A manned mission to Mars is faced with challenges and topics that may not be obvious but of great importance and challenging for such a mission. This is the first book that collects contributions from scholars in various fields, from astronomy and medicine, to theology and philosophy, addressing such topics. The discussion goes beyond medical and technological challenges of such a deep-space mission. The focus is on human nature, human emotions and biases in such a new environment.
The primary audience for this book are all researchers interested in the human factor in a space mission including philosophers, social scientists, astronomers, and others. This volume will also be of high interest for a much wider audience like the non-academic world, or for students.

Martian Environmental Psychology: The Choice Architecture of a Mars Mission and Colony.- One Mars: The Ethics of Settlement in a Unique Place.- Can Deep Altruism Sustain Space Settlement?.- Interplanetary Sustainability: Mars as a Means of a Long-term Sustainable Development of Humankind in the Solar System.- Mars, the Next Frontier? A Public Ethical Interrogation.- Ethics on an Uninhabited Planet.- Mars and Beyond: The Feasibility of Living in the Solar System.- Program Services Planning for a Mars Hardship Post; Reflections on the Need for Social, Psychological, and Spiritual Services.- Identifying and Monitoring the Complex System-of-Systems that Constitutes Human Habitation of Mars.- Envisioning the Martian Colonies.- Religion for a Spatial Colony: Posing the Right Questions.- Human Place in Outer Space: Should We and Can We Build a Human Colony on Mars? Skeptical Remarks.- Mars and the New Colonies: A Declaration of Independence? Interplanetary Fiduciary Relationships and a self-sustaining Off-Planet Economy.- Science and Ethics in the Exploration of Mars.

Konrad Szocik (born 1985 in ¿ary, Poland) received his PhD in Philosophy (Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland). Currently, he is assistant professor at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów, and editor of the "Studia Humana" journal. Research areas include cognitive and evolutionary study of religion, evolution of cooperation, and the idea of the manned mission to Mars and Mars colonization.