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Future Humans Living On Mars Could Rebel Against Earth, Study Says
Future humans on Mars could go rogue and rebel against Earth once they reach high levels of self-sufficiency, a new study claims. Martian habitat simulations have been growing in number in recent years. NASA, Russia, and even private enterprises have been recreating life on Mars for scientific research, training, and better selection of crew members, but things do not always go as planned in these simulations.
While SpaceX Starship vision promises a swift Mars colonization, the reality is that the technology today is nowhere near building a colony on Mars. Back in the 1940s, if you would tell anyone humans would be going to the Moon they would have looked at you funny, but the Moon ain't Mars and 2021 ain't 1940. Radiation, extreme weather, and resources for habitability are some of the roadblocks that make scientists question whether the Red Planet could even sustain a human colony.
In a 120-days isolation simulation of Mars, crew members began to rebel against those who simulated Earth mission control. The simulation was conducted by Project Sirius inside a facility located in Moscow, Russia. Once crew members begin to experience delays in communications and lose visions of “home” they go through “detachment,” the study says. In detachment, crew members resist recommendations from mission control and make decisions based on their own priorities.
Stress Tests And Expected Reactions
The results of the isolation test are not only expected but understandable. Lock away any person for 120 days in complete isolation, knowing that communications are delayed solely for the purpose of studying their reactions and resentment is the least we should expect to get. Scientists who wrote the report recognized that stress conditions and limited resources were part of the simulation but key factors like microgravity and sensory deprivation that astronauts will encounter in their missions were not present.
The study also suggests that women reacted differently to stress than men, based on speech acoustic indicators, facial expressions, and content analysis of their messages. This finding is not a revelation at all. Science has long ago proven that men react differently from women to stress. The simulation test was successful in finding different ways to generate mistrust and break relationships with the crew in isolation because they were specifically trying to destroy that trust.
Co-author Dmitry Shved of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Aviation Institute told CNET that despite the findings we shouldn’t really worry until people on Mars no longer need supplies from Earth. “During the period when the Mars colonies will still be dependent on resupplies and people coming from Earth, the probability of severance of diplomatic relations seems rather low,” he explained. While the conclusions of the study seem like a script from a (very good or very bad) science fiction movie where a human colony on Mars rebels against Earth, there are still many steps we need to take before even considering this. Building a safe rocket that can actually take us to Mars alive, would be step one.
