Mars colony

Mars colony, Dutch startup Mars One says it has the will and the means to build a human colony on Mars in only 11 years' time (video: watch the company explain how they will do it). Mars One's plan includes sending a communications satellite to the planet in 2016, followed by a robotic rover in 2018, and finally a team of colonizers in 2020 who will set the foundation for a full-fledged Mars colony by 2023 Mars has been partially terraformed and colonized. The atmosphere is still not breathable, and much of the surface remains a vast, cold desert, but some equatorial regions have been made fertile through generations of hard work. There, specially adapted plants are grown, both indoors and in the martian soil outside. Life on these farms is tough, with many farmers able to grown only what they need to survive.

In the polar regions, however, it is a different story. This is where much of the Martian population lives, protected from the elements by large bio-domes, and provided for by trade with Earth and its other colonies. The primary resource here is water ice – the most valuable commodity in the solar system – which is mined by the Martian colonists from the polar ice caps.The Martian colonies of the North are wealthy, and loyal to the governments of Earth (on which they depend for much of their income). Those living in the sparsely desert regions are not so happy with the status quo. Several years previously, they rose up in armed revolt. The rebellion was quickly put down, but many still fly the flag of an Independent Mars.

The parallels with American history and the history of Ireland are obvious.Our story takes place in a small rural town, two decades after the end of the Martian Civil War. The town is poor but its citizens are deeply rooted to the land, their ancestry going back to the early days of Martian colonization. When a rich vein of precious metal is discovered nearby, the future of the town begins to look much brighter. But then…

Scientists have long known that the Martian moon Phobos is in a decaying orbit, and that it will one day break apart and impact the planet . However, they hadn’t expected this to happen so soon. It seems that Phobos’s orbit was disrupted more than they had thought when a large spaceship crashed into its surface during the Martian Civil War. When this is realized, the government begins to evacuate the huge impact zone, in which our town lies.

The townspeople are understandably upset, and deeply suspicious of the government’s plans to relocate them. Conspiracy theories begin to circulate, and many residents decide to stay, despite the impending danger. When the government attempts to forcibly remove citizens from their homes, violence seems to be their only recourse.

What happens next? That’s for you to decide.

Does falling debris from the crumbling moon destroy the town? Does anybody survive? Does the violence spread to neighbouring towns, sparking a second Martian civil war? Perhaps the destruction of the town becomes a symbol for rebels right across Mars.
Think of the following as a thought experiment. Imagine that it is 2059, fifty years from the writing of this, and an announcement has been made that the first colony on Mars is going to be established. The first wave of colonists will consist of one hundred families, with adults holding certain needed skills.

There would be no prospect of returning to Earth for any of the colonists. Most of the colonists would have to sell nearly all of their possessions in order to buy in as a share holder in the colony. (I imagine the colony being a private concern, possibly with the sponsorship and support of some government.) You will live under somewhat more Spartan conditions than you are accustomed to. There will be more physical danger on Mars than you are used to as well, with the real possibility of you or someone you care about suffering an early, violent death due to accident or natural phenomenon.

Assuming that you and your spouse have skills that the colony needs, would you go?

This is not a frivolous question. Most people who settled in the Americans did not have an exit plan that involved them returning to the Mother Country. For them the choice was to succeed in carving out a new life in the New World or die. Many suffered the latter fate.

If you have the kind of skills that a Mars colony would need, you likely have a comfortable life on Earth. Your skills will be much in demand no matter which planet you happen to live on. So you would likely not have an immediate economic reason to go to Mars, even if you had a good chance of getting rich.

A lot of people who dream about leaving the planet for a new life of adventure among the stars would have to think long and hard when the choice becomes immediately available and not a long off fancy. In that case, a future Mars colony along these lines might have trouble recruiting colonists.

So let’s sweeten the deal. Let’s suppose that by going to Mars you will not only be leaving Earth’s undoubted pleasures, but most of Earth’s hassles.

There will be little if any crime, in the first years at least. People will be far too busy to have time for mischief and the sort of people the colony would recruit would not be inclined to felonies. At the most extreme contingency there might be a crime or two of passion.

The colony would be set up so that a hundred million miles lay between it and the aggravations caused by government. Taxes will be low and simple. Laws and regulations will be few and sensible. Justice will be fair and swift. The colonial school will teach you kids useful things and would avoid the politically correct curricula that too many schools indulge in these days. Government, such as it is, will be close and local, perhaps with many decisions being taken by the colony as a whole at a town meeting. Mars colonists will be able to start businesses without jumping through the number of bureaucratic hoops that seem to be required even in America.

In a way the Mars colony would be as much a laboratory in how to run a society as it is a place for science and commerce.

Now are you interested in going to Mars, forever leaving behind the Earth?

One suspects that under those conditions a lot more people will be interested. Being a Mars colonist would have many appeals, the chance to become prosperous, to have the adventure of many life times, and the chance to be free. The very idea of it makes one wish one was born fifty years later than one was.

Still, the prospect of leaving that opportunity to one’s children or grandchildren puts the idea of having a well funded space program in a whole new perspective.