Should Humans Colonise Mars?

Anyone is free to travel anywhere, as long as they don't trespass on another's property rights, but this principle does not mean that the undertaking the journey is wise and worth the resources used in it, or indeed, whether the undertaking is a good use of time.  These considerations are especially significant if the journey is very expensive and/or if it is dangerous to life. If the latter consideration is the case, we must ask whether the risk is worthwhile.

Now, space travel inherently dangerous because it involves humans operating in the most hostile of environments, using technology sometimes, nay oft-times, at its limit and working in an  environment for which humans have not evolved to cope, for we evolved to dwell in the protective ambience of a wonderful planet, Earth.

So is leaving Earth wise? Well, we send sophisticated robots to the planets, and there is no harm in this, and we have visited the moon, though, let's consider this cautionary, no one seems urgent to return, there being no pressing economic and/or political or social need to send a manned crew there. But is there need to send crewed ships deep into space? It seems ironic that while  society is busy replacing workers with robots we are considering sending a human-crewed craft into an area where robots have already done a good job.

So what is the purpose of space travel? Science for science's sake?  A good idea, but does it justify massive resources that could be used more beneficially elsewhere, and how much risk to human life can be justified in the cause of science? Science should benefit all humans, and so the gains from scientific progress must be weighed against losses to humans. The advance of science should not unnecessarily risk human life.  Undertaking space flight is a great adventure, but humankind's great adventures of exploration always had a serious purpose. The adventure was a side effect of  a journey of scientific discovery or economic enterprise. 

There must therefore be an economic and/or social purpose for space travel commensurate with the risks and sacrifices that it involves. Finding a new home for humankind is not such a purpose, as only a tiny minority of humans could inhabit Mars, which is the only vaguely inhabitable planet other than Earth. Earth is our home and  it is up to us to make the most of it, not ruin it then find somewhere else to ruin. 

It has been said that throughout history humans have foregone home and loved ones to seek a new life elsewhere. They were driven by problems  at home which they hoped to escape and by a hope or dream of  a richer, more prosperous, safer life in the New World, so why cannot modern humans be thus driven to seek a new life on a new planet? Surely the progress of science is leading us in the direction of becoming a multi-planet species. However, readers, when your ancestors left for America and mine gave up on life in the West of Ireland to come to work in Britain they knew that they were going somewhere with a breathable atmosphere. Mars colonists will be going to a place with a thin atmosphere that is mainly carbon dioxide that, unless the process of terraforming Mars is achieved rather quicker than humans can reasonably expect it to, will see them confined in plastic bubbles for the rest of their lives. Hardly attractive is it?

And that's without other environmental difficulties. There is the radiation reaching  the surface of a planet whose atmosphere is too thin to provide protection. Can we guarantee protection against it will always work perfectly?  Can colonists ensure that terraforming the planet to make it another Earth is feasible or whether it is an idle dream? Can colonists ensure that they can get enough water to drink, let alone for washing and food production? Industry too requires water.

Moreover can we ensure that medical facilities in a city of up to a million will match what is available on Earth? What method of financing medicine will operate? Which insurer  will look at it? Now, here is a vital issue. A colony needs to be self-sufficient in children. Is a set of insulated dwellings in a desert with almost no atmosphere a good place to bring up a child? I would not want my children growing up there. The discussion of the proposed colony seems to lack the input of women, but this input is badly needed. 

Much of what makes life pleasant relies on the benisons of Earth: walking in the outdoors, swimming in the sea, enjoying flowers and wildlife. Adults can freely choose to forgo these joys for what would be a semi-ascetic existence, but could we inflict such deprivation on children? Would the children of the colonists thank them for doing so. I seriously doubt it.

True, supplies might be sent from Earth, but supply rockets might explode on take off, destroying their cargo with them, and the political system on Earth might prevent re-supplying flights. Earth cannot guarantee the colony's survival.

Colonising Mars looks as if it is a project fraught with difficulties that make a possible colony of dubious sustainability.

Humans are born to dream; and in our dreams we look upward. Note that in our religious imagery heaven is up above; hell is down below. Thus religions use  our dreams to illustrate their promises. But the term the heavens is used to denote the starry sky. When thinking of a Martian colony are people subconsciously projecting an idea of  heaven "up there?" But the plan to terraform Mars to make it habitable for humans risks making it uninhabitable for any Martian life, microbial or whatever, that still survives what seems to have been a great extinction. Ironic indeed that our search for alien life destroys it. We dream of heaven, but create hell.

There is a Jewish proverb, " Be careful what you wish for, you might get it," A dream of a great adventure living in the Mars colony could turn into a long durance, trapped on a distant world out of close contact with family and friends, maybe with inadequate resources. There is the possibility that the colonists might not be on good terms with each other. A new life in the heavens may not be  a happy one.

I  cannot be certain  of any of my reservations about  the Mars colony proposed by Elon Musk, but I do  think that  we should view the project skeptically and be aware of the possibilities that it will go wrong. My personal view is that resources would be better spent putting Earth right. If we cannot solve our problems on Earth, we will merely export them elsewhere. 

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