I am so excited about real physics right now. I wasted my morning productively by looking up Mars on Wikipedia, and the various plans and ideas for a manned space mission. A subject it is actually satisfyingly thorough on.

Musings: I wonder what the rights issues are with planets? Have space-faring countries signed a deal, or is it the property of whoever gets there first? If a space mission colonised Mars, and sold minerals back to Earth, whose would the profit be? Earth corporations are evil and without conscience, and inherently exploitative. I don't know science, but I am a bleeding heart liberal and everyone is talking about the practical issues, and none the ethical/legal frameworks. A best case scenario would be if the minerals were the property of the colonists - the profits would be cost-covering, and they could use them to trade for supplies. That way an economny would get going. We would need to prevent a scenario where a single business had financial interest in the minerals, and exploited the settlers - as the settlers would depend on Earth supplies for maybe hundreds of generations, their priceless minerals could be effectively extorted in exchange for basic survival kit. (Doctor Who's brilliantly nasty Vengeance on Varos posits a similar situation, where Varos intensely rare natural mineral is bought for peanuts by an evil company, because the Varosians are unaware of its value, and so poor that they are forced to accept low prices)

Under whose jurusdiction would the people there be - would they have rights? There would have to be some sort of declaration of their civil rights - could they form a union, or strike? How would they get their voice heard on Earth? Looking far ahead, but would there be a project for their independance? Struggles for independance in our history have been bloody and vicious - Friend 4's dad is from Guyana, and what America and Britain did to that nation is appalling, fixing the independant elections so a dictator who would support our interests was in power, instead of a brilliant and politically savvy chap, crippling the country, y'know, ever since. Or the problems still faced by African nations. How would the world relate to an independant Mars - would it be like Guernsey in the Commonwealth, where we have our own government but are still closely linked to England both culturally and legally. Alice asks "would the Martians pay international uni fees?" Or more like America and England, where America is wholly separate nowadays but has a sort of shared interest and "special friendship" with England. Both of these strike me as bad.

We would have to have some sort of universal world government, like the Terran Federation in Star Trek or the UN, but an effective and non-rubbish UN,in which the Mars Colony had the same sort of voice as every other nation. For that to work, and for Mars not to be like a little chunk of whatever nation got their first, the Mars mission would have to be like the International Space Station - multinational and multicultural.

I also wondered about the plans they have to "terraform" Mars - making it enough like Earth to live there. Cool, but a bit evil? You are basically setting out to destroy a natural, totally unique enviroment with no idea of the consequences.If you're interested in whether Martian bacteria have rights, this article is excellent: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg/EthicsDTP.pdf