Urban planner Justin Hollander takes a look at the popular sci-fi series
Justin Hollander wrote the book on developing a Mars colony. He compares his research to the fictional settlement in the Apple TV+ series “For All Mankind.” Photo illustration: Momo Shinzawa
The conceit at the center of For All Mankind, the Emmy-winning sci-fi series, is that Russian cosmonauts beat U.S. astronauts to the moon, altering the course of world events. Electric cars emerge in the 1980s, John Lennon survives, Al Gore is elected president—and the space race never ends.
By the start of the show’s fifth season, more than 40 years have passed since the moon landing and a human settlement on Mars has begun experiencing growing pains. While that idea might have seemed farfetched even a decade ago, fact may be catching up to fiction. NASA has plans to build a moon base and to send a nuclear-powered ship to Mars. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has predicted that one million people will live on Mars by 2050—with his company, SpaceX, leading the charge.
Justin Hollander, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts, has followed these Martian developments with a mix of interest and frustration. Missing from the fictional and nonfictional plans to colonize another planet, he says, is input from people critical to designing a successful settlement: urban planners.
To address this omission, Hollander began studying settlements, extreme environments, and Martian resources and published The First City on Mars: An Urban Planner’s Guide to Settling the Red Planet in 2023. He also directs the Urban Mars Project at Tufts and has consulted on projects ranging from a hermetically sealed, high-altitude hotel and an orbiting hospital.
The finale of For All Mankind’s fifth season will be available on May 29 on Apple TV+. Tufts Now asked Hollander to watch the first episode of the latest season and discuss how the show compares to his own research.
What led you to write about Mars?
I was trying to understand how we, in urban planning, could be useful. This was around the time of some of the early pronouncements by Elon Musk, and Andy Weir’s book The Martian. There was this Mars fever. Everyone was talking about it, but none of it reflected the content, knowledge, methods, or skills that we teach. So, I was angry.
In season 5 of For All Mankind, we see interior and exterior shots of Happy Valley, the fictional Mars colony. How did the show’s settlement compare to your ideas for Martian development?
The show is very melodramatic, but in terms of a fictionalized account of early settlers, I did enjoy that. I thought that was pretty interesting.
They showed images of domes and you see a jumble of different structures mashed together. It’s not clear how one relates to the other. But what I learned in my research is that, at this stage in the development of a real Martian city, we would expect it to look a lot like Antarctica—as a science-first mission, [McMurdo Station in] Antarctica was cobbled together over time and not very well planned.
Domes feature prominently in Justin Hollander’s proposed Mars settlement plan. Illustration: Berk Diker
What do you think the show’s creators did best?
They definitely capture the challenge of being in a colony. When I did the research for my book, I did a sweeping history of when humans tried to settle satellite communities and all the difficulties that entails.
This year, we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country and we’re reminded of the tensions from all those years ago. We get to see it living and breathing in this show—the tension of, “Hey, this is our Mars. Who do those people on Earth think they are?” That’s exactly what the colonists in the United States, in Boston and Lexington and Concord, were saying. That rang very true.
A former astronaut serves as the show’s technical advisor, helping the creators make the space travel feel realistic. If you were their urban planning advisor, what advice would you give them?
They did not seem to pay much attention to elevating the human experience. Most of the corridors are dark, for example. I wrote in my book that the evidence is compelling that people will not make it, everyone will be wiped out, if you can’t pay attention to their psychological needs.
I would include materials and colors that feel more Earthlike. Even those who are born on Mars and have lived there their whole lives, they evolved from Earth’s environment, from the African savannah, and need to see and be surrounded by that kind of imagery.
You cite a range of fictional works in your book, from Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles to Andy Weir. Why do you think Mars has inspired generations of science fiction?
People look up and it’s the brightest, reddest thing in the night sky. There’s nothing else like. I think people are drawn to the possibility of another home. Elon Musk is always talking about being a multi-planetary species and I think that is very attractive.
It’s definitely a fun time to be urban planning on Mars.
