Book Reviewed: A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith

The race to build human civilization on Mars What is the likelihood of building a lasting human civilization on Mars? The questions are limitless, and the resolutions are extremely limited. The authors have chosen a humorous way to explain the challenges to space exploration. What else they can do? Find some sort of humor in describing the ambitious plans of the entrepreneurs when risks far outweigh the benefits. Elon Musk said that humans will land on Mars in 2029, and a million-person city is possible by twenty or thirty years later. Is he for real? The science, technology, the legal and judiciary, geopolitics, and sociology issues may require long and careful research. The space settlements should be a project of centuries, and not decades. We should wait for big developments in science, technology, and international law rather than move settlers in two or three decades as Elon Musk likes to think. There is a good likelihood that science may not assure us the long-term existential risk doesn’t occur. Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawking observed that going to a planet like Mars will help humanity overall, but it will create more problems which we never confronted. The move into space creates at least two forms of existential peril: the risk of nuclear conflict on Earth, and the risk of human-made heavy objects falling on Earth, and not to mention tremendous amount of human made trash in space. What rights do humans have to trash the interplanetary space? in 2015, the United States passed a law specifically codifying the idea that Americans can exploit space resources without limit which includes mining asteroids, the moon, and other planetary systems in solar system. Mining the Moon for natural resources like Helium-3 and rare metals adds significant value for many countries, but the US laws are unilateral and harm long term relationships with other nations. This book is divided into several sections; about how space travel and living outside this planet negatively impacts human bodies and minds. How do we place humans on Mars, Moon, or another solar satellite where surface conditions are too different? Plans to prevent humans do not perish all at the same time. How does the judicial and legals system change to protect the rights of everyone involved? The final section discusses sociology and population behavior. The authors did not treat the matter of space travel and space colonies responsibly.