TY - JOUR
T1 - Visions of a Martian future
AU - Szocik, Konrad
AU - Abood, Steven
AU - Impey, Chris
AU - Shelhamer, Mark
AU - Haqq-Misra, Jacob
AU - Persson, Erik
AU - Oviedo, Lluis
AU - Capova, Klara Anna
AU - Braddock, Martin
AU - Rappaport, Margaret Boone
AU - Corbally, Christopher
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - As we look beyond our terrestrial boundary to a multi-planetary future for humankind, it becomes paramount to anticipate the challenges of various human factors on the most likely scenario for this future: permanent human settlement of Mars. Even if technical hurdles are circumvented to provide adequate resources for basic physiological and psychological needs, Homo sapiens will not survive on an alien planet if a dysfunctional psyche prohibits the utilization of these resources. No matter how far we soar into the stars, our psychologies for future generations will be forever tethered to the totality of our surroundings. By shaping our environment toward survival and welfare during the voyage to Mars and in a Martian colony, we indirectly shape our psyches and prepare them for a mission of unprecedented alienation and duration. Once on Mars, human factors such as leadership structure, social organization and code of conduct, group size, gender balance, developmental cycle, mobility, length of stay and the ecological settings and type and manner of subsistence, will create a novel Martian culture. The degree that settlers are severed from the Earth will affect how radically foreign this culture will be when compared with cultures on Earth.
AB - As we look beyond our terrestrial boundary to a multi-planetary future for humankind, it becomes paramount to anticipate the challenges of various human factors on the most likely scenario for this future: permanent human settlement of Mars. Even if technical hurdles are circumvented to provide adequate resources for basic physiological and psychological needs, Homo sapiens will not survive on an alien planet if a dysfunctional psyche prohibits the utilization of these resources. No matter how far we soar into the stars, our psychologies for future generations will be forever tethered to the totality of our surroundings. By shaping our environment toward survival and welfare during the voyage to Mars and in a Martian colony, we indirectly shape our psyches and prepare them for a mission of unprecedented alienation and duration. Once on Mars, human factors such as leadership structure, social organization and code of conduct, group size, gender balance, developmental cycle, mobility, length of stay and the ecological settings and type and manner of subsistence, will create a novel Martian culture. The degree that settlers are severed from the Earth will affect how radically foreign this culture will be when compared with cultures on Earth.
KW - Future studies
KW - Mars settlement
KW - Mission to Mars
KW - Space ethics
KW - Space philosophy
KW - Space policy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.futures.2020.102514
DO - 10.1016/j.futures.2020.102514
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077917108
SN - 0016-3287
VL - 117
JO - Futures
JF - Futures
M1 - 102514
ER -