Elon Musk - the place of women in his race to mars

[Outoftheshadow]

Hypothetical question:

So if Elon Musk ever gets a rocket to Mars and his next objective is to COLONISE it, what mix of our species should he choose?

(Assume all people have the right skills and knowledge needed and they all go voluntary)

1. ‘manned’ up primarily men
2. men and TWAW
3. equal mix of men, ciswomen and TWAW 4)equal mix men and ciswomen
4. more ciswomen than men
5. just ciswomen (along with semen samples)

Now consider If his space ship had room for just 20 people and he could only launch every 20 years, again which option would give him the BEST chance of achieving his primary objective, that of colonisation? DOES THIS AFFECT YOUR ANSWER?

Apologies for use of term ciswomen -sic, but I wanted to be clear about what ‘type’ of women i mean incase some one who denies sex tries to answer 😭

I can remember a few years ago I was on a writing forum (nanowrimo) and scrolling through random questions as procrastination from actually writing

Another would-be-writer had posted a question about their sci fi plot, which featured a huge spaceship populated only by women, decades into a generation spanning mission. It was crewed solely by women for the same reasons as in the op.

Of course there was a huge discussion about "how will you include trans women??" The flustered writer immediately apologised for the oversight and it was decided that of course there would be plenty of tw on board, because some women are infertile anyway, and how could you not include tw on a female only mission? Even in a thought experiment based on female reproduction, it is imperative to include tw at all times!
Not one person pointed out the obvious! It was when I was fairly new to the tensions around feminism and trans rights, and was one of my first "wtf?" Moments. (Not the last!)

@SquishySquirmy

I can remember a few years ago I was on a writing forum (nanowrimo) and scrolling through random questions as procrastination from actually writing

Another would-be-writer had posted a question about their sci fi plot, which featured a huge spaceship populated only by women, decades into a generation spanning mission. It was crewed solely by women for the same reasons as in the op.

Of course there was a huge discussion about "how will you include trans women??" The flustered writer immediately apologised for the oversight and it was decided that of course there would be plenty of tw on board, because some women are infertile anyway, and how could you not include tw on a female only mission? Even in a thought experiment based on female reproduction, it is imperative to include tw at all times!
Not one person pointed out the obvious! It was when I was fairly new to the tensions around feminism and trans rights, and was one of my first "wtf?" Moments. (Not the last!)

Oh dear, how sad to see imagination being censored!

We are lucky as a species that we have enough resources to "carry" individuals who are not contributing to the gene pool. In an emergency situation where lots of babies were needed, I think people would need to multitask, so engineers who could be mothers would be really useful.

I have enjoyed reading another thread about DNA and early human people, such a fascinating topic. I seem to also remember reading elsewhere than at some point (maybe ice age? not sure) the human population dropped dramatically, and then rebuilt itself. If you go back far enough we are all descended from one female, Mitochondrial Eve.

4)equal mix men and ciswomen
that's okay

@Lidia2001

4)equal mix men and ciswomen that's okay

You mean an equal mix of men and women

We used to say "if you can send one man to the moon why can't you send them all?" :)

He will be making the Men are from Mars part come true at last.

I know it's all very hypothetical, but thinking on this some more, the ethics are very difficult.

A pp asked why transmen would want to go off to colonise Mars, with all the hardship and mandatory breeding that would involve. The same is true of all women I think - it would be a very difficult existence, with (probably) no return ticket, and the whole future of Martian humanity would depend on you successfully carrying, birthing, and raising children in this harsh alien environment.

However there would be women who would do this... the human capacity for exploration and curiosity is immense, and previous eras of exploration involved huge risk and one way journeys.
Adults can consent to that.

But would it be ethical to deliberately conceive children on Mars? To bring them into that existence, to condemn them to that life? The same expectations would be placed on the next generation. Would male children be valued more highly than female, or less? Would there even be any male children born, or would conception be controlled so that only females were born for a few generations of Martian colonisation? (Presuming sperm can be stored for a long time).
What would happen if children were born with or developed disabilities or health conditions? In a society with such scant resources, probably struggling to survive, would they take the same approach that certain historical civilisations took (no room for the "weak").

It's an interesting thought experiment, but unless humans were on the brink and this was the only way of ensuring our short term survival, or unless Mars was a lot more habitable, I don't think this experiment could be justified from an ethical perspective.

@SquishySquirmy

I can remember a few years ago I was on a writing forum (nanowrimo) and scrolling through random questions as procrastination from actually writing

Another would-be-writer had posted a question about their sci fi plot, which featured a huge spaceship populated only by women, decades into a generation spanning mission. It was crewed solely by women for the same reasons as in the op.

Of course there was a huge discussion about "how will you include trans women??" The flustered writer immediately apologised for the oversight and it was decided that of course there would be plenty of tw on board, because some women are infertile anyway, and how could you not include tw on a female only mission? Even in a thought experiment based on female reproduction, it is imperative to include tw at all times!
Not one person pointed out the obvious! It was when I was fairly new to the tensions around feminism and trans rights, and was one of my first "wtf?" Moments. (Not the last!)

Why would the woke warriors have assumed a reference to an all-female crew did NOT include TW? I means, wouldn't it be a given, since TWAW? Gosh, it's almost like... no, can't be.