“Scientists are on the verge of figuring out how to put humans in a state of suspended animation. It could be the key to colonizing Mars.”
Mars
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story, Technology
We’re Not Ready for Mars
Elon Musk can’t wait to send humans to the Moon and Mars. But before we land ourselves on other worlds, we need to remember how we’ve treated our own.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Welcome to Mars, Sorry About the Face-Melting!
The Red Planet presents scientists with kinks they’ll need to figure out before you can book a shuttle.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Everything About Mars Is the Worst
It may be the worst, but this jerk planet is still humanity’s best hope for another home in the cosmos.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Year and a Day in a Mars Simulator: Reflections at the Halfway Mark
Sheyna Gifford, mission physician for NASA’s sMars simulation, reflects on her year-and-a-day “off-planet,” six months in.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Researching Our Martian Heritage
In Nautilus, Tim Folger writes about how scientist are still debating whether organic and inorganic materials found on Martian meteorite ALH84001 contain evidence that life existed on Mars before it existed on Earth. If it did, then life could have spread to Earth from meteorites, which could make human beings ─ and other Earthly life ─ […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Would Happen If We Lived on Mars
Cabin fever might set in quickly on Mars, and it might be contagious. Quarters would be tight. Governments would be fragile. Reinforcements would be seven months away. Colonies might descend into civil war, anarchy or even cannibalism, given the potential for scarcity. US colonies from Roanoke to Jamestown suffered similar social breakdowns, in environments that were Edenic by comparison. Some individuals might be able to endure these conditions for decades, or longer, but Musk told me he would need a million people to form a sustainable, genetically diverse civilisation.
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Musk makes no secret of the end goal: Create a new civilization on Mars. Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in September, he outlined the business plan—if that’s the right term for something that looks decades into the future. “If you can reduce the cost of moving to Mars to around the […]