Team Atreides • 8 Min Read • Sometime 2035 • #exoearth
It’s evident to all that in 2023 we cannot travel to Mars. No humans have ever visited Mars. No one lives there. However because the literal idea of Mars plays such a prominent role in science-fiction and in industries such as Hollywood, I would argue that conceptually Mars already offers economic value. Consider the blockbuster Matt Damon film, the Martian, which is concerned with the human exploration of the Red Planet.
US public sector investment into Mars, especially that via NASA, is not accounted as ‘Martian’, yet the R&D value derived from the data is made possible by the existence of Mars – the Planet – and would not exist without it. Mars already offers economic value to people on Earth beyond entertainment. Engineers and scientists study the planet to earn a living. Technology developed to map our neighbour has already found its way into spin-off technology products here on Earth, even in private-sector fields such as robotics and batteries.
Furthermore, I believe that there is already the beginnings of a ‘dream’ of a distinct, independent and free Martian economy, society and maybe even one day, nation-state. It is this seemingly infinite promise that Hollywood and countless science-fiction writers capitalise on – the enduring spirit of freedom.
An obvious point to note is that no resources have yet been physically extracted from the Martian environment and returned to Earth. Yet because of economic value derived from the technology required to map Mars, broadly speaking to movies and writers and through various tech spin-offs, a question that naturally arises is the following: Could Mars, as a possible home for humanity, be of even more commercial value to more humans on Earth, in 2023, long before the point of habitation arrives?
Exploring Mars already offers soft power to states (such as the USA) and jobs through hard capital investments (such as SpaceX employees). I argue that Mars as a concept has much more unlockable value: Mars and Martian research could be useful in productisation and product design, in 2023, for virtually any product, a methodology of which I will explore in Chapter-2.
The economic value of Mars could be increased. More entrepreneurs – the undertakers of risk –
