The Cosmic Dark: colonising Mars

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The famous astrophysicist, Carl Sagan said, ‘The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.’

The earth is where we make our stand. An interesting choice of word. That’s fighting talk. Why is it that whenever we talk about human progress we use the language of war and battle?.... Basically because, it is hardwired in the human race to approach anything new with suspicion, antagonism and aggression.

Our history is one of colonisation through violence and force.

In Victorian times, what did we do with our thieves, murderers and rapists? We sent them on prison ships to Australia. Forget the fact that Australia already had its own indigenous population, which was then destroyed by those criminals.

Now, according to Ben, the plan is to colonise Mars. Hold on a minute. Do humans have the right to leave muddy bootprints on pristine planets, potentially stamping out future civilisations before they arise? Almost the entire indigenous population of the Antilles was killed by an epidemic resembling influenza that broke out in 1493, after the arrival of Christopher Columbus. If we did eventually colonise Mars we wouldn’t travel alone, we would carry with us our earthly microbes, trillions of them. Our presence on Mars could jeopardise our mission for being there, the search for life. We might kill any indigenous life before we even get a chance to say hello.

Really, haven’t we done enough damage to our own planet already? Ethically, what gives us the right to trash our own home and then transfer our problems elsewhere.

Only 18% of American adults believe that colonising Mars should be a priority. The majority, nearly 80%, believe the priority should be fixing problems on earth. The Trillions of dollars needed to colonise Mars could better be spent investing in renewable forms of energy, to address climate change or strengthening our planetary defences against asteroid collisions.

In the event of an apocalyptic scenario, it is possible that the conditions on earth, however, horrific, may still be more hospitable than the Martian wasteland. Let’s not forget that Mars has next to no atmosphere, only one third gravity and is exposed to surface radiation approximately 100 times greater than on earth.

The idea of colonising Mars or other planets or moons is misleading. It yields an impression in many people's mind that an alternative exists to Earth, a unique (so far) haven of life in the Solar system, currently suffering from global warming, rising oceans, extreme weather events, mass extinction of species and growing risk of nuclear wars. Let’s fix the earth first. Rather than dreaming of a second home, let’s prioritise the one we have now.

Unfortunately, those who dream of a different home for our species are mostly engineers and entrepreneurs who stand to gain from these schemes. Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. Colonisation in the past has been driven by commerce and this is no different. Companies are attracted by the financial gains and mining potential with little concern for the ethics involved. The question is not whether we can colonise Mars but whether we should. I’ll leave you to ponder that important question.