Skip to main content

Becoming Martian - Scott Solomon ****

Until recently there was a huge geeky talking point based on establishing a colony on Mars. Several billionaires took an interest, notably SpaceX's boss, while there was even the suggestion that a Mars colony could be run as a TV show, like an extraterrestrial Big Brother. The wilder speculation has now died down, but the idea of living on Mars still has a strong niche following. 

In Becoming Martian, Scott Solomon gives us an in-depth and engaging look at the difficulties faced in moving to our nearest semi-inhabitable planet, which are considerable. As Solomon points out, the idea of terraforming Mars, giving it a breathable atmosphere and enough greenhouse gasses to warm it up a bit, is simply impractical - even if such a massive effort could be achieved, the combination of relatively low gravity, limited nitrogen and no magnetic field would mean the new atmosphere would be quickly lost again.

This means that would-be Martians will have to protect themselves permanently from radiation, cold and lack of atmosphere. Oh, and the soil is laced with toxic perchlorates. Despite all this, there are people who are still attracted by the idea of moving permanently to Mars. Solomon takes us through the specific difficulties - for example the social issues that have arisen in groups of people shut in isolated environments that attempt to replicate conditions on a space colony on Earth, and the effects of reduced gravity on human bodies - and the more speculative considerations, such as sex and birth in space and on Mars, or whether over generations martian residents would evolve to be a distinctive species.

One significant omission is saying much about the practicalities of getting there. Solomon points out how long it takes, and has a nice chapter on the history of human space travel, but there is nothing really on how you would get significant numbers to Mars safely. Although he doesn't mention it, there has been a long history of Mars probes failing, and the success of a few rovers doesn't give any clue as to what would be required to get survivable human habitation in place. I appreciate the focus of the book is the physical and psychological impact of the exercise, but surely getting there is an essential part of becoming Martian.

We get a nice mix of anecdotes from visits Solomon does, interviews with astronauts and scientific studies all pulled together in a readable fashion. However, when compared with the Weinersmith's A City on Mars, I think Solomon is too optimistic. This was highlighted by a a comment that Mars's natural resources make it 'the most attractive place we know of in our solar system for human habitation.' Solomon does qualify this in an end note that says '...other than Earth, it must be noted' - but it's a very big 'other than'. Despite this, though, it was an enjoyable picture of the current status of this highly speculative concept.

Hardback:   
Kindle:  
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
These articles will always be free - but if you'd like to support my online work, consider buying a virtual coffee or taking out a membership:
Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beyond Belief - Helen Pearson *****

Apparently it comes as a surprise to many that medicine was not particularly scientific until the end of the twentieth century (to be honest, it's no surprise to me - we had a GP who used homeopathy in the 90s). Instead it was based on anecdotal guidance - the kind of thing that appeared to work. Evidence-based medicine has since improved the field, trying where possible to base decisions on evidence, ideally based on randomised controlled trials. The first part of Helen Pearson's book covers this well - though I think it's by far the least interesting part of what we discover. Instead what's truly fascinating is the rest of it, looking at a wide range of other fields where evidence was rarely properly used and that are only now starting to dip a toe in the water. These include social policy, policing, conservation, business and education. The main part of the book gives us examples of how bad these areas have been in terms of basing decisions on what's always been ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Random Universe - Andrew Jaffe *****

This is an absolutely fascinating book for anyone interested in the way that science really works, bearing in mind the difficulties of having to base our models and theories on induction. Andrew Jaffe introduces the difficulties we face when trying to take a scientific view because largely we are dependent on induction: predicting the future from what has previously been observed. He explores what probability is, the two key ways of looking at it (frequentist and Bayesian) and how scientists use (or misuse it) to work out the implications of their experiments for hypotheses. This is then expanded into looking at the nature of scientific models and the philosophy of science before heading out to entropy, quantum randomness and attempting to achieve meaningful cosmology with its potential dearth of evidence.  The topic might sound a little dry, but in fact Jaffe does it with good humour and a very readable style. For example, he uses measuring his daughter's height by making marks on...
Post a Comment
Read more

The AI Paradox - Virginia Dignum ****

This is a really important book in the way that Virginia Dignum highlights various ways we can misunderstand AI and its abilities using a series of paradoxes. However, I need to say up front that I'm giving it four stars for the ideas: unfortunately the writing is not great. It reads more like a government report than anything vaguely readable - it really should have co-authored with a professional writer to make it accessible. Even so, I'm recommending it: like some government reports it's significant enough to make it necessary to wade through the bureaucrat speak. Why paradoxes? Dignum identifies two ways we can think about paradoxes (oddly I wrote about paradoxes recently , but with three definitions): a logical paradox such as 'this statement is false', or a paradoxical truth such as 'less is more' - the second of which seems a better to fit to the use here.  We are then presented with eight paradoxes, each of which gives some insights into aspects of t...
Post a Comment
Read more