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Summary of A City on Mars

A

Summary of Kelly Weinersmith’s book

 

Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

 

 

 

GP SUMMARY

 

Summary of A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

All rights reserved.

Author: GP SUMMARY

Contact: GP.SUMMARY@gmail.com

Cover, illustration: GP SUMMARY

Editing, proofreading: GP SUMMARY

Other collaborators: GP SUMMARY

NOTE TO READERS

 

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Kelly Weinersmith’s “A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?” designed to enrich your reading experience.

 

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The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

 

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This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. You agree to accept all risks of using the information presented inside this book.

 

Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Space settlement presents a promising opportunity to explore new worlds, but the public discourse is full of myths and misunderstandings. SpaceX's internet service provider, Starlink, has declared that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Mars is regulated by long-standing treaties and is an international commons, and leaving a 2°C warmer Earth for Mars would be like leaving a messy room with toxic dust.

Sitting other worlds is unlikely anytime soon and won't deliver on the benefits touted by advocates. Space agencies, corporations, and media-savvy billionaires are promising settlements as soon as 2050, which will save Earth's biosphere, enable a creative frontier civilization, or provide economic advantages for the United States, China, India, or others. However, most problems, especially those pertaining to biology and economics, are more complex than making bigger rockets or cheaper spacecraft.

International legal structures governing space have barely been updated since the 1970s, and the modern world of fast-growing space capitalism and launch capability creates the makings of a new Moon Race. This race will likely involve attempts to gain priority access to the highly limited best portions of the Moon, increasing the risk of conflict and potential danger.

Space settlements are a potential solution for humanity if we survive the next few centuries, but the choices we make now will shape our future in ways we cannot yet imagine. To make these choices properly, people must know the truth about space settlement, including questions about medicine, reproduction, law, ecology, economics, sociology, and warfare.

Dr. Daniel Deudney's book, Space Bastardry: The Long View, presents an argument against a massive human presence in space, arguing that it creates existential peril such as nuclear conflict on Earth due to a scramble for space territory and the risk of heavy objects being thrown at Earth if humans are allowed to control things like asteroids and massive orbital space stations. The more capacity we have to do things in space, the more capacity we have for self-annihilation, which doesn't require anything like interplanetary war either.

Space settlement has been a long-standing idea since the Victorian era, with various theories suggesting that space will lessen the chance of war, improve politics, end scarcity, save us from climate change, reinvigorate a homogenized and rapidly wussifying Earth, and make us all as wise as philosophers. However, these ideas are almost certainly wrong, and they remain widespread and influential among powerful technologists in the space-settlement movement and in space agencies.

Space settlement is not a solution to scarcity, environmental concerns, or wisdom. Technological and scientific barriers are significant, and legal structures may cause conflicts. International competition and geopolitical escalation may also hinder long-term ambitions. Space settlement plans should be a project of centuries, with a "wait-and-go-big" approach, involving research and development in various fields, including artificial wombs and international law.

The debate on the role of space in promoting global cooperation and understanding is complex and multifaceted. While space travel may provide insights into human oneness and the environment, it is not a definitive solution to global conflicts. The concept of stagnation in the world's exploration and development has been a topic of debate for decades. Space cooperation does not unify us, as it often occurs when nations already get along.

Going to space is a meaningful and transcendent experience, but it also presents challenges. The overview effect is less likely to occur in space, and there are many stories of astronauts behaving poorly. The idea that creating nations in space will revitalize Earth's homogenized bureaucratic culture is a subject of debate among sociologists.

The Turner Thesis, or Frontier Thesis, claims that the United States became dynamic, democratic, and ruggedly individualistic due to a long-standing frontier culture. However, this theory is now rejected as a misleading oversimplification. Space is expensive, will have internet, and lacks a local population to exploit and murder. A more generalized version of this frontier argument suggests that the harsh world of space and the need for robotics will result in a vast increase in creativity.

The authors argue that the two most commonly used terms to indicate a place in space humans intend to live permanently are "colony" and "settlement," and suggest alternatives such as "communities beyond Earth," "space outposts," "space cities," and "space villages."

PART I

The average astronaut combines deep specialist skills with the ability to pass physical and mental tests that most people would pass in a few days. Early spacefarers were ultraskilled test pilots, but their resumes remained intimidating. The lack of knowledge about space medicine for average people in large space settlements is concerning. The Apollo missions spent just under two weeks in the Moon's one-sixth Earth gravity, and nobody has been to space for longer than 437 days in a row. To address this, it is essential to understand what is known and what isn't. Some problems may be easily surmounted with near-term technology or money, while others may pose long-term barriers to permanent space settlement.

Suffocation, Bone Loss, and Flying Pigs: The Science of Space Physiology

The Prehuman Space Age

Humans are essentially a pillar of liquid with various biological systems, including digestion, waste storage, and blood movement. The first voyager to orbit Earth was Yuri Gagarin in 1961, but the first animals to orbit Earth were not the first. The US and USSR studied the effects of space on nonhuman life for over a decade before Gagarin went up. Space animals like Laika, Belka, and Strelka were the first dogs to orbit and safely return to Earth.

Long-term space medicine began after the Soviet Union inaugurated the era of space stations with Salyut-1 in 1971. Since then, voyages generally get longer, with the peak 437 consecutive days reached by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov during his 1994-1995 stint aboard Mir. Only a handful of astronauts have gone for more than six months at a time.

