Living on Mars – Speculative Experience Design

Earlier this year, Elon Musk announced his plans for colonizing Mars, and put his vision on paper, Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species (Musk Elon. New Space. June 2017, 5(2): 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu). He plans on bringing down the cost of taking people to Mars from $10billion per person to $20,000 per person (median house price in the US) – a reduction of 5 million percent (source: http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/elon-musk-releases-plans-for-colonizing-mars-and-other-planets).

Space colonization as a means to escape our world that we have led to disaster is a common topic now-a-days. Colonization. People fail to realize the effects of this world. It means, in a way to conquer something that isn’t ours. It means to leave Earth, our home planet, and move to another one. But what such people fail to realize is that humans cannot live in isolation. They need other forms of life to live. To survive. If for nothing else, then for food. And even if, for argument’s sake, they don’t, then what kind of life would it be? Of getting nutrition solely on pills which have nutrients and glucose? Or taking intravenous supplements? Of living life on a planet with the constant need to wearing space suits? Or even if there is oxygen indoors, living with a bare red ground and no grass to cover it? No chirping of birds to wake you up in the morning and no blue skies to look forward to? Is this really the kind of world we want to live in?

This speculative design project explores this concept and tries to imagine what life would be like for the group of people who do decide to go to space to live. It would be made with a goal of making people realize the value of this beautiful planet of ours and to inspire and encourage them to take action to saving our planet before its too late.

Sources:

 Musk Elon. New Space. June 2017, 5(2): 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu

 http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/elon-musk-releases-plans-for-colonizing-mars-and-other-planets