TH UPDATED: September 27 , 2020

THE SCRAMBLE FOR (2060) BACKGROUND GUIDE TRITONMUN XXI (VIRTUAL) –NOVEMBER 7TH, 2020

1

BACKGROUND GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Head Chair Letter…………………………………………………………………………… 2

Vice Chair Letter……………………………………………………………………………. 3

Position Paper Guidelines…………………………………………………………………... 4

Committee Background……………………………………………………………………. 5

The State of the Universe.……………………………………………………………… 5

The Beginning of …………………………………………………………. 6

The State of .………………………………………………………………………. 8

The Modern Space Race………………………………………………………………… 10

The Great Migration……………………………………………………………………. 12

Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………………….. 14

Helpful Timeline……………………………………………………………………………. 15

Questions to Consider………………………………………………………………………. 16

Suggested Sites……………………………………………………………………………... 16

2

HEAD CHAIR LETTER

Dear Delegates,

My name is Samantha Ivezich (she/hers) and I am incredibly excited to be chairing this virtual committee for TritonMUN XXI. Starting off with a little bit about myself, I am a second- year pre-medical student going for a major in human biology with a minor in philosophy and bioethics. Outside of academics, I serve as the V.P. Finance for Model UN @ UCSD and travel with our competitive team (when we’re actually traveling, of course). I also am involved with our Esports and gaming organization here “on” campus, Triton Gaming, serving as the Marketing Lead. Obviously, my involvement covers a pretty wide and chaotic range, so feel free to ask me about literally anything (within appropriate reason) involving college life; I’ll be happy to answer as best I can. Although this committee is based on pure theoretical fantasy, I feel it would benefit delegates to “study up” on international law regarding space and extraterrestrial colonization as well as the intersection of government and private corporations in dealings with space travel and habitation. Also, some base-level space and Mars knowledge wouldn’t hurt as well! However, these are just suggestions, do whatever makes sense for your personal character arc and interests. As with most crisis committees, prior preparation doesn’t necessarily guarantee success; it's what you do in real-time and how you react to situations that counts the most. Ultimately, this committee is what you delegates choose to make of it as quite literally anything could happen. Wrapping up, I want you delegates to have as much fun preparing and participating in this committee as we had creating it. Since this is purely fantasy, I am completely okay with the premise of this committee being taken in crazy and inventive directions. Existing in an online platform may present new challenges and be a bit different at first, but I ask you all to bear with us and me as we try to make the best out of a complicated situation. I know many of you have been itching to get back into the MUN after quite some time of inactivity over the past few months, so let’s make this a great one! I wish you all luck and safety, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns during your preparation!

Best, Samantha Ivezich Chair | Scramble for Mars [email protected]

3

VICE CHAIR LETTER

Hi Everyone!

My name is Arushi and I’m your Vice Chair for the Mars Board of Trustees. I’m so excited to be chairing this committee and look forward to hearing all your thoughts! I’ve had the to chair many conferences in the past, including one in The Hague, but this will be my first time taking part in TritonMUN. I’m a second-year international student at UCSD and I’m majoring in Molecular Synthesis. The integration of molecular biology and chemistry is something I find really interesting and I hope to pursue something related to genetic engineering in the future. I believe that gene alteration has a massive scope in our lifetime and it’s something I’m extremely passionate about. Scramble for Mars is a really fascinating committee because of its possible implications in the future. I don’t believe that it’s out of the question that humans could inhabit another and introducing topics like these to the future leaders of the world is a great way to stimulate the advancement of such possibilities. I can’t wait to meet you all virtually in November, stay safe and good luck with your research!

Sincerely, Arushi Dev

4

POSITION PAPER GUIDELINES

TRITONMUN POSITION PAPER GUIDELINES • Position Papers are due at 11:59 PM on October 28th, 2020 o Requests for extensions must be sent by the advisor to TritonMUN by October 19th. • Position Papers can be submitted by one of two ways: 1. The Google Form linked here, https://forms.gle/s17Z92qLMMcfjMAt9 (Advisors will be emailed a Google Form link that can be used by advisors) 2. Email to: [email protected] • Please Note: This email is strictly for submissions of position papers. You will not receive a reply from this email. For any concerns that require a response, please email [email protected]. • In place of a position paper and in order to facilitate an engaging crisis committee, delegates should submit their first 3 personal crisis notes, up to 2 pages. • Crisis notes should be single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt. font. • At the top of each paper, include your character, name, committee and topic. • Please refer to the delegate resources tab on the website for information on how to write a personal crisis note.

