FAQ: Why Call it “Little Martian”?

The most common question I have received since I announced my intention to launch (no pun intended) the LM Coffee Project has been: “Why call it ‘Little Martian’?”

(Though, conversely, to those that know me personally, it’s been more of a “of course it’s called that, Matt”)

You see, I love space. I love everything about it.

I love the history of astronomy; from the ancient mythologies (especially those of Native Hawaiian lore, and Irish, and Chinese, and…okay, I love it all!), to the scientific probings of the Greeks, to the early telescope age, to the spacecraft era…

I love the philosophy of contemplating our place in all this vastness- the “cosmic perspective” as Carl Sagan would call it.

I love the fact that during the Cold War, implements designed to launch and detonate nuclear weapons upon enemies were repurposed instead to explore other worlds.

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In the days before telescopes, when the night sky held the markings of the tales of the people (constellations), there were points of light that wandered among the fixed stars in the sky. Among these wanderers, one stood out as different; Mars.

Likely due to its blood red tinge, even to the unaided eye, Mars’ movements were thought, in many cultures across the globe to bring war, suffering, and/or misfortune.

However, upon the invention of telescopes, Mars fortunes changed from a harbinger of doom to a place of hope; a potentially “habitable” world where parallels were seen between our own planet and this distant one.

Observers described seas, highlands, lowlands, and polar caps. They even saw what they believed to be vegetation. Then, in the late 1800’s, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli noted the existence of “canali” or deep channels running across the surface of the planet.

Upon reading Schiaparelli’s work, American Percival Lowell built an observatory in Flagstaff, AZ and soon thereafter inferred a species of inhabitants that had engineered vast canal networks from the white, “snow covered” polar regions to the more temperate equatorial regions. He envisioned an ancient species desperately attempting to stay alive on the face of a dying planet.

From these ideas came the stories of H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs and countless others, imagining this barren world with Martian inhabitants, often mirroring our own best or worst attributes.

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I realize now that I’m space-rambling (you see now why I choose to write analytical pieces. Otherwise I end up in long winded, stream-of-consciousness musings), so I’ll do my best to wrap this up (however, if you are interested in the history of Mars and Mars exploration, may I suggest Jim Bell and William Sheehan’s newish book, Discovering Mars).

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Back to the original question then: why did I choose the name Little Martian (other than for my fascination with space and a lingering soft-spot for Mars)?

Well, (and I have to be careful or else we will quite quickly find ourselves in the midst of another rambling thicket…) because I believe that we must start looking at our doings on Earth much as we would on Mars.

Mars exploration can very much serve as a blueprint.

For, not only will it cost a lot of money (in the ballpark of $30k) per kilogram to get to Mars (so even something as insignificant as an oversized wrapper can have a huge, negative effect), but also living 2 years without a resupply (conversely, the ISS gets resupplies multiple times a year from multiple countries) is an incredibly challenging endeavor.

Without getting too technical, this means that a Martian space station would have to be immensely efficient in their waste management (in other words generate next to no garbage), with the key being reusability.

You see, a trip to Mars requires meticulous planning. Each mission can only really occur during specific points in our orbits. These transfer windows, which spaced about two years apart and last only a short while, are the only time a Martian astronaut could expect to receive supplies or even a ride home.

You can see now why these Martian inhabitants would need to minimize (understatement) waste, be ultra-efficient with their energy (solar efficiency is, at its very best, a little more than half as efficient as here on Earth), and make as much energy, food, equipment, etc. as possible on site rather than to lug it along (this is called “in situ resource utilization” which is a fancy way of saying that it’s much more volumetric and mass efficient to bring a seed than it is a tomato [however, it must be noted that there is a lot of complexity in this relatively simple principle]). Imagine trying to take 2 year’s worth of water with you anywhere!

In short, Martian astronauts will have to, by necessity, view their resources as finite; their lives will depend on it.

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So, again, why Little Martian?

Well, I suppose it’s an ode to the history of Martian exploration and to the wonder, fear, and hope that Martian musings have held over the eons.

Furthermore, it’s an ode to the idea that we need to think of our planet as finite. That we can’t simply create more and more waste and pollution and expect to be okay. Another wrapper, another bottle, another battery, another…well, you get the idea. We must think like Martians.

Also, it is, I think, a cool name: “Little Martian”.