This is not a technical or engineering book on how to get to Mars. It is definitely not science fiction. These are covered, but this is mostly a book on psychology in coping with a brand new situation. I do believe that this book covers all bases on this subject.
In 2011, a tycoon from Holland announced the Mars One project, where people and equipment would be launched to Mars in groups of four, land, set up a colony, and literally spend the rest of their lives there. Every two years, four more people would be added, leading to a settlement, and eventually, a town, a city, and then a civilization. This isn’t mentioned here, but I assume that that is the case.
Mars has thin air, made mostly of carbon dioxide, gravity that is 38 percents that of Earths, and extremely cold temperatures. Ranging from 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator during the day down to 200 degrees below zero at night, at least in the northern and southern extreme regions. No human could presently survive there without a spacesuit and an advanced life support system, at least for the present.
I’m going to make another assumption here. As more people come to settle on the red planet, they will have their own food supply and use the Martian resources to expand their habitats. Eventually, they will try to terraform the planet. That is, making Mars comparable to Earth like conditions where one can walk around the planet without any spacesuit or other forms of life support. This may take two centuries or more, but I think that is the final goal. This is not mentioned in the book, but I think that is a given.
What is mentioned, and what the book is focused on is the psychology of humans, how they would react one to the remote of being on a new and empty world, and how they would get along with the other settlers.
People from all over the world have applied to be one of the settlers, and they have to go through a 10 year process. How will anyone respond to someone from another culture where mannerisms are different? How will one get along with another? What of personality clashes? Can one cooperate with another? Culture norms vary worldwide, and many of these, no matter how trivial they seem, are explained. For example, in the Orient, when someone offers you a gift, it is customary to refuse it twice before accepting it, to insure the taker that the giver really does want to give it.
In reacting to the environment, will one get homesick? Will one pine for Earth, its cities, and what it always provided for them? What about family and friends? Being in remote part of the world here on Earth can be depressing, and I myself have been to places like the Arctic in remote villages.
As for the environment, one will have to know how to fix a certain system of life support, such as air purifiers or water processes, without any new parts arriving from Earth? One has to fix machines with what is available there on Mars, and one cannot afford to wait two years for new supplies.
This is the tip of the iceberg, but the authors have just about everything covered. They’ve done their homework, and everything is taken into consideration.
Candidates have been interviewed, and some of the questions they answered are featured in this book. Requirements are also listed both in education and how they can handle stressful situations in life.
Little known facts are featured. One surprising revelation is the story where NASA spent one million dollars for a pen able to function in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil. This may make NASA look like fools, but what isn’t mentioned is that mechanical pencils were used by NASA, but when lead, and pencil shavings float around the capsule, they could cause extensive damage to computers in the ship, possibly even leading to a fire, such as what happened in Apollo 1.
The last section of the book covers how life can be lived on Mars, not only doing the required work, but unleashing creativity once everyone is settled and has more time. New forms of art will definitely be created, and settlers will be creative with Mars’ resources; i.e. the red rocks themselves.
This book has been well researched, and different authors in their fields have contributed one chapter at a time, so you will see many different viewpoints on this subject.
