• Question: How do you think life will change if humans settle on Mars?

    Asked by anon-292595 on 4 May 2021.
    • Photo: Quentin Leclerc

      Quentin Leclerc answered on 26 Apr 2021:

      Interesting question, I think the answer would be really long because many aspects of society would be affected! I think it would redefine politics (who would be the president of Mars? would we need an Earth president too then?), tourism (if we can settle on Mars, does that mean we can easily travel there, maybe for holidays?), and even humanity itself! (if a baby is born on Mars, is it still human? or would people on Mars eventually become really really different from humans on Earth?)

      However, I think we can all agree that science fiction movies would definitely change! Movies like “The Martian” wouldn’t be realistic anymore, no-one would believe that Matt Damon could be stranded alone on Mars 😉

    • Photo: Ed Peake

      Ed Peake answered on 26 Apr 2021:

      Nice question. I think it will make a massive difference if we become an interplanetary species. Much more likely for humans to survive long term given that there have been 5 mass extinction events on earth.

      Probably find there will be a divergence in politics, laws etc, while a collaboration on technology, finance & commerce and medicine between earth and mars.

    • Photo: Rosie Goodburn

      Rosie Goodburn answered on 26 Apr 2021: last edited 26 Apr 2021 2:04 pm

      There aren’t currently plans to turn Mars into an Earth-2 so to speak, the current plan is just to make it ok for NASA scientists to live and work there!
      .
      If we were to try and make Mars a habitable planet for humans to live on the surface without buildings, this is called “terraforming” and would involve lots of challenges! These include:
      – Its toxic atmosphere
      – Its low atmospheric pressure (about 1% of Earth’s)
      – The harmful radiation from space on Mars (because Mars has no global magnetic field or many atmospheric particles to shield us unlike Earth)
      – The very low temperature (on average −63 °C!)
      – Its global dust storms
      – No natural food source
      – Toxic soil
      .
      If you ask me, this sounds like too much effort! I’d rather stay here!

    • Photo: Michael Capeness

      Michael Capeness answered on 26 Apr 2021:

      I think it will be a very long process and something I won’t be around to see, but I think it will have a large change in how we view ourselves as a species and how we view our ‘home planet’ Earth. Also it may change how people think we fit in the universe, it’s quite unlikely they will find life or the remnants of life, but it may throw up a lot of other new questions.

      To get to this point, the technology needed to sustain human life on Mars will also have an effect on humans on Earth, allowing us to recycle more, produce less waste, and even look at new forms of energy. As on Mars, the nearest shops are 300 million miles away, so everything you need you either have to take with you or make/find there.

      Over a very long time, eventually, Martians, will become a separate culture of people, a bit like a different country, and may have different ways of doing things, speaking, or behaving, and even have differences in laws and society….maybe even their own language!

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