by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
A funny and pessimistic look at what it would take for humanity to settle space. There are two deep lessons that drive many of the authors' conclusions.
First, that people will continue to be people. Being in space won’t change that. Space won't magically make humans better people. Politics, economics, legal systems and human biology won't miraculously change should we develop space settlements.
Second, everything in space wants to kill you. Take your worst case outcome for climate change on Earth. Life in space would still be orders of magnitude more difficult than life on Earth. Building a space settlement requires confronting many deadly problems that will take decades, if not centuries of investment to solve.
Example… martian soil basically contains ground glass and toxic chemicals (perchlorates.) Gardening in such an environment isn’t as simple as building a sealed greenhouse and bringing in seeds, water and fertilizer. The sharp edges of martian dust and soil wear everything that rub against it and could cause lung diseases similar to asbestos lung. The perchlorate will poison us.
