Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and The Mars Homestead Project

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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and The Mars
Homestead Project

• Gary C. Fisher
• Treasurer, The Mars Foundation
• ISDC 2006
• Los Angeles
• May 4-7 2005

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Abstract

• The Mars Homestead Project of the Mars
  Foundation created a design for the first mostly
  self-sufficient settlement on Mars. In looking at
  the problem of the role of life support systems
  in such a settlement we consulted Maslow's
  hierarchy of needs in order to prioritize the
  systems needed to arrive, survive and thrive on
  Mars. This talk relates how Maslow's hierarchy
  informed the design process of the settlement. 

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Abraham Maslow 1908-1970

• Maslow was a psychologist who studied law at the
  City College of New York and Cornell.
• He received his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and
  his PhD in 1934, all in psychology from the
  University of Wisconsin.

• Maslow served as the chair of the psychology
  department at Brandeis from 1951 to 1969.
• Maslow noticed while he worked with monkeys early
  in his career that some needs take precedence
  over others.
• Maslow's primary contribution to psychology is
  his Hierarchy of Human Needs, which he often
  presented as a pyramid.

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A Guiding Philosophy for Designing a Mars
Settlement

• Work with the environment not against it.
• There is no such thing as waste, there are only
  resources we are too stupid to know how to use.
• Martians cannot afford to be stupid. Our job is
  to learn and teach.
• Affordable and easy to maintain life support is a
  necessary, but insufficient, component of a
  Martian Civilization.

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MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Diagram from Robert Gwynne, Ph.D. University of
Tennessee with modifications
--- Thrive --- Survive --- Alive --- D
ead
(Achieving individual potential) (Self-esteem
and esteem from others) (Love, affection, being
part of groups) (Shelter, removal from
danger) (Health, food, sleep, liquid, sex, etc.)
lt- Life Support (Some) lt- Life Support (Mostly)
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MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
(Revised)Huitt, W. (2004). Maslow's hierarchy of
needs. Educational Psychology Interactive.
Valdosta, GA Valdosta State University.
Retrieved 08/05/2004 from, http//chiron.valdosta.
edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html.
--- Growth B-Needs ---
Deficiency D-Needs ---
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Necessary, but not Sufficient

• Life support addresses the two lowest levels of
  the hierarchy physiological and safety.
• Without these people will not act civilly.
• For a settlement to grow people should not have
  to think about the first two levels. They will
  be drawn to the settlement if they feel that it
  will satisfy one of the higher needs.
• Our Martian homestead may succeed perfectly at
  the first two levels, but unless it satisfies
  needs at the higher levels it would still fail.
  There are many places in the world today where
  the first two levels are not being satisfied.
  These are all places people would leave.

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Maslows HierarchyPhysiological

• Physiological needs are the very basic needs such
  as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these
  are not satisfied we may feel sickness,
  irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings
  motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible
  to establish homeostasis. Once they are
  alleviated, we may think about other things.

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Maslows HierarchySafety

• Safety needs have to do with establishing
  stability and consistency in a chaotic world.
  These needs are mostly psychological in nature.
  We need the security of a home and family.
• According to Maslow, if a person feels that they
  are in harms way the higher needs will not
  receive much attention.
• At some point we will need to address how the
  rules (law) are made and how the rule of law will
  be enforced.

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Maslows HierarchyLove Belonging (The Social
Needs)

• Love and belongingness are next on the ladder.
  Humans have a desire to belong to groups clubs,
  work groups, religious groups, family, gangs,
  etc. We need to feel loved by others, to be
  accepted by others. Performers appreciate
  applause. We need to be needed.
• Settlement design does not need to specifically
  address this or the higher levels. The initial
  settlers will certainly feel a sense of we are
  all in this together. Beyond that, people are
  very creative at creating trade organizations,
  fraternities, social clubs, etc. It might not be
  a bad idea to get this started through by
  planting the seed for some of these, e.g., The
  Hydroponics Guild.

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Maslows HierarchyEsteem

• There are two types of esteem needs. First is
  self-esteem which results from competence or
  mastery of a task. Second, there's the attention
  and recognition that comes from others. This is
  similar to the belongingness level, however,
  wanting admiration has to do with the need for
  power. People who have all of their lower needs
  satisfied, often acquire status symbols because
  doing so raises their level of esteem.
• I do not think we will need to be concerned about
  this. People are very creative at creating honor
  societies, awards, etc. It might not be a bad
  idea to get this started by planting the seed for
  some of these, e.g., Certified Air Recycling
  Engineer.

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Maslows HierarchySelf-actualization

• The need for self-actualization is "the desire to
  become more and more what one is, to become
  everything that one is capable of becoming."
  People who have everything can maximize their
  potential. They can seek knowledge, peace,
  esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, oneness
  with God, etc.
• At some point the Martians, assuming they need or
  desire immigrants, will need to publish and
  publicize first person accounts of how Mars
  helped a them achieve this. The possibility of
  this is what will keep Martians on Mars and Earth
  folks coming.

