If a Child was Born on Mars
 

If a Child was born on Mars what nationality would the child be? And could that child for example run to become president of the United States if registered with America?

A guess: I think it'd depend on the parents and the culture on Mars.
-If parents are American: Child can run for president if they go to America
-but if Mars culture isn't American...maybe they can run for president but they won't win?

Well, it depends.

Are we talking about after a colony is founded there? Then it's the nationality of the colony.

If it's during a scientific expedition, well, it'd be like babies being born on international waters, they get their parents' citizenship.

For some reason my mind flashed to Cowboy Bebop and Spike saying "I was born on Mars!"

If the colony separated from the country that made it, (like how the US fought to be free from england), Martian? >w>

Society will be very interesting when we get to the point that Mars could be independent. I hope to see it. :D

I read somewhere that NASA is working on a project to send people to live there and look for what could have been alien life... o3o

or something like that.. I'd like to live to see outter space colonized.. doubt i will though >w>

Mars people would be martians though OuO MARtians...

Actually it's SpaceX working on plans for a Mars colony because Elon Musk assumes that NASA won't.

It would suck being born on Mars to begin with. It would literally be like living in a Fallout Vault. Then coming to Earth and seeing a bird seems like a miracle.

Not to mention the gravity difference would really mess with the bodies of anyone who grew up there. Coming to Earth would probably be a physically painful experience.

Nah, it wouldn't be that bad. If there's a self-sufficient Mars colony, then it's going to have to be populated with everything necessary for self-sufficiency. There will be, at the very least, living plants for food, textiles, wood, and oxygen. There will have to be pollinators. There will probably be livestock. There might be pets.

It would take many many generations with no interbreeding for Martians to lose a body structure that can survive 1.0G. It would require a training regimen to keep the required muscle mass and bone density, but it'll be millennia (and that assumes that there's never any interbreeding with Terrans) before the genotype will have diverged to the point that Earth's gravity would be like 2.6G of stress.

EDIT: Though certainly we wouldn't be looking at casual interplanetary tourism being a thing even after a couple generations.

Give the kids pet dogs or cats or something for companions.

But man think of the kids, they will literally be left waiting for another kid to be born so they have someone to play with or relate to.

And do the kids have the right to go to Earth? Why must their family force them to live on Mars?

So many questions of ethics here.

Illusion, even without a Mars colony, parents (and other legal guardians) already have the the right to force their children to live with them, wherever that happens to be. I doubt Mars would be any different, legally. Sure, it might suck to grow up on Mars as a kid, but there are worse places to grow up on Earth. Any Mars colony would have access to all basic necessities, like Coda said, and probably some amenities as well.

As for the child's citizenship status, I think it works just as it does on Earth. If the child is born in a Mars colony that is considered U.S. territory, or if they are born to American parents during an expedition to Mars, then they are an American citizen at birth and may later run for president.

But when he or she reaches the age of 18 do they have the right to leave?

If they were allowed back would the government even allow them the right to live a normal life?

My view is that your forcing the kids to leave here for life while it's great and dandy their parents decide to live here on their on accord they're forcing their children to stay and making the choice for them.

As far as nationality, would it work like the military bases, you think?

The RIGHT to leave? Probably.

The ABILITY to leave? That's a different question, but it's true on Earth as well, just for different reasons -- money, skills, transportation, lots of things can make a child unable to go very far.

The ability to leave is another question as well... I'm sure it's possible but the money involve would be interesting. Not to mention no one would even be interested in letting the young adult to leave in the first place. :/

(This is Gaius, I forgot I was on my mule!)

I'm sure they'd the right to live wherever they want once they are adults. But Coda brings up a couple of good points - it would probably be more difficult to move to Earth from Mars than to move between most places on Earth. I do see the ethical concern you're bringing up, but I also see Coda's other point, which is that no matter where or how you're brought up as a child, you will always get different opportunities than other children, sometimes more opportunities and sometimes less, but that difference is always there even if we take Mars out of the picture. So I still don't know if raising a child on Mars is any worse than raising a child anywhere on Earth.

Also, while I can't speak for other countries, I highly doubt the U.S. would prevent any adult living in an American Mars colony from returning to Earth if a return trip was feasible. Though it might take a while to arrange, depending on how often trips between the two planets are being made at the time.

My girlfriend said a little while ago, "Hey, let's watch this space movie trailer!"

And then all of a sudden, this question seems 100% less off the wall. :P

Okay other questions:

If we all get into a position where we no longer send Mars supplies (war, we all die from global warming or whatever) and Mars couldn't become life sustaining, what would they do?

Sounds rather like they'd eventually die.

Or grow potatoes in the hab. Hard to say, really.

My mind is asking all these questions abut these scenarios and I don't know why. xD

Well, if you could come up with a compelling answer, you could write a book!

That's how that "Martian" book & movie got made. :P

I was about to say, Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles is about us going to Mars, followed by nuclear war.

...I actually was talking about this stuff to an aerospace engineer a few years back, and discussed problems with making planets (not Earth-sized and not in the "goldilocks" zone) habitable. Things like weaker gravitational and magnetic forces resulting in a much weaker atmosphere, and all. If I remember, it was thought to build under the planet's surface. With the plans for 3D printed structures in space, it could work. Would need to make it compartmentalized and create a sustainable environment inside the building (plants and all?)

I suspect it would be more healthy for people to live in a large spinning space station than it would be to live on the surface of Mars (or Luna, or Europa, or whatever else). Since we can control gravity and radiation shielding much better in orbital structures than on a planet's surface.


Of course, building something like that would be quite the undertaking.

I don't think I am going to be alive when Mars gets colonized. O.O

I wouldn't mind retiring on Mars in a few decades. :P

i'd def visit ouo

Which would be more costly: construct a fully liveable space station, or turn Mars into one? I don't know to be honest.

Turning Mars into one, definitely. There's always the gravity concern.

Atmosphere is practically non existent too. Of course, you can get around that with subterranean settlements. That would also protect from radiation

Mars has enough gravity to eventually hold an oxygenous atmosphere, though. And it would also provide more geothermal heat, and it'd be more resilient against asteroids. So while a space station would be cheaper -- even a giant space station -- Mars would be the superior option in the long run.

True. In the very long run. It would take quite a long time to terraform Mars. The primary problem with Mars, really, is the lack of magnetosphere I think. Problems with solar wind, UV rays, all that fun stuff.

Of course, if we're to the point we could terraform Mars, that's likely less of an issue.