From Brian Horton
In your look at how to build a colony on Mars (18 May, p 8), it was suggested that finding a resource to trade with Earth would be essential for its survival. Yet Mars is unlikely to supply unique goods, so any colony should concentrate on tourism instead. Some people would pay any amount for six-star accommodation, while backpackers could work as cabin crew en route, and then in the proposed greenhouses picking lettuces.
Of course, Mars would be in competition with the moon, which could offer much shorter – and cheaper – holidays, but Mars would have more interesting weather.
To my knowledge, all this talk of colonising Mars has never touched on one very possible downside: war. Here on Earth, even neighbouring countries with the same ethnic and religious mix will take up arms against one another. How much more likely would it be for populations separated by millions of kilometres to come to look upon each other as foreign devils?
Very likely, especially if the colony became self-sustaining, with its population swelled by Mars-born generations wanting independence from their imperial masters. Any emerging independent Martian government would seek military superiority over its only known neighbour: Earth.
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West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
