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posted by martyb on Thursday May 31 2018, @09:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-out-of-this-world! dept.

Sex on Mars is going to be risky, but it could create a new human subspecies

In a new research paper published in Futures, an international team of scientists examines the challenges of reproduction on the Martian surface. It's a risky proposition, but if humans succeed in conceiving, carrying, and birthing offspring on another world it might actually be the start of a new species.

In the paper, the researchers tackle a huge number of potential problems that could crop up when humans are finally ready to rear young on Mars. The first and most obvious hurdle is the low gravity environment, which could pose a serious threat to the conception and pregnancy processes that seem so simple here on Earth.

[...] The paper also examines the inherent challenges of bolstering the numbers of a small colony of settlers on the planet. The concept of "love" might have to take a back seat to pure survival, with men and women being paired up by their biology rather than emotion. Additionally, some individuals may never be allowed to have children due to undesirable traits that are a risk to the colony as a whole.

In a somewhat scary aside, the researchers also note that editing the genes of future Mars babies might be an easy way to increase the prospects of survival.

Also at Live Science.

Biological and social challenges of human reproduction in a long-term Mars base (DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.006) (DX)

Related: Space colonization and suffering risks: Reassessing the "maxipok rule" (DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.008) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday May 31 2018, @01:37PM

    by looorg (578) on Thursday May 31 2018, @01:37PM (#686723)

    Sure, there will probably have to be some kind of incentive more then just "doing it cause we can", science might be one such thing and mining another one. Isn't it Elon that has said that the first people we send there will probably meet certain death (which I guess we all will) but they are needed just to settle the place and build up the basic infrastructure that future generations might need or require, and not necessarily future generations created on Mars. For all we know they might prefer them sterile, not to mention if it's going to be building required they are probably going to send more men then women so for all we know Mars might just turn into one big gay colony in space.

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