Creating a Sustainable Society on Mars (CASSOM)

Creating a Sustainable Society on Mars (CASSOM) is the third project in the 4wardFutures Life on Mars Space Futures programme. CASSOM builds on the metaphor of young people exploring a Life on Mars through art and literature with the Visualising a Life on Mars (VALOM) project, and how the physical infrastructure necessary for a Life on Mars could be constructed through the Constructing a Life on Mars (CALOM) project.

Through the CASSOM project, young people will collaborate with professionals from a range of sectors to explore how Mars settlers could overcome the challenges they will face in creating a sustainable society on Mars:

·     What kind of social, legal, political, economic and ethical society would you need to create on Mars?

o    How can a harmonious and sustainable society be created on Mars that will bring together people from different countries, cultures and organisations that may have different motives for establishing settlements on Mars?

o    How could Mars settlers from different countries overcome cultural and political differences that may have existed historically or have more recently developed on earth? How would Chinese and American Mars settlers react if China and America went to war on Earth?

o    What psychological and emotional challenges would Mars settlers face if they were not able to or choose not to return to Earth?

o    What will Mars settlers use to buy things like food, clothes and energy for their homes?

o    If humans are going to live and have families on Mars, when would they and their descendants cease being a citizen of earth and become a Martian? After 20 or 40 years living on Mars; first or second generation?

·    How can a sustainable society be developed from an environmental and resources perspective?

·    How will Mars settlers sustainably source the resources such as food, energy and water they will require?