A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

by Kelly Weinersmith

Depending on which theory you believe, space is supposed to: lessen the chance of war, improve politics, end scarcity, save us from climate change, reinvigorate a homogenized and rapidly wussifying Earth, and in one widely held notion called the “overview effect,” make us all as wise as philosophers.

According to who?

What we do think is that space settlements probably are, and ought to be, a project of centuries, not decades.

If we do plan to leave this place, better to do so as an adult. Let’s spend the awkward years learning and then strike out for new vistas.

Theyve made uo their mind 4% into the book!

Part of what’s supposed to make these ideas work is cheap, plentiful energy thanks to space-based solar power.

Space based sar powwr is not believed to be the ebergy source of the future. When was this written ?

The solution? A recent paper by the National Academy of Sciences has argued, in short, that if we want to use veteran astronauts for a Mars trip, we must use Earth’s most powerful defense mechanism: a signed waiver.

What about advances in medical technology to prevent radiation induced cancer?

We aren’t going to linger on this because at the moment the data are unclear, but there is a possibility that space conditions have cognitive effects.

Surely tgere are tests on before and after cognitive abilities such as the twins

Getting Strange in the Lagrange,

Clever but its pronounced La-grah-nge

Mars Ain’t the Kind of Place to Raise a Kid

Clever chapter title

Single-gene edits are possible, but we suspect more complex ideas, like radiation-resistant outer skin or genetic alterations to help bones in microgravity, are a long way off scientifically.

How does he know? It didn’t exist 30 years ago so what will it be like in 30-50 years? No evidence for their statement and what's "a long way off"?

If you accept Daniel Deudney’s argument that a large human presence in space gives us a lot of power to destroy ourselves, you should think twice about creating settlements where you anticipate the culture will place a low value on human life.

How did they jump to the conclusion that space settlers would have low value for human life? Jumped to the conclusion that there will be higher incidence of disability, so the society would not take care of them, so the society doesn’t value human life, so all space settle communities wold not value human life. Idiotic.

If current technology barely permits survival and only permits natural population growth via throwing conventional moral standards out the window, and if there’s no reason to leave right this second, why not be patient? Spend a few decades at least in order to advance the science of human reproduction, as well as every other technology relevant to space settlement.

There will barely be people exploring the moon in 2 decades there is no chance there will be extensive settlers in space having babies in 2 decades. The whole premise and focus of this book is flawed.

Pay attention to how she responded. Not “there’s been some confusion here.” Not “this is a bizarre definition of hallucination.” What she said was this: “Sir, with all due respect, someone who wants to be an astronaut is not going to confess to unusual mental issues.”

This is idiotuc. Sge was respondibg truthfully that sge sees things other people dont and NOT because she hallucinates.

Lava tubes

Interesting, hadn’t heard much about this.

This strikes us as terrifyingly vulnerable to Murphy’s Law. As one paper notes: “A major shift of weight (all the crew to dinner at one sitting) would require a programmed and controlled counter-movement of ballast.” Let’s hope the pipes don’t malfunction for Friday night potluck—you’d hate to have Mrs. Sanderson’s baked ziti ripped out through a hole in the world.

This is not that hard and “pipes malfunction” isn’t something that’s just going to happen every day like your toilet getting clogged, this would be a major malfunction. Too cutesy and simplistic in trying to make their point.