“Becoming Martian
By Scott Solomon
MIT, 280 pages, $29.95
In March 1995 Valeri Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut, returned to Earth after a record 14 consecutive months in space. Extended weightlessness generally wreaks havoc on the human body, often disrupting the space traveler's heartbeat, balance and hormone levels. Ailments like anemia, kidney stones and osteoporosis can arise as well, and most returning astronauts can barely walk under the sudden chains of gravity. Yet Polyakov determinedly strutted around for reporters and masked any discomfort with a grin. Then he made a triumphant announcement.
His trip, he said, proved that human beings can reach Mars.
Colonizing Mars is an obsession among certain space geeks. Elon Musk has made several grandstanding predictions about when he believes humankind will reach the red planet. But as Scott Solomon shows in "Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds," bureaucrats and policy wonks are drawing up plans, too. "I was astonished," Mr. Solomon writes, "to see how extensive and serious the plans for human space exploration had become." These include everything from rocket blueprints to detailed nutrient-recycling programs involving flies, chickens and human waste.
Motivations for wanting to colonize Mars vary. Some crave adventure while others see the planet as a backup home in the event that Earth is rendered uninhabitable by an asteroid strike or runaway climate change. Still, Mr. Solomon, a biologist at Rice University, noticed important gaps in such conversations. "There wasn't much discussion," he writes, "about the long-term consequences" for human beings. How would colonizing Mars alter us psychologically and physiologically? "Becoming Martian" grapples with such questions.
It takes a while for Mr. Solomon to get to the answers. Early chapters include some well-worn tales (e.g., Darwin visiting the Galapagos) as well as saucy sections on sex in space (and why the National Aeronautics and Space Administration refuses to fund studies on it). And he spends a lot of time, possibly because it's the only aspect of the project for which data are available, on the stresses and consequences of weightlessness -- which astronauts would experience only on the way to and from Mars.
Once the book delves into Mars itself, it really starts to hum.
In brief, Mars is hostile to life in numerous ways.
The soil is packed with poisons, and massive dust storms obscure the sun for months. The atmosphere provides almost no oxygen, and while temperatures can reach 70 degrees F, that's only at the equator, at noon, in summer. (Temperatures of minus --100 degrees F are more common.) The weak atmosphere and magnetic field also allow carcinogenic cosmic radiation to pelt Mars's surface: One day spent outdoors there equals about two years of radiation exposure on Earth.
Perhaps most importantly, Mars has only around one-third of Earth's gravity, which would alter the development of almost every organ and tissue. Anyone born and raised on Mars would likely have lower bone density and weaker hearts. Their spines would curve less and their feet have less of an arch. The limited air and food would likely stunt their growth compared to earthlings, and their lungs and circulatory systems might struggle to deliver oxygen. Over generations, their skin might darken to block radiation damage as well.
And that's just the start. Those traveling to Mars from Earth would almost certainly be screened to limit the pathogens they carry along. Measles, malaria, influenza and dozens of other illnesses wouldn't exist there -- which sounds great. Except there's good evidence that a lack of exposure to microbes early in life can leave the immune system on a hair-trigger, meaning the first generations born on Mars would likely suffer from far more autoimmune diseases. Would that trade-off be worth it?
Psychological complications could arise as well. The harsh environment would confine people to domes or underground shelters, where boredom and isolation would be real dangers. The need for protective spacesuits outside such habitats would also cut off Mars inhabitants from nature. Natives of the red planet would never know the feel of the breeze lifting their hair or the sun warming their skin, and the lack of water would deprive them of the joy of splashing around in a pond or the surf. (When Scott Kelly returned home after 340 days on the International Space Station, the first thing he did was jump into his backyard pool. "I'll never take water for granted again," he later said.)
As Mr. Solomon notes, these issues raise serious ethical questions. Would it be fair to raise children in a place where they can never play outside? Equally troubling, some Mars enthusiasts insist that we should try to genetically engineer the first generation of visitors to make them less vulnerable to bone loss, heart weakness and other health problems -- permanently altering the human race.
There's also the question of whether humans on Mars will evolve into another species. After all, geographic isolation often drives speciation on Earth. Radiation on Mars, and the planet's different disease burden, would only speed up mutations there. Mr. Solomon estimates that significant steps toward speciation could arise within five to 10 generations. The irony would be acute: While many enthusiasts view Mars as a refuge to save humankind from disaster, its inhabitants could quickly become nonhuman.
Partly as a result of the moral quandaries, Mr. Solomon finishes his book far more ambivalent about colonizing Mars than he was at the outset. "Whether we choose to let evolution play out or guide the process ourselves," he concludes, "each generation born on Mars will be one step further on a path toward becoming something different -- toward becoming Martian."
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Mr. Kean is the author of "Dinner With King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations."” [1]
1. A Species In Space. Kean, Sam. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Feb 2026: A13.
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