Living and Working on Mars: What Will it Be Like?

Future Mars and Martians

I’m working on a project that requires me to think hard (and write about) what future colonies and research stations on Mars might be like. There’s no question that people will be heading to the Red Planet within the next decade or so. Humans have been fascinated with the place for millennia. but the details of the first missions are still pretty much in discussion. I’m not too concerned with those, although I do hope they happen soon. I’d love to see what happens to humanity when the first people set foot on Mars. It isn’t going to be a quick jaunt (as I wrote in my now-famous and still-popular fulldome show MarsQuest).

What I’m more interested in now is the second generation or even the third generation of Mars settlers. What will they be like? Will they be moms and dads with kids? Where will they live? What populations from Earth will they represent?  What will their cities be like? Will they have money? Universities? Companies? Pets? What will Martian children be like? There are so many unknowns, which is understandable since we’re talking about the future here.

Living on Mars

The technical aspects are actually pretty straightforward. Figuring out where to live will be guided by conditions on the Red Planet. The UV radiation alone will force people to live underground or in well-shielded structures. Where do the materials come from for those structures? Will the first Martian cities rise above the surface, or extend below it?

I also wonder what the Martian Gross National Product will be? At first, it will simply be knowledge. After a while, though, there will have to be some other trade relations with Earth, as Mars becomes self-sufficient. I suspect that the planet and its inhabitants will have to learn to stand on their own very quickly since help is months away (at the fastest). The people will need to be resilient in the face of a non-Earth-like habitat. Their children will be unlike any humans born before them — and, I suspect that successive generations of Martians will have different DNA from the rest of us.

It’s an interesting thought experiment, trying to imagine what the Martians 50 years or 100 years from now will be like. I suspect the whole scenario will play out similar to some science fiction books (such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series), but with distinctly different outcomes based on whatever and whoever it is we are at the time those missions are set up.  Someday, however, I’d like to think that Martian parents will take the kids out for some stargazing, and maybe see Old Earth from the observatory. What stories will they tell the kids?

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