Initially, housing on Mars is going to be quite limited. The plan is to use Robotic AI to craft buildings for us, likely with the use of specialized 3D Printers. Yet even with this stuff, housing is going to be restricted to some small buildings. This means you might see something that is big enough for 1 to 4 people, acting as a home for you alone. This will likely result in several pod-like homes being in the same spot. Life on Mars will hopefully become easier and result in more people coming to the red planet. That would result in other homes being formed.
[Image via Joe Burgett/Stable Diffusion]All of these homes will be made in the same spot at first. Mostly because we want to ensure everyone is taken care of and accounted for. As the population begins to expand on Mars, we will see people placed in other locations. Of course, the amount of time this takes to happen will be based entirely on the supplies we have. Plus, the success of survival for current settlers. The amount coming over will only increase as time goes on. Meaning, we cannot place small homes next to each other for long. We will be better off expanding out to cover more land on the planet.
As more people come to the planet, expansion will begin and that means we will have multiple Martian communities. Of course, a leader will be established among the original settlers but this will not last forever. Either because the original leader decides to go back to Earth or he or she passes away. This means we will likely have a democratic voting process (considering its popularity on Earth). That person will become the head of the initial community. However, more communities mean more leaders will be needed as one person cannot run things for an entire planet alone. From here, more people will be given political power for their specific community.
[Image via Joe Burgett/Stable Diffusion]Think of it like a Mayoral or Gubernatorial role where that person makes the decisions for their community. Of course, some communities might be broken up based on the jobs they hold. For example, the original settlers will have various roles key to what is needed for scientific experimentation. As time goes on, more people with more skills will be around. We also cannot forget those that might be brought over to specifically work for private space programs. Thus, we might have a community for just scientists and another that is responsible for plants and crops, for instance. Thus, just like on Earth, the leadership of a community will be crucial.
When we discuss colonies, we have to think of it similar to how you might think about entire countries. Sure, communities will be run a lot like a city or town you see on Earth. However, entire colonies will take up a lot of space and by this point, they will have their own food and water system. Colonies will have their own communities as well and could involve thousands of people. If we make it to colony level, we know life on Mars is flourishing. Mostly because, in order to reach this, we will have figured out not only how to survive here. We will have found a way for life on Mars to be easy and comfortable, the same as on Earth.
[Image via Joe Burgett/Stable Diffusion]Does this mean we will have a similar capitalistic system where money will be used in exchange for goods and services? While possible, it is more likely that trades will be made instead. It might also come down to a need to offer some type of service in place of another. One colony may have a great way of purifying water and adding different tastes to it. While the other has been able to artificially alter the taste of crops to taste exactly like meat products from Earth. This exchange of services and goods will benefit entire colonies. Life on Mars will be easier to deal with using this ideology rather than paying with money because everyone’s needs will be addressed like this.
Many will be wondering if we can fix the magnetosphere issue, can we terraform Mars? This is a good question to ask. Mostly because, if we want long-term life on Mars to be comfortable for humans, terraforming it makes sense. We need to have a planet that is capable of sustaining human life. The issue is that to terraform Mars, we would need to change a lot about it. Most of this could take several years to pull off. It would involve trying to heat up the environment and fixing areas in the atmosphere, much of which would involve the removal of major toxins and radiation.
[Image via Joe Burgett/Stable Diffusion]In theory, if we can stop the major solar issue, radiation levels might begin to drop. Of course, this also means we’d need to rely on the planetary forcefield that has to always work and never die. This is not a reliable concept, so in order to truly terraform Mars, we will most certainly need to find ways to improve the magnetosphere to Earth or near-Earth level. If we can do this, fixing the atmosphere will be much easier. Keep in mind too that it isn’t like we’ll have a “terraforming machine” like you see in comic books. Terraformation is a long-term “process.” One thing we might not be able to fix is gravitational levels, as this is not part of the terraformation process.
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