The good news from space is that it doesn't kill you immediately, as long as the equipment is working. When astronauts die, it's always due to a problem with the vehicle, not the slow, detrimental effects of the space environment. However, there are intermediate points between alive and dead, and learning them gives us the best available look into the likely health problems of space settlers.

In the vacuum of space, your body is adapted to the pressure near Earth's surface, counterbalanced by the typical push of your surroundings. This allows you to avoid sudden pressure changes and maintain a healthy balance in space.

The body is made up of nitrogen gas, which can cause decompression sickness, or "the bends," when exposed to high pressure in outer space. This can lead to the blockage of blood, oxygen, and nutrients, causing discomfort and even death. The only people who have ever died in space were killed by sudden loss of pressure in 1971.

Space suits are designed to provide a sealed habitat, but they don't provide enough oxygen to prevent decompression sickness. Spacesuits are designed to operate in a low-pressure, pure oxygen environment, which can be dangerous. In 1967, during preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, a spark went off in the crew's capsule, causing an intense fire in the pure oxygen environment. Valentin Bondarenko, a cosmonaut, died of shock soon after in a pressurized chamber.

The lack of air in space is well-known, and the risk increases as human presence in space increases. Orbital velocity is about 8 kilometers per second, and objects moving at high speeds relative to each other can cause problems. This is especially true when nations destroy satellites, sending debris in every direction.

Open space-settlement concepts face social and political consequences due to the presence of death in space. Some spacesettlement theorists argue that artificial atmospherics create the potential for autocratic control of the stuff of existence. Dr. Charles Cockell suggests "engineering for liberty," such as ensuring oxygen-creation systems are distributed rather than centralized. However, the politics of space settlements will likely be influenced by the physics of space settlements, not necessarily for the good.

Radiation in space poses a significant threat to human health and quality of life. It is not only unnatural but also a source of radiation from the sun, ground, and food. The "banana equivalent dose" is a common metric for radiation exposure, as bananas contain potassium-40, a radioactive isotope. The human body evolved with certain types of radiation at ranges found on Earth, but in space, unless there is sufficient shielding, higher doses of radiation are received.

The Sun, a radiant ball of plasma, blasts out hot ions in every direction, but it doesn't cause instant death. However, it can undergo a "solar flare" or a "solar particle event," causing acute radiation sickness. Space settlements need to redistribute mass available as radiation shields, and a dedicated radiation blocker is expensive to send to the Moon.

The whole universe also wants you dead, with stars exploding frequently enough that space is a crossfire of the results. Very fast, charged particles are everywhere, with most being low mass. These particles are dangerous, and in one experiment, iron nuclei with high energy were fired into a gel-like substance to simulate what space might do to the human body.

Exposure to "galactic cosmic radiation" is a constant part of life in space, with astronauts sometimes reporting "flashes of light" that only they can see. Current estimates suggest that every cell nucleus in the human body will be struck by a proton every few days and a larger charged particle every few months.

Radiation can disrupt our technology and cause problems in space stations. In 1859, the Carrington Event caused telegraph lines to stop working and sparks to appear, causing disruptions throughout the day. This event has not occurred since 2012, but in 2012, an event of similar power missed Earth by a small amount.

Radiation also causes problems on the International Space Station (ISS) when crew members hear a blaring klaxon and find an ammonia leak. Ammonia is toxic for humans and hard to remove, and if enough leaked in, it could render the station uninhabitable. The protocol for sealing off the American segment was incorrect, as the Russian coolant system uses glycol instead of ammonia.

Radiation has also caused problems farther out, such as when the Sun fired off a massive blast of radiation while the Mars Odyssey Orbiter circled the Red Planet in 2003. One of the sensors designed to detect radiation was permanently destroyed, causing the data to "choke" on the data.

Spallation, or the generation of secondary and biologically dangerous particles, can occur even with thick shielding. This is particularly illustrative of how complex designing for space is once you get into the details.

The best available data on space radiation is from lab animals, people who have worked with radioactive materials, and times when something horrific happened, such as the Chernobyl disaster or the United States dropping atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lab animal studies are also imperfect because their application to humans is not one-to-one, and it's hard to generate space-like radiation in a lab setting.

Although astronauts have spent fifty years on space stations, they are exposed to space radiation at doses that are two to three times less than what they would get out in deep space. The only direct source on the physiological effects of beyond-the-magnetosphere radiation comes from Apollo missions that went to the Moon and back.

The link between space radiation and human cancer is not perfectly understood, but it is reasonable to assume that it can. NASA has rules for radiation dose levels, but death is not equal opportunity, and ovarian and breast tissue are especially susceptible to radiation damage. Space advocates call for a no-girls-allowed rule for long-term Mars missions, which might put a damper on plans for population growth in a future settlement.

Microgravity is a special problem in space, as astronauts are perpetually falling toward Earth, causing predictable physiological problems. Most proposals for space settlement call for extended life in microgravity, but there is almost no medical data about life in partial-Earth gravity. The best we have is the twelve men who collectively spent less than a month on the lunar surface. If there are serious negative effects of life in partial-Earth gravity, they

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 09.11.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-6045-9

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Widmung:
A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith explores the possibility of settling stars in the future, highlighting the need for knowledge to create space nations without causing conflict. The book covers topics like space settlements, corporations, and cannibalism.