Mars Sweet Home

Life in a flower pot isn't just for plants. Viewing a clip on line recently, there was a minodoc about houses made of Martian material and designed to accommodate the Red Planet's erratic climate. The house looked exactly like a terra cotta vase with artsy cutout windows. Currently, in real time, it sits near a charming stream rising four stories  and in a 21 foot circle of space. Its inhabitants have signed on for four hundred days to test the structure for its liveability. No doubts that here on earth, it would be an interesting experience however merely another tiny but tall abode. Climbing four stories to get to bed or make one up every day, I see big problems. There are other issues to life than the possibility of building such a structure on Mars. Given it can be done with the 3 D robot gizmo gooping it out before the residents arrive on M planet, once they get there it's the lifestyle adjustment that worries me. First of all, the idea, should it some day happen, means that having ruined Earth, we are now extending our destructive habits to another planet when we can't solve the huge one we have here and now. The proposed plan assumes mega conditions. Ifs are rampant and invade any sort of common, logical or scientific sense. Besides the hard-cast living environment including waste systems, storm and  meteor fall issues and psychological aspects, there are the unplanned social ones of medical care, security, consumerism, education and other institutions that are needed to meet human needs. Life isn't about a house. Housing is one need of the many that our kinds of beings require. I suppose one could get used to looking out through that thick bit of glass called a window, onto endless, plantless red, dry gravel or oohing at earthrise in the evenings. But there's more. Storing enough gravity accommodating clothing even, in a tiny tall house could take up a lot of space. And what if the roof leaks or a marsquake cracks the family flower pot? Flying space objects scarring the landscape might just destroy the house and possibly the whole neighbourhood not to mention their puncturing the walls that are supposed to protect one from undue pressures that harm delicate earth bodies inside. The urge to live on planet Mars would be rare indeed when the realities are considered and Flash Gordonism leaves its comic book pages to become everyday life. The idea is very romantic but like going on holiday, no matter how lovely that is, getting home is what we really want. Like the new outfit or the tiny house fad, the love affair simply doesn't last. Real life is messy and emotional and funny and hurts and loves and laughs and cries. Getting real, living on another planet would be immeasurably worse than taking up residence in Death Valley if you've ever rushed through on a just-because adventure in that forsaken place. While the dream is fascinating perhaps on paper, no thanks. I'll take home. HSH.