As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the growing possibility of a sci-fi future in which humans become a multiplanetary species. Specifically, that we could live on Mars. Biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith have spent four years researching what life on Mars would look like if we did it anytime soon. In their book A City On Mars, they get into all sorts of questions: How would we have babies in space? How would we have enough food? They join host Regina G. Barber and explain why it might be best to stay on Earth. Check out Kelly and Zach Weinersmith's book A City On Mars.Have another space story you want us to cover on a future episode? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you! Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What is the future of humans living on Mars?
Some of you will end up working on projects on Mars, and I guarantee that some of your children will end up living there.
One path is we stay on Earth forever, and then there will be some eventual extinction event. The alternative is to become a space-faring civilization and a multi-planet species.
But I've always wondered, what would a space colony actually look like?
So the vision for a successful space settlement would require that you have essentially families living on the surface of Mars. And that those people are able to have careers that, you know, give them the money that they need to sustain themselves and that they're also able to have children. And those children can successfully grow up and have their own children. That's Kelly Wienersmith.
She's a biologist and science writer. And she and her partner, Zach Wienersmith, spent four years researching space settlement for a book called City on Mars. And in it, they get into everything it would take to do this. They talk about the key real estate.
The Moon, Mars, we're creating an orbital space station, and among those, Mars is overwhelmingly the best option.
How we might do all the nitty-gritty of daily living. Can human adult bodies survive on the surface of Mars? Can we safely have babies on the surface of Mars? How do you govern these communities?
So, like, whenever someone talks about going to Mars on, like, Twitter, they post a gif of a guy walking toward the horizon dramatically. But most of life in the International Space Station is like scrubbing the toilets. and making sure there's not too much mold, and cooking dinner, and that sort of thing, and managing interpersonal relationships.
It's a lot like Earth, and so we need to have the solutions we have on Earth.
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