The long game: Mars & extraterrestrial AI niche
Costrum exits to speed up the process of humanity becoming multiplanetary and creating a city of 14,000 people on Mars by 2053.
To make that happen, we need to remove inefficient bureaucracy and maximize cash flow so they can grow faster.
And solve the knowledge retention problem for the space & deep tech industry - we already flew to the Moon in the 60s. But senior engineers retired and their know-how was lost. We forgot how to do it.
“14k city on Mars” is our long game, and there are long-term projects and collaborations currently in stealth mode.
Some we hope to launch this year.
Big things take time.
And breaking the barrier of single planet civilisation is worth the price.
But why Mars? We need a self-sustaining colony on Mars to maximize the probability of an amazing future for humanity.
Space-originated technology is already helping us on Earth: GPS, baby nappies, your smartphone screen. Solving Mars will solve many of Earth's problems. Any place in the Sahara or the peak of Mount Everest is Garden Eden compared to Mars.
... and we need Mars to minimize the probability of having no future at all. And a backup planet for long-term survival in case of events like an asteroid >1 km in diameter, all-out nuclear war, or hostile super-intelligent AI. Dinosaurs once dominated the Earth, amazing single-planet species. But where are they now?
Maybe it is super important, but how? It seems impossible or will take forever. It took only 66 years to go from the aeroplane in 1903 to the Moon. Becoming interplanetary with a city on Mars doesn’t break the laws of physics. It’s not impossible.
We have all the core technologies to build a Mars-1 city; no fundamental breakthrough in science is required.
We have technology that the Apollo programme of the 1960s could only dream of. And we have great engineers who will solve the remaining puzzles and get the job done.
What seems to be missing is: more talented and determined people, more money—especially for early-stage projects and startups developing frontier technologies—and, above all, the courage to put our best work into it and get it done. Like the Apollo program did.
Colony plans are being made. For example, Mars Colonies is a collection of 22 of the best projects for a permanent Mars settlement for 1,000 inhabitants submitted for the Mars Society’s The Mars Colony Prize 2018. They cover everything from business models to sociological and political considerations to technical details.
There are many brave people willing to take on the challenge of space. In 2022, the European Space Agency announced a competition for an astronaut, and over 22,500 people applied.
Ok, maybe it is super important and possible, but it’s for the largest space agencies or superpowers. What could you or I do? Aiming for 14,000 to 44,000 inhabitants by 2053, we believe our long-term projects can make a significant difference. We can’t build a 14k city on Mars alone, but it is not impossible for us to create an ecosystem with hundreds of other companies and institutions. Crazy? OpenAI started 9 years ago, Google 26 years ago. 2053 is a long way off, especially if you are laser-focused.