5

COMMITTEE BACKGROUND

THE SCRAMBLE FOR MARS

As previously stated, this is a sci-fi/fantasy committee. The actual background of what happened, the , the rise of corporations, is fabricated by the TritonMUN staff. That said, these questions are real and the threat of this committee becoming a reality is just as ever present. Specifically, you all are members of the Mars Board of Trustees, a collection of corporations and states placed in charge of managing and maintaining Mars. As members of this board, you are all tasked with a duality. Simultaneously, you must maintain the day to day operations of Mars. Managing power, , food, and communication are critical to keeping the populace in check. In this aspect, remember that your decisions have consequences and “failure” will result in distrust and chaos, even deaths and suffering of the people. That said, you may make any decision you like. Should you value profit over people (as many of you may) this is acceptable. The other role you will serve is the overall task of state building. You and your fellow delegates will need to decide how much of the current system should be changed, and how Mars will be operated from a governmental standpoint. Further, you will consider how multiple governments and private corporations should intermix. With this in mind, we will now cover the background of this committee and how we got here.

The State of the Universe

The year is 2060 and the world has gotten bigger. No longer is humanity contained to a single planet. Since the mid 2030’s we have gone beyond, now occupying Mars and beginning the exploration of and . Space travel has accelerated far beyond its roots and has truly opened up the final frontier. In 2024 ’s company, “SpaceX”, reinvigorated the interest in space travel and exploration when its rocket “Starship” became the first rocket to travel beyond the ISS in over 50 years. Partnering with NASA, the Starship model took humans back to the through the Artemis program and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative 1 , providing an effective vehicle to transport crew and supplies back and forth and defying previous single-use rockets. With this successful use of Starship as a “lunar shuttle,” the

1 https://www.spacex.com/updates/nasa-selects-lunar-optimized-starship/

6

Exploration Program was set even further forward than expected, exceeding previous time tables and launching first in 2028. This first mission, coined Ares I, first took to Mars without yet landing on the surface, but circumnavigated around the planet, similar to the initial Apollo missions. It wouldn’t be until 2033 with the launch of Ares IV that humans first touched down on the surface.

(SpaceX 2020 Starship Prototype)2 The Beginning of Colonization

The Ares IV mission marked one of the most significant developments in human history at this point. For the first time ever, mankind had moved beyond Earth in quest of a new home. The crew consisted of six brave astronauts who were given the task of assembling pieces of a future Martian community, utilizing unmanned payloads sent to the planet both before and after their arrival. Just as the first six touched down on came the next stage of the plan, the Ares-Hermes missions, tasked with the creation and population of martian colonies. Known as

2 https://www.wfit.org/post/spacex-starship-update#stream/0

7

the “First 50,” the crew of these missions were composed of fifty scientists, , designers, and computer scientists all tasked with developing a successful civilization for the next generation of colonizers. However, the Ares-Hermes mission came with a catch – the crew would never be returning to Earth, living out the rest of their days on Mars. Building upon the simple structures temporarily raised by the initial six astronauts for their arrival, these specialized professionals were tasked with building a lasting and sustainable community even after the Ares IV crew returned home. Although this early model was very basic, every Martian colony to come would base itself upon its design. The very first Martian colony, named “A New Hope,” included a series of small 3D-printed houses and gardens within large domes oxygenated through generators and massive swathes of trees. Outside the early domes were giant generators built of parts flown to Mars on various payload missions and more Martian soil. These generators pumped for the civilization and operated the water purification and creation plants. These generators also ran the mining equipment across the colony. These massive drills were tasked with digging into the soil to pull natural resources out. Mostly, they were looking for underground water sources and iron to help build and support their machines. However, they struck something more unexpected: oil.

