A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

The Weinersmiths — Kelly, a biologist, and Zach, a cartoonist — spent years researching the science, biology, reproduction, ecologty, law, geopolitics, sociology and economics of space settlement, only to find themselves deeply sceptical of the enterprise.

From the physiological effects of long-duration spaceflight, the lack of reproductive biology research in space, the legal vacuum that governs off-Earth territory, covering existing treaties on Earth and analysing self-determination, territorial integrity and the geopolitical issues that permanent settlements would have to overcome.

For all the “Mars settlement” aficionados, this is bucket of very cold water, displaying all the lack of knowledge and concerns that need to be addressed before such endeavour takes place, to the point that midway through the book a suggestion is made to focus instead on a Moon colony, and in the end they provide a really interesting plan on where they would allocate the current research and financial investment/spending.

Quite interestingly, a few days ago Elon Musk shifted SpaceX’s goal from its Mars base to the Moon, which ties in with prognosis of this book.

Funny, meticulously researched, and a necessary counterweight to Silicon Valley’s space romanticism.

Winner of the Royal Society Trivedi, Science Book Prize 2024.