outer Space Treaty: Great for Regulating Space Sixty Years Ago
  12. ↑ Weinersmith & Weinersmith 2023 , Part VI: To Plan B or Not to Plan B: Space Society, Expansion, and Existential Risk
  13. ↑ 2024 Hugo Awards at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved August 11, 2024
  14. ↑ Creamer, Ella (October 24, 2024). "Winner of Royal Society Trivedi science book prize assesses whether humans really could colonise Mars". The Guardian. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
  15. ↑ Akers, W. M. (October 28, 2023). "Is It Time to Pull Up Stakes and Head for Mars?". The New York Times . Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  16. ↑ Aschwanden, Christie (November 10, 2023). "Book Review: Are We Ready to Head to Mars? Not So Fast". Undark Magazine . Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  17. ↑ Kovacs, Kim (November 15, 2023). "A City on Mars". BookBrowse . Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  18. ↑ Lee, Chris (November 20, 2023). "A City on Mars: Reality kills space settlement dreams". Ars Technica . Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Hardcover Nonfiction (November 26, 2023)". The New York Times . November 2023.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.