Life on Mars” is a playful but unsettling article in New Scientist (16 November, 2024). The authors, a biologist and a cartoonist, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, are commenting on the aspiration of Elon Musk to start establishing a million person colony on Mars by 2030. “Has anyone thought this through?” they ask with a skepticism that summarizes the tragic-comic history of humanity on this planet.

“Mars sucks,” they suggest. Going there would be the equivalent of “moving to a toxic waste dump because your neighbours aren’t mowing their lawn often enough.” As they point out, launching rockets and performing antics in zero gravity is fun, but Mars would not be. The temperature varies from a chilly –153°C to only brief periods of a comfortable 20°C at high noon. And the air, which is mostly carbon dioxide and only 1% the density on Earth, would be fatal to anyone attempting to breathe it.