penguin random house
First, TLDR for Mars city. It’s basically 400 pages of “Well, actually…” but without being condescending, it has quite a bit of humor and an awful lot of detail. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith started out as space travel enthusiasts. They wanted to write a light cheer book about how wonderful everything would be on Mars, the moon, or a space station. Unfortunately for the Weiner-Smith family, they actually asked questions like, “How exactly does that work?” Aside from rocket technology (reaching space, etc.), most of the answers were optimistic hand gestures combined with the kind of new Manifest Destiny ideology that might have given Andrew Jackson pause.
The Weiner-Smiths begin with human biology and psychology, move through technology, law, and population viability, and end with a call to action of sorts. In each of these sections, the Weinersmiths ask questions such as: “Can we thrive in space?” Recreate in space? Create a habitat in space? A tour of all that is actually unknown is mind-blowing. No one has ever gotten pregnant in low gravity, and no fetus has developed in low gravity, so we don’t know if there is a problem. Astronauts experience bone and muscle loss, but no one knows what will happen in the long term. Most importantly, do we really want to send thousands of people to Mars to figure this out and hope everything goes well?
Then there’s the problem of building homes and recycling everything. I was shocked to learn that no one actually knows how to build long-term habitable habitats on either the Moon or Mars. Yes, there are many homemade ideas for lava tubes and regolith shields. But details…not yet. It reminds us of Europe’s dark days of establishing colonies on other people’s land. The story of how unprepared the colonists were is both sad and hilarious. repetitive. And now we know they’re planning at least one more sequel.
Even space law is under Weinersmith’s microscope. Admittedly, I didn’t know about the scope of space law. But it does exist, and it says a lot about what can and cannot be done in the universe. The Weinersmiths found that most space colonization enthusiasts somehow seemed to think these laws didn’t apply to them, or that there were loopholes they could exploit. What’s worse, they seem to think that such abuse will have no consequences. Apparently, nuclear-weapon states would not react negatively to civilians claiming vast amounts of space.
Weinersmith treats all professionals fairly well. But frankly, if you read between the lines, you’ll see that there is a strong vein of libertarianism running through the space settlement community. From the standpoint of these experts, you need a very large telescope to see reality. For example, perhaps the universe will end in scarcity…but since any habitat in the universe will naturally have only one source of food, water, and even more urgently, oxygen (perhaps artificial) scarcity occurs. The idea seems to be that everyone, except for the necessities of life, will go to space to benefit, where we will all care and share. Magical thinking becomes even more apparent when you realize that humans are supposed to be great capitalists and hyper-altruistic once they encounter the vastness of the universe. It is questionable whether this philosophy will work well for everyone involved.
For a more realistic view of how society functions when there is only one vital source of life, the Weinersmiths draw on their experiences in company cities (both positive and negative). Masu. It’s not all bad. Some company cities were very well run and fair, while others may have been dedicated as shrines to tin dictatorships. The Weinersmiths argue there’s no reason to think the same thing won’t happen in space, with the added benefit of not being able to escape the corporate world.
Even the idea that other resources like ore will not be in short supply is too optimistic. No one knows whether mining asteroids will be profitable. There is absolutely nothing of value on the moon. And do you really want to create a group of hungry, disgruntled miners who can throw very large stones into the earth?
Mars city It ends with a call to action of sorts. The point is that we have a small space station and could potentially build many experimental facilities on Earth where we can investigate some of the practical problems. Let’s get the biology and engineering right before sending people to Mars. While the technology is being developed, make sure the laws are clear so that if (or when) we settle elsewhere, we do so in a way that doesn’t start a war between angry nuclear-armed states. do.
That’s what I think Mars city Researchers claim the only clear evidence of how space affects humans is weighted very strongly against to go. This balance could be changed by working to find answers to some of the questions raised in this book. But pushing a bunch of people out of the proverbial depths to get those answers seems ethically questionable. So, can I do the work in advance?
