Are People Really Going to Settle Mars?

If we are, we better have a plan

Dear Readers,

I am happy to share the news that my newest book is now out: The First City on Mars: An Urban Planner’s Guide to Settling the Red Planet. Yes, I really did write an entire book about planning cities on Mars.

As I see it, humans are explorers and will try to settle Mars in the coming decade or two. Much of the technological know-how is there for the trip, but what’s the plan for when they get there?

This new book provides just the kind of thoughtful, scientifically grounded plan that spacefarers can embrace before the first rocket departs Earth. Urban planners have a lot to say about the siting of buildings, the layout of roads, the provision of infrastructure, green space (or rather, red space?), recreational facilities, food, waste, and a myriad of other topics. In this book, I attempted to capture the best practices in my own profession and allied fields like architecture and civil engineering, drawing on lessons from inhospitable regions on Earth, like the Arctic Circle and Antartica.

To get a better sense of what this project is all about, you can listen to anan interview I did with the Irish national news radio station and read this article my university wrote about the book. Be sure to follow this substack for more updates on all things space urbanism!