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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 Immerman on Friday June 01 2018, @02:39PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Friday June 01 2018, @02:39PM (#687252)

    > So Mars doesn't really have that many advantages over a space station

    It really, really does:
    - Gravity without subjecting everything to substantial tensile stresses (tensile strength generally being less fault-tolerant than compression)or the nausea of dealing with intense Coriolis effects
    - Unlimited radiation shielding free for the piling up or tunneling under (a.k.a. sand, rock, and ice)
    - Unlimited CO2 and water as feed-stock for expanding a contained ecosystem, making losses largely irrelevant. And cellulose (aka plant skeletons = water+co2) is a really useful building material, whether as wood, that new stronger-than-steel superwood, sturdy microcellulose "clay" for furniture and other noncritical bulk items, and nanocellulose crystal (translucent, gas impermeable, works like clay when wet, and as strong as aluminum when dry). All of which can be produced using relatively low-tech and non-toxic processes (so you can compose anything broken beyond repair/recycling)

    The I.S.S. has already shown we can keep people alive in a tin can - there's limited additional things to be learned there. Trying to build and grow semi-contained ecosystems from raw molecular feedstock is the next major hurdle, and Mars is an excellent place to do that, since the most important resources are easily accessible without first developing sophisticated mining and industrial infrastructure. The resulting technology and understanding of ecosystem details may also prove extremely useful here on Earth as we deal with a rapidly changing climate. Obviously we could develop the technology here, but we're not going to, there's just no short-term incentive so long as the natural ecosystem is doing well enough.

    Meanwhile, the depth of the gravity well is largely irrelevant in the long term: we're not planning to ship a lot of physical stuff back. In the short term of course it does present a challenge to returning ships to Earth (and giving colonists the option of changing their mind), but fuel synthesis from those copious natural resources shouldn't prove too much of a challenge, and it may even be possible to create an earth-sourced orbital fuel depot to aid in the early stages - fill up the tanks completely before landing, and at worst you've seriously reduced how much local fuel you need to be able to get back to orbit - where you can then refuel for the trip to Earth.

    Of course, the Moon might also be a viable candidate - it offers at least gravity and shielding, though other resources are likely to require developing a much more sophisticated industrial base. But the BFR should be able to land and return with the aid of only orbital fuel depots, which greatly simplifies the early days. Plus, a Moon base is likely to be much more valuable to Earth.

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