Under soil, massive oil reserves were discovered. These giant mines were easily accessible and offered the settlers a new and unexpected resource. It was of little use to the colonizers as much of their machinery ran on solar or other reusable energy, but it was reported back to SpaceX’s Earth based discovery team nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, this caused a massive stir on the power-starved Earth and many companies doubled their Martian exploration efforts. The government of Earth was instantly fascinated too, with the leading the charge. Their claim was simple. Since SpaceX was an American company, the oil was theirs. Elon Musk was ordered by the U.S. president to send a new wave of “collection ships” to space to drill and collect the oil. Besides being utterly confused as to what a “collection ship” was, Musk declined. In his words, “Mars belonged to no country of Earth; it was its own territory”. The only flag swinging on Mars was the black X of Space X. Thus, the only person with control over Mars was SpaceX, and hypothetically, whatever other company could reach the planet.

America had abandoned their national space program the decade prior by decommissioning their only rocket, and no other nation worldwide had anything that could make the journey to Mars.

8

The Indians and Russians were the closest but were both horribly outpaced by the much faster corporations as they struggled with their own domestic problems. The settlers of “A New Hope” had travelled to Mars with the expectation of surviving 30 years. After that, the generators would fail and they would cease to exist. Corporate America would outpace that deadline by 15 years.

The State of Earth

Before understanding the history of Mars, it is critical to understand the status of the only planet humanity had called home until now. Earth went through a massive economic boom in the mid2020s. The global markets had primed the planet to explode in this way, but it came at a cost. Wealth inequality spiraled out of control as over 50% of the global population fell below the mean income while billionaires hoarded more wealth than ever. However, as Jeff Bezos raced for the 300-billion-dollar mark, the world around him was collapsing.

Population growth was accelerating faster than anyone could have predicted with nations like India and China each hovering just below the two-billion-dollar mark. The economy of most developed nations was propped up by bad real estate deals, foreign currency hoarding, and suffering untold amongst their least fortunate. This fell apart in 2026 with an economic collapse that damaged almost every nation worldwide.

While countries around the globe rapidly fell into economic ruin, the corporate powers of the world just grew stronger. With the wealth and resources to support individual people, corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Google began turning into small pseudo-countries. Nations around the world began turning to these corporations for support in unprecedented ways. At one point in the early 2030s, Samsung offered a bailout to the nation of South Korea in exchange for a stake in its future government. Seeing no other option short of complete collapse, the South Korean government agreed.

These issues were only heightened by the horrific effects of climate change around the world. Water levels had risen to the point that low lying lands were rapidly flooding at all times. Wildfires raged across most continents in an ever-going stream of fire and destruction. The increased caused irreversible damage to most farms across the North American Midwest and Central Asia leading to massive food shortages around the world.

9

(Wildfires raging across Earth after climate change rocks the globe)3 Finally, to top all of this off, Earth faced a global energy crisis in 2031 that threatened the lives of more than 3 billion people. Following the example of the United States and Great Britain, other superpowers around the world had pulled out of climate agreements and defaulted back to oil and natural gas as their primary fuel source. However, these resources are limited. Corporate powers realized they needed them to maintain a profit, and began hoarding any and all fuel they could get. The rest of the world was forced to either live off the scraps or work for corporations in order to survive.

In total, Earth was in a rough place. The nations of old had little power compared to the corporate entities that now dominated. On paper, organizations like the U.N., the African Union, N.A.T.O and others still existed, but their power was limited. By 2030 most people had lost hope that the world would ever return to the place they once knew. The great discovery of Mars had led to nothing of importance, and the era of hope appeared over. However, the discovery of oil on Mars in 2035 changed everything. The beginning of what is known as the Modern Space Race changed everything.

3 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-climate-change-may-make-australia-wildfires-more-common

10

The Modern Space Race

Starting in 2035, the corporate powers of the world accelerated their Mars technology a hundred- fold. Although many companies had already been working on developing a more reliable form of space travel, the discovery of oil on Mars completely shifted the pace at which they worked. For the first time ever, heading to Mars was profitable. Although SpaceX was the first to land on Mars and claim the land, they were not the first to develop a cost-effective form of Space Travel. In fact, 's Virgin Galactic4 was the first to create a commercially viable form of space travel. SpaceShip 8 and White Knight 8 would make history on March 15, 2039 as the first successful return trip from Mars. The craft flew to the red planet, made one lap, landed at “A New Hope,” and made a successful return trip to Earth. Most importantly, SpaceShip 8 could be refueled, repaired, and ready for a second liftoff within a week. Although it seemed like science fiction to many, corporate America had just figured out a way to successfully travel to and from space. This single flight changed the course of human history forever.

