My thoughts on A City on Mars - Can We Settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

(This is a late post. I already posted this on my LinkedIn a month ago, but there you go!)

Space settlements might be way further than what we thought!

I am taking a week-long vacation to go back to Indonesia, and as usual, long-haul flight is a very good chance to read books undisturbed. Today, I managed to finish a rather amusing book about what I love: space.

After reading this popular science book by the Weinersmiths, “A City on Mars - Can We Settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?”, a future where people live in space tubes floating in Lagrange points, having spectacular laser fights with big mechanical robots — one of which has red color with 3x speed vs other robots — is not something that I will see on my lifetime. Well, the book doesn’t cover that (it was a plot of a very popular anime, if you know you will know ;)), rather it covers settling nearby space, moon, and mars with the technology we have or will likely have in the short term. However, even settling long-term on Mars, will most likely takes longer than Elon Musk’s claim.

There are many issues that we must tackle, starting from human physiology, reproduction, space law (they exists), economic, and many more. It is not just rocket science, as what I believed until recently. I had expected to read about the technologies, but rather I learned about other stuffs. It is an unexpected eyeopener.

What I liked from this book is that the Weinersmiths delivered the rather serious topics in a very light manner, as expected from the author of the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal webcomic. I would recommend reading this if you are fan of space or scifi!