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Fishers Martian Life Support Hierarchy

• Energy/fuel (stored energy)
• Shelter (habitable volume pressure, temp,
  radiation)
• Air
• Water
• Food
• Light
• Clothing (Temperature Regulation)
• Medicine, medical supplies and equipment
• Communication
• Surface Transport
• Navigation

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Bootstrap Mode

• An assumption was made that an energy source
  large enough to meet the needs of the initial
  compliment of people will be imported from Earth
  and ready when they arrive. A fuel production
  system will also have been put in place and
  already made a supply of fuel.
• A further assumption was made that the initial
  complement arrives with adequate, if temporary,
  shelter and sufficient stores to get them through
  the boot strapping stage along with some
  communication, transport, and navigation systems
  to last until replacements can be made.

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Bootstrap Mode cont.

• Nothing can be recycled from these systems until
  native replacements have been made or
  replacements imported.
• Therefore, the systems, tools, and raw materials
  to bootstrap are a separate imported group of
  things.
• The initial task of the bootstrap systems is to
  produce their own replacements. Again, we can
  assume that our initial power source will
  function as is for an extended period. And
  triple redundancy of this system is provided from
  Earth. The priority would then be items 2 thru
  11 of the life support hierarchy in so far as it
  is part of the effort to create a backup
  bootstrap system.

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The Dawn of Self-Sufficiency

• The next task of the bootstrap systems is to
  produce additional replacements for themselves to
  support later waves of settlers.
• The additional systems then can be used to
  produce additional materials to be used to
  enhance the quality of life of the settlers and
  build redundancy into the basic systems
  (including energy). It is at this point that
  safety needs are met and population increase can
  be supported and that entrepreneurial activity
  can really begin. It is also at this point that
  we move beyond the physiological and safety
  levels of Maslows hierarchy.

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The Dawn of Self-Sufficiency cont.

• There is another basic need that spans items 1
  thru 8 above. This is waste processing. It need
  not be waste recycling, but at a minimum, waste
  must be processed so that it does not foul the
  shelter or disrupt the systems addressing the
  other basic needs.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• Most of the issues before us have been well
  researched and in many cases prototypes have been
  built and tested. Our main task is to weed
  through the existing information and separate the
  wheat from the chaff. THIS IS FALSE!

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• We decided we should avoid futures and
  speculating upon the technologies available in
  the future and only use existing technology.
  Trusting your life to new technologies is for
  explorers settlers use tried and true. Our
  own credibility is also at stake.
• For 40 years the artificial intelligence that
  designs the fusion reactor has been just 10 years
  away.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• The primary focus of past and current research in
  Closed Environmental Life Support has assumed
  zero gravity, under orbital conditions, and
  assume smaller populations than we are
  considering. While not entirely irrelevant, I
  suspect that in most cases the appropriate
  Martian solution is one based upon a modification
  of an Earth (gravity field) system.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• Environmental Closure is less important on Mars
  than in space and the tradeoff is one of more
  energy use (to extract required materials from
  the resources at hand or maintain environmental
  conditions within tolerance) in exchange for less
  closure. This may be the more cost effective
  route.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• Current system metrics Equivalent Mass (EM),
  Equivalent System Mass (ESM), etc. were
  formulated for orbital and interplanetary mission
  designs, not for settlement. We may need to
  define a more appropriate metric.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• The last two points combine to point us towards a
  metric of ESE (equivalent system energy) since on
  Mars the limiting factor is not the launch
  capacity available to put mass into space, but
  the energy available to manipulate the mass at
  hand. I suspect we also want to weight the
  metric by the type of energy used electricity
  vs high grade heat vs low grade heat, etc. This
  would give a preference to systems that use low
  grade heat (probably the waste component of some
  other system) over one that requires high grade
  heat or electricity to achieve the same result.

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other components of a good Settlement
Technologies Metric

• simplicity vs complexity
• low maintenance vs high maintenance
• ability to grow
• in situ resource percentage vs imported resource
  percentage
• decentralized vs centralized, etc.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• For settlers life support systems will be a
  business and an occupation, not a social program
  or public utility or something provided by the
  lowest bidder on a government contract.
• We want to create an environment that generates
  competing private suppliers of habitable space,
  air, water, food, and energy and everything
  else for that matter. We are starting a
  settlement a town on the Martian frontier - not
  a commune or government run lab. This is not a
  kibbutz and it is not Antarctica!

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• Lets not forget services banking, insurance,
  entertainment, communications, transport,
  education, child care, legal, security, hotel,
  funeral, restaurant, etc. People could be
  imported from Earth to provide these services,
  but it makes more sense for these to be secondary
  and tertiary occupations of the initial settlers.
  In every Western movie what were the major
  components of a frontier town? general store,
  Hotel/saloon/restaurant/brothel, jail/sheriffs
  office, barber shop, livery stable/black smiths,
  train station/telegraph office, undertaker,
  church, and a bank (to be robbed).

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Miscellaneous Thoughts On Martian Settlement
Design

• Historically the town portion of a settlement is
  dependent upon a major nearby economic activity
  port, tourism, ranching, farming, mining,
  manufacturing, government, gambling, etc. What
  is the main economic support for a Martian
  settlement? We cannot just focus on what makes
  it possible, we need to focus on what will make
  it viable.