Earth is not doing so well. Thanks to human-induced climate change, oceans are warming and rising, while land in many places is suffocated by drought or inundated by floods. As for us humans, there are wars on multiple continents, far-right movements are on the rise around the world, and as of last month, pumpkin spice-scented “wet wipes” were on sale in the United States.
Meanwhile, the escape hatch to space creaks open. Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is increasing its fleet of cheap, reusable rockets. In October, the booster stage of the giant Starship rocket became wedged between a skyscraper-high tower as it descended to Earth. It was an impressive feat. But Musk’s goal for these vehicles is even bolder: building a self-sustaining 1 million-person city on Mars within the next 30 years.
Has anyone really thought of this? Well, yes, as it happens, it’s not a mask. We are a research team of a wife and husband who are biologists and cartoonists, and whose latest book, Mars city. We set out to write an essential guide to a bright extraterrestrial future. But what we learned has made us space migration skeptics.
The problem is, Mars sucks. When we delve into what life on Mars is actually like in terms of the subtle details of human existence, it becomes difficult to avoid inconvenient conclusions. I mean, moving to Mars to escape Earth is like moving…
