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Sex on a Mars Colony

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

takyon writes:

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: 1) by khallow on Friday June 01 2018, @11:56AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 01 2018, @11:56AM (#687194) Journal

    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.

    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.