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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)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @08:17AM (1 child)
Not really. You like many others are assuming the best destination is Mars without enough scientific evidence.
We need to do the gravity experiments first. Humans will need to do them anyway to figure out the minimum gravity that is enough. Because there are other places in our Solar System than just Mars. Once we better know what we need then we can figure out which places are worth considering and what sort of space stations are needed. The less gravity we need the cheaper the space stations can be. It may turn out that Moon gravity levels are enough for humans, in which case the Moon would be an even better destination than Mars (Mars atmosphere close enough to a vacuum that it's not an advantage over the Moon).
Those experiments are not cheap, but neither is going to Mars. But if the experiments are done properly the results are likely to be useful for many generations of space-faring humans.
If we ever become a species that outlives our star that would be a notable achievement. We're unlikely to succeed with that, but we will certainly fail if we keep wasting lots of resources and time on doing stupid stuff. Knowing the minimum amount of gravity most humans need is important for that long path. If we don't even intend to outlive our planet then there's not much point wasting money with Mars missions. If we don't intend to outlive our star but intend to outlive our planet it actually makes more sense to spend our resources making Earth more habitable than trying to make an inhospitable planet like Mars habitable.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 01 2018, @11:56AM
That's not remotely relevant. One could argue, for example, that we'll be more technologically developed in a 100 million years and thus, it would make more sense to do Mars missions then, even if we are planning to outlive our star.
A more relevant argument is that there's a bunch of people who want to see humans living off of Earth in a human life time. That at least contains a rationalization, good or not, for why we should do something now rather than in the far distant future.