(Early Mars base concepts for “A New Hope”)5 Every company in the world wanted a piece of what the Virgin Group had just done. Many efforts in both the public and the private sector instantly flipped from saving people from the devastating climate to developing a way off Earth. There were obviously still issues, like Mars

4 https://www.virgingalactic.com/ 5 https://www.sciencealert.com/mars-habitat-rendering-challenge-winners-hp-martian-colony-futuristic- science-fiction

11

being mostly uninhabitable, but most brushed those off as quick fixes for later. For now, space travel was all the rage. The problem was the cost. Even though the mission could be completed to and from Mars, it was still a wildly expensive and taxing experience. Individuals could rarely afford the travel on their own, but the larger corporations could.

By 2040 Alphabet had partnered with Virgin Galactic to create the newest and largest Mars base. Their new site would be the beginning of genuine civilization being built on Mars as it created large semipermeable atmospheric bubbles that could house the populace in a way that would oxygenate all of them. This compound was significantly larger than “A New Hope,” holding well over 1000 citizen workers immediately. Later that same year Chinese national company Tencent made their maiden voyage to Mars on SpaceShip 8 and developed another thousand-person colony. Each of these colonies would grow at an absurd rate in the following years, eventually becoming large, Earth-like cities within the bubbles of Mars.

In 2043, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin landed their the “New Shepard” on Mars for the first time.6 New Shepard was a significantly larger shuttle than any of the other spacecraft and landed fully prepared to roll out a full-sized Amazon headquarters, factory, and “living and working city”. Amazon’s HQ5 opened up on September 15, 2044 with a massive population of civilian workers already in place to manage the affairs of the company's new Mars base.

In 2047, the future shifted yet again with SpaceX’s return to the game. Their newest shuttle, StarlinerX, was the cheapest corporate transport in the business. It still didn’t offer effective (StarlinerX preparing for flight)7 civilian transport without sponsorship by one’s company, but it offered smaller companies a

6 https://www.blueorigin.com/ 7 https://phys.org/news/2019-01-elon-musk-prototype-mars-bound-rocket.html

12 reason to develop Martian colonies. With the low cost of space travel, the plentiful natural resources of Mars, and ample space to build new factories, developing a new factory/colony on Mars was an incredibly cost-effective choice for even less space-focused companies. Companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Apple, and Microsoft opened up factories/cities on Mars to manufacture their goods and export them to Earth and other Martian colonies.

The key to all of these corporate civilizations was the “civilian-worker” clause in many citizens’ contracts for coming to Mars. Most civilians on the new Martian colonies were sponsored by their companies to make the journey. These people were offered a chance to flee the collapsing Earth, but in exchange basically became indentured servants for the corporations that now had full control of Mars. Between the standard 30-year clause in the contract, the intense interest rate, and the constant hidden fees, few people would ever be able to pay off their contracts and be free of their corporation. In general, these companies cared little for their “citizens.” Food, water, and power came second to the only important resource: profit. Analysts worked day and night to determine if every miniscule change made would affect the profit margins for the company. The board of directors rarely approved any change unless it directly benefited the profit of the company.

Each of these colonies began rapidly expanding in the years following 2044. Most went from a simple factory to a full city. Many became fully self-sustainable, engaged in trade, had local leadership and independent districts, and acted as city states in the .

The Great Migration

Beginning in 2050, the Great Migration was the single largest movement of humans to Mars in the history of space travel. Over the course of the next two years, the population of Mars burst from just barely a million to just under a billion. Amazon alone was now housing over 100 million people in shanty towns and slums across their territory. The major problem with the Great Migration was a complete lack of care given to the logistics of moving hundreds of millions of people to a new planet. Most corporations had not considered what would happen if they regularly multiplied their population by 10-15-fold. Overcrowding became commonplace

13

among most corporate states as shanty towns grew to their absolute maximum width and then immediately built upwards until they regularly blocked out the . Health was completely disregarded by the city governments as fresh water, medicine, and health care would routinely bite into corporate profits. Most people on Earth could not begin to understand the chaos that was unfolding on Mars, and those who did chose to ignore it. For many, traveling to Mars was a real possibility now and represented a chance to flee the crippled Earth. From 2050 to 2059 corporate Mars continued to explode at a rate that was once unbelievable. The first 50, still on the planet they expected to die on before ever seeing new people, watched as their small home was rapidly overrun by nearly a billion corporate employees and more bubble cities than they could count.

