The race for Mars started. Elon Musk of SpaceX has stated that it will take people to the Red planet by 2026. Mars One claims that its team will be on Mars a year later, in 2027. NASA plans to bring people to orbit Mars by 2033, and then to the surface to 2039. The European space Agency is also focused on the Mars mission by 2033, and the Chinese space program planned conquest of Mars between 2040 and 2060. Very soon the surface of Mars can be crowded. And here’s the question: if we build a colony on Mars, whether its inhabitants to be left to themselves? Needless to declare independence of the red planet?
When these crews will land, they will represent your company and country. And while each of them will build colonies and research stations, living quarters on Mars, they will report to their superiors. The outer space Treaty, concluded in 1967, reads: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. Which means that countries cannot claim to Mars (and not to place nuclear weapons).
But the Treaty says nothing about private companies like SpaceX. Although no country can claim to Martian land, it can, in theory, use any resources of Mars. People who will build their homes on Mars, may not own land on which to live, but should be accountable to the country or legal person who is responsible for them.
And so if Jacob Haqq-Misra will not succeed. Haqq-Misra is research fellow of the Institute of Space blue marble. He recently published an article titled “Tranformative the value of expiring Mars”, which claims that Mars should be completely independent from the beginning. “Mars seems to have the potential to do something different with civilization, not that we already did,” he told the BBC.
The idea is simple. Instead of the people who landed and live on Mars, reported to the companies and institutions of their native planet, they should get full independence. To ensure this independence, Haqq-Misra offers five positions liberation (liberation).
First, people who land on Mars, renounce their earthly citizenship. Now they’re Martians and not earthlings. Second, governments, companies and people on Earth have no right to interfere in politics or the economy of Mars. This means no forced trade, economic interference, backroom deals with goods or services. Thirdly, the scientific exploration of Mars can proceed exactly as long until prevent the independent development of civilization. Fourthly, the use of land on Mars should be determined by the Martians. Fifthly, all that is brought from Earth, now owned by Mars, earthlings have no right to demand it back.
To breathe some reality in these words, let’s look at an example. Say, the first SpaceX goes to Mars with his Mars Colonial Transporter in 2027 with a team of 15 people and lots of cargo for establishing a colony. If Mars will be free, these 15 people would no longer be citizens of the Earth. Now they are citizens of Mars and working on Mars as an independent team, without political or economic attachment to the Land.
The things they brought with them, the equipment and technology they were equipped SpaceX, all of them now. If will come another crew from NASA, the ESA or China, the SpaceX crew will negotiate with them with them and only with them about how it will be divided and distributed resources of Mars. With the arrival of increasing numbers of people to the Red planet, a set of laws and rules will be developed by Martians. In the end, if they decide, they can start to trade with Earth. But only on their own terms.
The agreement for the “liberation”
It may seem odd that a company or country will spend billions of dollars to get to Mars, only to completely lose control over what’s happening on this planet. But it is not excluded, says Haqq-Misra. He also thinks he can be a certain kind of long term (very long term) that will make investing in a independent journey to Mars worthwhile. Plus there are many stories, when the space program was profitable technology — light emitting diodes (LED), anti-icing system for aircraft and portable cordless vacuum cleaners — all this appeared in a research lab of NASA. Yet even the most generous billionaires interested in spacewalk, you might wonder, is it worth investing in.
But there are certain people who like this idea. Haqq-Misra says that she heard from several people participating in the program Mars One. “The existence of an independent Martian colony resonates with what they say, candidates in astronauts,” he says. The idea of becoming not just the first people on Mars and the first people in the completely new independent colonies like the people who signed up for a dangerous and long mission.
Haqq-Misra calls this method for the settlement of Mars, “a delayed liberation”, liberation, and indicates that it goes completely counter to how colonization usually occurs. “After the liberation of Mars in accordance with these provisions, the Red planet is available for the development of a new civilization, but falls under the ban of the management of any groups that exist on Earth,” he writes in his work.
And also notes that there are a lot of precedents, when the revolution was led by the colony, separated from their rulers a large distance. The United States rebelled against England, as India and a whole bunch of now independent countries. And the distance between England and USA is nothing compared to the distance between the United States and Mars. That is, to suppress the revolution in the distance and before was difficult, and can become completely useless.
The idea of planetary independence constantly pop up in science fiction. In the novel “the Moon is a harsh mistress” Robert Heinlein told the story of the rebellion one of the lunar colonies against earth authority. Many of the arguments that surfaced in the book, resulted in the proposal of Haqq-Misra is the inability of people on one planet to truly understand others, need the freedom and authority to manage its own economic results. More powerful exhaust would be when the planet will be born many new people. “When you get the majority of people who have never been on Earth, when the generation and there will be born on Earth, it will be an important turning point”.
It will be many years before people will put their flesh and blood to the Red planet. Haqq-Misra doesn’t think that’s enough of a document to describe the whole future policy of Mars. “This idea of liberation of Mars may not be adopted in this form in which I suggested, but think about what it means to be a citizen of the planet”. We should start to think about how exactly would be leaking all these missions to Mars. And should think about what to do to these future colonies rebelled against Earth.