There has been speculation and excitement about colonizing Mars for decades, with much more fervor recently. This book, written by a self-proclaimed science geek couple, lays out the practical difficulties of achieving that goal anytime soon. The authors do not question the wisdom of expanding our frontiers but argue that irrational exuberance about this endeavor has obscured the significant challenges that make it unrealistic for the foreseeable future.
They examine a variety of critical areas—the reality behind the promise of space riches in minerals, the challenges of scaling energy and equipment needed to achieve it, the complexities of food production and other essentials for sustaining a colony, the fragility of the human body and medical complications, and issues with laws and governance. While many of us might superficially grasp these issues, the book presents them in a digestible manner that not only highlights the challenges but also enhances our appreciation of the endeavor.
Among the areas explored, the discussion on space governance was particularly new and insightful for me. The authors outline the current state of space governance (or lack thereof), draw from historical experiences of humans governing new frontiers, and offer some suggestions.
Overall, their view is that beyond acknowledging the hurdles ahead, we should prioritize rigorous experimentation here on Earth to improve our chances. Though the issues they discuss could be dense in other hands, the authors use wit and humor and it works remarkably well.
I listened to an audiobook. This book was quite enjoyable and is an interesting and valuable take on an important area of popular science.
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9 Comments
Sounds like a nice book but Penguin publisher 😢
I work in space biology research and I really enjoyed this book as well. It got me to think differently about some of the challenges of spaceflight and multiplanetary living. Overall really great and I enjoyed hearing a different voice. I describe it to my friends as “a hater’s guide to the galaxy”
I’ve been on this train for a long time now, as an official Mars colony pessimist. My number 1 beef with all the sci-fi thinking is that nobody seems understand the sheer logistics it would take to set up any kind of self-sustaining colony. The *magnitude* is impossible to grasp. The resources (natural and human) that are needed to achieve advanced manufacturing such as semiconductors and aerospace-grade machines are literally a *global* effort here on earth. And Mars has WAY less natural resource and NO people. It’s insane.
Seems interesting. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion here, but I’ve often thought trying to create space colonies at our current level of development is a horrible idea.
We have everything we need to live on earth but we haven’t been able to manage it without destroying things. I also think it would end up more like Total Recall with people living in pseudo feudalism toiling in mines so they can afford enough air to live
>we should prioritize rigorous experimentation here on Earth
I don’t really understand this. The conditions here on Earth are different from the conditions in space or on Mars. We won’t be able to figure out solutions to the problems we’ll face in those environments without actually facing them.
Sure, we should do more Biosphere experiments, but that’s not going to be enough.
it seems to be that the greatest setback on exploring and colonizing is our surrent society’s need for everything it does to be profitable.
which I’m fine with, we don’t deserve to leave our cradle until we grow up
The main takeaway that I got was that there are major technical problems with off-world colonies; however, those are the least of our worries. The social, economic/financial, and political problems are a much bigger barrier.
The Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal dude? Not gonna lie a science book from him wasn’t on my card but his comics are a joy
You can only wargame and run simulations so much. And even if you could possibly run them to perfection Uncle Murphy will show up at some point.
The best we can do is give them the best resources we have and the best preparations we can come up with. That is what Explorers do. They take risks. They make shit up as it comes to them. They carry on and do what is necessary, what most will see as impossible and hopefully have a good outcome.
But you have to try. It has to start at someplace with someone willing to take the chance.