(Rapidly expanding Martian cities)8 In 2055, the migration to Mars shifted yet again as the first country launched a civilian craft to Mars. India launched Chandrayaan-6 with 500 civilians to land on Mars and act as a first contact for the official Indian nation.9 Shortly after, America sent Saturn 14 to meet with the Indian civilians and develop one of the first genuine “states” on Mars. As time went on, Sweden, the

8 https://www.humanmars.net/2017/09/making-life-multiplanetary-official.html 9 https://www.space.com/40136-chandrayaan-2.html

14 newly formed New Korea (formerly South Korea), and Nigeria followed suit. In the wake of global disaster across the world, international cooperation had been greatly increased and states regularly shared their rocket program to send civilians to Mars. The new settlement formed, named “New Earth” was a culmination of the powerful states of Earth forming one new city state on Mars. Compared to its corporate competitors, it was weak, unstable, and constantly teetering on failure, but it was the first example of an old state moving forward in the world.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The Current State of Mars and the Role of this Body

All of this background brings us to the now. Mars is not in a great state. We as humans, have failed to learn from history and are rapidly repeating it on Mars. Rolling blackouts, constant hunger, and a low quality of life is to be expected amongst the workers of Mars. However, for poor civilians, living on Mars is still preferable to Earth. For the rich, it doesn’t matter. As with everything else, wealth buys everyone out of suffering. Whether it be the great floating cities of Earth that rise above the squalor or the lavish gardens of Mars providing fresh air, food, and water, the rich live above everyone else, and continue to get richer.

The current governmental system is still a board of directors. These representatives from each of the powerful Corporation-States hold a controlling vote in policies that affect all of Mars. This central government is still weak though as each individual state is its own corporate entity and operates relatively independent. The central body holds no current military force, can sign no binding documents, and has little ability to enforce any policies. Instead, it relies on corporate cooperation to get things done for all of Mars.

However, even to the wealthy it has become clear that the world is not perfect. The economic disparity of Mars is primed for absolute chaos. This body has been convened to discuss solutions to the potential crisis at hand. Your task, as a mixture of corporate liaisons, old states, and even the First 50, is to decide how to handle the beast that is Mars. The role of a new government, the rights of the people, enforcement of new laws, management of natural resources, handling the fears of the people, and discussing the role of profit are just a few of the critical tasks you will

15

have to decide. Each of you comes forward with different perspectives, resources, needs, and wants. One thing is clear though. Failure to work together will doom you all.

HELPFUL TIMELINE

2024 - First Starship mission

2024-2027 - Artemis Program & Lunar Missions

2026 - Worldwide Economic Collapse

2028 - Ares I

2031 - Global Energy Crisis

2033 - Ares IV First Humans Launch to Mars

2034 - Ares-Hermes Launch, Beginning of the “First 50” mission

2035 - Oil is discovered on Mars

2039 - Virgin Galactic makes it to mars (Spaceship 8, White Knight 8)

2040 - Alphabet x Virgin Galactic base houses 1000 people, Tencent arrive on Mars

2043 - Jeff Bezos’ “New Shepherd” lands on Mars

2044 - Amazon HQ5 on Mars

2047 - StarlinerX is introduced, more corporations seek ventures on Mars

2050 - 2059 - Great Migration and large Martian population boom

2055 - Chandrayaan-6 landing on Mars, beginning of sovereign nations staking claim on Mars

2060 - Present Day

16

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. How will you create a governing system for Mars? 2. How will you balance the need for profit and the lives of people? 3. What plan will your entity take in order to deal with internal issues including but not limited to overcrowding, power failure, food, water, etc.? 4. How will you plan for future migrations to Mars? 5. Should conflict between yourself and neighboring colonies arise, how would you prepare for this? 6. How will you create accountability between colonies in order to maintain new laws or systems of government? 7. How will you turn Mars into a new home? Will you attempt to reform it as Earth, or solve Earth’s problems to one day return?

SUGGESTED SITES

• https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/2/11837590/elon-musk-mars-government-direct- democracy-law-code-conference • https://futurism.com/four-legal-challenges-to-resolve-before-settling-on-mars • https://www.spacex.com/mars • https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20141030-five-steps-to-colonising-mars