When I learnt that the creator of SMBC and his wife had written a book about space, filled with his sketches, I had to read it! Written by Kelly and Zack Weinersmith, A City on Mars examines the feasibility of settling space in our lifetime. Whether to build a space station or settling on Moon or Mars, they look at all aspects including rocket technology, air, water, food, housing, social, legal and psychological issues.
The book starts off with the premise that actually enabling people to live in space is a project of centuries and not decades. It is unlikely that the science, technology and law required to enable settling space will happen in the next few decades.
The typical reasons provided for space settlement are as a backup if Earth if affected by a natural calamity or by climate change, to save Earth by moving people elsewhere or to inspire people to end war and bring peace. With no atmosphere on Moon and Mars, humans need to be able to generate and maintain breathable air, have sources of water and be able to grow food and live inside a biosphere. Without the protection of Earth’s magnetosphere, radiation from the Sun is everywhere in space and is deadly to humans and technology. Finally, without the pressure and gravity experienced on Earth, we can undergo muscle and bone loss and organ problems.
Settling space also requires the capability to reproduce. There is very little we know about how to have sex, manage pregnancy, handle childbirth and feed and bring up a baby in the enclosed microgravity of space. The experience of the few astronauts is not enough to be confident about human psychology and madness when living for years cut off from Earth.
Among the destination candidates, Moon is just a day trip away from Earth and launching further from there is easier due to low gravity. However, it has no resources to sustain life, is covered in regolith and the only reasonable way to setup a living space there might be in its lava caves (reminds me of one of Arthur C Clarke’s books). Mars has the same problems as the Moon, plus it requires a 6-month journey and ideal launch windows can be 2-3 years apart. Other alternatives such as rotating space stations are difficult to create at scale and all other planets and moons are incredibly inhospitable.
The final third of the book looks at the geopolitics and legal implications of settling space. The Outer Space Treaty (OST) which prohibits individuals, corporations or nations from claiming land in space seems to be the currently preeminent law. The Antarctic Treaty system to divvy up Antarctica and examples of territorial integrity and self determination (Quebec, Bangladesh, Northern Cyprus, Kosovo) are also used to aid the discussion.
The book has a breezy conversational tone and the pages are filled with Zack’s signature funny sketches that aid in visualizing and understanding all the concepts. The authors have done a ton of research for the book, as evidenced by the detailed references at the end. The final third of the book felt too long and not well organized to me. The book is filled with funny anecdotes from space history and geopolitics. This was a good read and it (sadly) convinced me that space settlement is extremely hard and there is a low probability of it happening in my lifetime.
Rating: 3/5