Having a lot of DM and side bar nerd fights about people living on Mars. So, consolidating in this thread to save time and energies bickering with the Sheldons and Koothrappalis of The Space Economy.
1. With the US debt ceiling reaching almost to Olympus Mons, who is going to pay for it? And no, the Welfare King of Space doesn't actually have the money, as he gets his real funding from taxpayers.
2. Who wants to live in a submarine for 5 years straight, without ever going outside of it? Now think about that and add a personal spacesuit for about 3.5 of those 5 years. Unless of course its a one way trip, in which case yes. Humans can physically tolerate living, peeing and pooping in Space diapers for 3 years straight. But mentally.... We couldn't even make it through a boring ole earth side, 1 gravity, pandemic.
3. I feel like I'm going to have to write a Biggie Smalls, 10 Crack Commandments of Space cause rule three is where its at "Number 3, never trust no-bo-dy". Anyone selling you permanent human residence on Mars is a) a colonizer who probably leans towards an Originalist interpretation of the Constitution and still feels that you shouldn't be included in the "We the people" part of pre-amble b) Is gassing you up to pay for "colonizing" the moon cause by comparison its cheaper and c) if we could terraform Mars, why wouldn't we mitigate, repair and then alleviate the Human behaviors and habits that caused Global Warming right here on good ole Mother Earth first? Afterall, why flee paradise to go turn another planet into a celestial garbage patch?
Yes, there are a variety of other reasons why Humans will only have 50 or so Homo Sapiens on Mars (25 Chinese-Russia and allied soldiers and 25 American-European soldiers) and we can continue to go back and forth about them ad nauseum. But as I wrap up this nerd debate keep in mind this, if we colonize Mars, someone will have to kill the masters. And so in order to truly have permanent Human settlement of the Moon, Mars and beyond, Humans gotta do this little thing by overcoming a uniquely human invention, that has guided our every political, social and economic decision for the last 500 years.
Racism.
And thats the real reason we'll never have more than 50 Humans on Mars. As to come to consensus on who should go...well. That algorithm would require the best of us to understand that chickens do come home to roost and as a Nation and species we cannot gain access to the heavens without a moment of truth and reconciliation right here on the ground.
#TheSpaceEconomy #Mars #RaceInSpace
Samson Williams,
Anthropologist in Residence
official@milkywayeconomy.com