Question for the academics. How would a real sudden habitable Mars affect

[Will Evans]

How would a sudden real habitable, colonization and easy access to Mars affect Earth society: economically, politically, culturally and socially?

Just curious. The comics didn’t really show that much impact on normal society.

[Grunty]

In the real world or the Marvel Universe?

The problem with trying to determine it in the Marvel Universe is two fold.

First the level of technology that various nations/corporations/organizations on Earth have access to and are capable of manufactoring on it on their own are all over the place and in constant flux.

For example one comic might feature the US police sending giant robots armed with energy projection weapons to stop a bank robber, when another comic made at the same time will feature the US military using Apache attack helicopters to fight alien invaders.

Or one comic might feature a space shuttle return from a manned flight to Saturn with it's human crew bringing back some alien parasite for the heros to fight, while another comic, made at the same time, would have a character talk about how it sucks that NASA is no longer sending shuttles up and wonder when someone might land on the moon again.

Second the world of the humans in the Marvel universe has for 60 years been forbidden from truely diverting too much from the real world and it's history despite the earth shattering events and super "things" that keep showing up.

Contrast the DCEU shows of the 1990's and early 2000's where the creators cleverly applied a "retro" theme to all shows, not only making it clear that they are not supposed to be like the real world, but also making the time period so vague that various levels of technology can exist side by side (it helps that they took the 1930's Fleischer cartoons as inspiration).

With these two problems in place, it's basicly futile trying to apply any real world political, economic or even historical comparisons as basis to determine what would have happen in that scenario.

[marhawkman]

land. land is a valuable resource, who can claim land on Mars? Heck, the only reason we don't have people living on Mars as-is is that Mars is too hard to get to.

[Will Evans]

In the real world or the Marvel Universe?

The problem with trying to determine it in the Marvel Universe is two fold.

First the level of technology that various nations/corporations/organizations on Earth have access to and are capable of manufactoring on it on their own are all over the place and in constant flux.

For example one comic might feature the US police sending giant robots armed with energy projection weapons to stop a bank robber, when another comic made at the same time will feature the US military using Apache attack helicopters to fight alien invaders.

Or one comic might feature a space shuttle return from a manned flight to Saturn with it's human crew bringing back some alien parasite for the heros to fight, while another comic, made at the same time, would have a character talk about how it sucks that NASA is no longer sending shuttles up and wonder when someone might land on the moon again.

Second the world of the humans in the Marvel universe has for 60 years been forbidden from truely diverting too much from the real world and it's history despite the earth shattering events and super "things" that keep showing up.

Contrast the DCEU shows of the 1990's and early 2000's where the creators cleverly applied a "retro" theme to all shows, not only making it clear that they are not supposed to be like the real world, but also making the time period so vague that various levels of technology can exist side by side (it helps that they took the 1930's Fleischer cartoons as inspiration).

With these two problems in place, it's basicly futile trying to apply any real world political, economic or even historical comparisons as basis to determine what would have happen in that scenario.

Real world scenario is what I’m asking.

[marhawkman]

Real world scenario is what I’m asking.

again, the "how" of transit is the key detail here.

[Grunty]

again, the "how" of transit is the key detail here.

Indeed. Even if people could live on the surface, the question of how to get them there safely and potentialy get something OFF it again would need to be cleared first.

And then there is the question to what degree the planet is earthlike all of a sudden.

Even if the air had a gas mixture that makes it breathable for humans and dense enough that they can actualy breath it in, there are still questions like for example the state of the soil (Mars is covered in rust dust, which would be nasty for humans to come in prolonged contact with, to say nothing of breathing it in), magnetic field and ozon layer (i.e. how much radition would the planet's surface still get bombarded with), weather (denser atmosphere woould make the current wind much more destructive), gravity (longterm effect on the human body) and biosphere (risk of two sided contamination) to take into account.

Ironicaly while a denser atmosphere would make landings on the planet easier, it would also make it much more difficult to launch anything from it again, despite the somewhat lower gravitational pull, which means more fuel needs to be produced or brought on site to actualy properly exploit resources for Earth's benefit.

So a lot of details which would need to be cleared about the actual state of the planet, before further speculation is possible.

[Sutekh]

Indeed. Even if people could live on the surface, the question of how to get them there safely and potentialy get something OFF it again would need to be cleared first.

And then there is the question to what degree the planet is earthlike all of a sudden.

Even if the air had a gas mixture that makes it breathable for humans and dense enough that they can actualy breath it in, there are still questions like for example the state of the soil (Mars is covered in rust dust, which would be nasty for humans to come in prolonged contact with, to say nothing of breathing it in), magnetic field and ozon layer (i.e. how much radition would the planet's surface still get bombarded with), weather (denser atmosphere woould make the current wind much more destructive), gravity (longterm effect on the human body) and biosphere (risk of two sided contamination) to take into account.

Ironicaly while a denser atmosphere would make landings on the planet easier, it would also make it much more difficult to launch anything from it again, despite the somewhat lower gravitational pull, which means more fuel needs to be produced or brought on site to actualy properly exploit resources for Earth's benefit.

So a lot of details which would need to be cleared about the actual state of the planet, before further speculation is possible.

Lots of good stuff here. Mar's moons are tiny rocks, 5 and 10 km in diameter, IIRC, and produce no real magnetosphere to block radiation, so people going outside would suck up lethal doses of radiation pretty fast. The gravity is low enough that people's bones would start losing calcium, and there'd be long-term health effects there (and it would be very hard to come back to Earth after spending six months or so there, as muscles would have atrophied). Without an Arrako entity, there'd be no food, so it would have to be imported from Earth, and even if there was some sort of portal allowing free transport, the food being freely available has never in the real world stopped thuggish warlords from camping the arrival / distribution point and hoarding the best of it for their own loyalists, and charging outrageous sums for access to anyone else.

The wealthy / powerful people who own the land (and the governments...) here on Earth would either find a way to 'stake a claim' on Mars and seize up large tracts of the new land and force new arrivals to 'pay rent' or 'sharecrop.' Depending on the nature of access, Mars might end up a dumping ground for politically out of favor sorts, 'undesirables,' unwanted minorities, the homeless, refugees, 'wrong-color' immigrants, etc.

Alternately, if the terraforming process has magically fixed all the technical details and the atmosphere/magnetosphere/gravity/ecosystem are all comfortable and safe for humans, only the people who have seized control of the portals here on Earth would be able to relocate to Mars. (Again, the politically connected / wealthy.) Celebrities, athletes, politicians, CEOs, etc. would have compounds on Mars, and awards shows and galas would be hosted there as the ultimate exclusive club for the elite, like the various island estates and communities scattered about now, where the home owners are wealthy, and the non-wealthy inhabitants are the transient workers who prepare their food and clean their houses and take care of their pets.

In other words, a new frontier opening up would be developed pretty much like new territories were all through history. If we ever thaw out Antarctica, I imagine a similar 'land rush' will begin there. If it's awesome, it will be claimed with a quickness. If it looks like a desert full of dangerous critters, it will be used as a dumping ground for the unwanted, like Australia was.