CDfM Episode #6 Phased Approach to Civilisation Design: Phases 1-4

Welcome to Civilisation Design for Mars.

This time we outline the phased approach to civilisation design for Mars.

I’m designing a legal and ethical framework for a civilisation on our alternate planet as we become multi-planetary. This channel documents controversial and notable topics encountered along the way. All policies discussed are intended for Mars, not earth.

Today: phased approach to civilisation design for Mars. 

How can we comprehend the necessary steps to building a civilisation on Mars? What do they look like? How does each phase start and end? We look at these and other issues in the phased approach to civilisation design for Mars.

Making a framework.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Whilst there seem like an almost infinite number of things that have to happen until we can live on Mars, it is possible to break the necessary steps to building anything into phases. We outline the first four phases required to build a civilisation on Mars. Let’s begin.

Phase one: successful arrival of humans on Mars.

We are currently in phase one. Several motorised vehicles have been to Mars but no humans have.

Phase one is currently an earth-based research and development phase, linked to the model for commercially viable space travel. This model posits that reusable rockets, creating a shuttle between earth and Mars, will bring down the cost of space travel to an economically viable level which enables multi-planetary human existence. Teams at Space X are currently creating a reusable shuttle to Mars, called Starship. Starship not only has to shuttle to Mars and back. For phase one to be successful in the human civilisation mission to Mars, it has to successfully shuttle humans. The issue of radiation, harmful to human flesh, will arise in phase one on the 6 month to 2 year journey to Mars. Radiation will remain a key problem to solve.

Phase one will see attempted and successful Starship test flights to the moon and then to Mars, mostly first carrying androids. Eventually a team of expert human astronauts will travel by Starship to Mars, confirm arrival and split their crew to send some back via shuttle to earth whilst others remain on Mars. Phase one will be complete when the shuttle between Mars and Earth functions reliably, and human astronauts can begin work on phase two. 

Phase two: survival and research.

Phase two is a series of high-risk Mars-based human and technological missions. Expert astronauts have now arrived on Mars, but they now need to learn to survive on Mars in the short term. If they can’t survive there, none of the rest of us will ever be able to. Cosmic radiation is a great risk to humans and Mars does not currently have an atmosphere which can adequately protect us. A set of solutions must be found to the problem of humans and radiation during phase two. Their job will be made harder by limited resources, fuel, food, air and infrastructure. 

As they confirm and rebut assumptions about Mars, they will create a basic survival and research base. Similar to military missions on earth or space missions, the astronauts are highly trained, paid professionals who bear a high risk of death and injury in phase two missions.

Phase two is a pre-civilisation phase to enable humans to find a way to survive, breathe, live, work and have access to basic utilities. Working on the foundations of phase one, which assumes a working shuttle system between earth and Mars, phase two can be said to be complete when experts are able to survive on Mars short term, establish and maintain their own base from which they can commence with phase three.

Phase three: building the foundations of a civilisation.

Phase three starts and contains the process of designing Mars for non-experts immigrants from earth to live there. Phase three will continue to improve the living environment for astronauts, researchers and infrastructure builders in the medium term. Phase three is a long phase, requiring the complete design, test and build of the foundations of the Mars civilisation.

It will only be appropriate to invite non-experts to live on Mars once there is an environment which can support them e.g. an atmosphere in which they can breathe, in which they can live without expectation of radiation leading to unreasonably premature death. Immigrants from earth should be able to take shelter, have privacy and be comfortable enough - physically and psychologically - to live short, medium or even long term on Mars.

Much like building a city which did not previously exist, phase three is where the core civilisation design and build is focused. Resources will be mined on Mars and extracted from the atmosphere, brought from earth or other sources, to build systems of habitation, transport, shelter with relevant utilities and fuel, including sustainable food sources for inhabitants.

Before the first non-expert humans arrive, immigrants moving from earth will need to understand the different sets of rights, responsibilities and duties they have to themselves and others on Mars. Much like moving to another country, you must accept the laws of the land. In order to do this, there must be at least the beginning of a legal system there.

When the environment - atmospheric, legal and infrastructural - is deemed stable enough for non-expert humans to live life on Mars, as the final tests are being completed, training and selection programmes for the first non-expert citizens on earth will be underway. Phase three will be complete when the infrastructure is designed, built and tested to an acceptable standard for the first earth immigrants to arrive.

Phase four: arrival of non-expert humans.

Human non-expert immigrants from earth intending to commit to a medium or long term life on Mars will be the first intended inhabitants of the new civilisation. These are humans who have been socialised on earth and who wish to live the rest of their lives on Mars together. Initially these people will arrive in small numbers to settle and see how they get on physically, psychologically and socially with one another.

The non-expert citizens on Mars will require great support technologically, psychologically, socially, physically and in all facets of their life there. The infrastructure of the civilisation supporting life on Mars will require physical maintenance, monitoring, improvement and development. Therefore, the expert astronauts and infrastructure builders will be joined by many human support services, remaining part of the eco-system of the civilisation on Mars, as well as the citizens themselves.

Phase four can be said to be complete when multiple small groups of non-expert immigrants from earth are able to adjust and settle on Mars with all the technological and psychological support required. They should be able to live reasonably healthy, long lives with the desire to stay on Mars and make it their home.

Next time we look at murder on Mars. That’s all for this episode. Please subscribe, share your thoughts in the comments and thanks for listening to civilisation design for Mars.

Copyright 2022 S J A Giblin