How to Mars review: Sci-fi satire about reality TV on the Red Planet

By Clare Wilson

IN 2012, a Dutch group announced a novel plan for financing the literally astronomical costs of setting up a base on Mars: the firm would sell the TV rights for the selection and training of the would-be astronauts and the colonisation process too.

While there was massive public interest and more than 4000 people worldwide applied to be part of what was admitted to be a one-way mission, the company involved, Mars One Ventures, seemed out of its depth and went bankrupt in 2019. Now the idea lives on in fiction, in the form of How to Mars, the debut sci-fi novel from David Ebenbach.

The book explores with both humour and pathos the consequences of humanity leaving the challenging task of extraterrestrial colonisation to a TV company focused on ratings and sponsorship opportunities. The pitfalls are obvious from the start. During the selection process, the firm, Destination Mars!, seems less interested in finding people with the “right stuff” than in creating a telegenic melting pot.

Scandinavian Stefan, who speaks almost accentless English, is secretly told to “sound more Danish”, leaving him suspicious of the accents of his competitors. During the training programme in an Australian desert, another applicant is ejected for making the mistake of “breaking the fourth wall”, or speaking to the camera.

“The Mars settlers are in a vulnerable position: their survival depends on the goodwill of a TV company”

As the book opens, the six scientists at the colony are two years into their mission and all is not well. The crew members have become bored – of each other, the monotonous food and the never-changing scenery.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, viewers are bored too, which means the team suffers the indignity of the show being cancelled for poor ratings. The TV company has no incentive to move to Stage Two: sending out the next batch of colonists and terraforming Mars. The crew’s handlers on Earth have been suspiciously quiet about that side of things for a while.

The settlers are in a vulnerable position: their survival depends on the goodwill of a company on which they are now just a financial drain. When they disagree about something with a handler, she sets them straight: “Do you realize that you don’t even get to eat unless we send you food?”

Fortunately for the story, the colonists’ lives soon take a more interesting turn, bringing fresh challenges as well as the return of TV viewers.

The humour has shades of Douglas Adams, whose The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series excelled at satirising the frustrations of ordinary people battling faceless bureaucracy. In Ebenbach’s novel, Destination Mars! saddles the colonists with towels that aren’t absorbent because they bear enormous company logos.

But on the whole, How to Mars is a more serious read than Hitchhiker’s, exploring themes such as bereavement and mental illness. One crew member’s turmoil in particular is portrayed with convincing realism.

Indeed, a genuine fear for Earth’s real-life space agencies is that future missions to Mars may be jeopardised by the astronauts coming to hate each other. This has been investigated in mock missions, where crews are isolated for months in sealed habitats.

So far, no space agencies have turned any such projects into reality TV. If How to Mars is any guide, let’s hope they never do.

Source: Humans - newscientist.com