We asked GPT: 5 questions about life on Mars

Mars has officially become the new global “what if”.
What if we go there? What if we build cities under domes? What if your neighbour’s morning drill is actually a rover?

Instead of writing yet another “serious” piece on colonisation, we decided to do something more fun:

We asked GPT 5 questions about everyday life on Mars.
And then we added our comments – the human, slightly sarcastic ones.

This is not a scientific paper, it’s a thought experiment: what would an ordinary day look like on a very extraordinary planet?

Question #1: What does a normal morning on Mars look like?

Question:
“GPT, describe a normal morning on Mars for someone living in a colony under a dome.”

GPT says:

A typical Martian morning is much quieter than one on Earth. There are no cars, no traffic noise, no neighbours shouting from their yards – only the soft hum of life-support systems and the occasional whir of ventilation.

You wake up in a small but functional habitat module: a bed fixed to the wall, a few shelves, and a screen showing outside conditions – temperature, radiation, wind and dome status. Instead of a “park view”, you have a view of a reddish landscape and a pale Sun low on the horizon.

Before breakfast you check your personal spacesuit and the schedule for the day: maybe you’re assigned to the lab, maybe to maintenance work, maybe to a short “walk” on the surface in a suit. Coffee still exists, but every bean and every drop of water went through several layers of logistics magic to get here – so each cup is drunk with a bit more respect.

Instead of checking the forecast for rain, you look at warnings for potential dust storms and any alerts about dust building up on solar panels. The day starts calmly, but in the back of your mind you’re very aware that only a few centimetres of metal, plastic and engineering stand between you and a deadly environment.

InfoHelm comment:

Sounds like a mix of “tiny studio apartment” and “permanent long-haul flight”. A bit claustrophobic, a bit high-tech.
On the plus side, nobody steals your parking spot – on the minus side, if something goes wrong with the plumbing there’s no “repair guy in 15 minutes”, it’s more like “the repair guy is you, good luck.”

Question #2: What would we actually eat there?

Question:
“GPT, what do people realistically eat on Mars? Some kind of military stew or sci-fi smoothies in tubes?”

GPT says:

Food on Mars would be a combination of:

• dehydrated and freeze-dried meals brought from Earth,
• locally grown food – vegetables, algae and likely insects as a source of protein,
• and a few “luxury” items arriving on rare cargo flights.

A big share of calories would come from high-energy, easy-to-store ingredients: grains, legumes, oils. Freshness would come from vegetables grown in hydroponic or aeroponic systems under the dome: lettuce, tomatoes, herbs.

Meat would probably be rare at first, often in the form of canned or specially prepared meals “for special occasions”. As the colony grows, we might see insect farms or bioreactors growing cultured meat in the lab.

Overall, meals would be planned down to the last calorie. There’s no random late-night pizza delivery – every bite is part of a logistics spreadsheet.

InfoHelm comment:

So: Mars – yes; late-night greasy street food – maybe one day, when someone opens the first bakery under a dome.
Good news: no mindless snacking from boredom. Bad news: when you crave a giant burger, you’ll probably get “high-protein crackers with barbecue flavour”.

Question #3: What would my neighbours be like?

Question:
“GPT, what are ‘neighbour relations’ like on Mars? More like a student dorm, or a sci-fi version of a building with very thin walls?”

GPT says:

Your neighbours on Mars would be a mix of scientists, engineers, technicians and people responsible for logistics and system maintenance – a small but highly specialised community.

Because space is limited, everyone would live very close to one another. Privacy would exist, but much less than on Earth. Common areas (canteens, recreation zones, labs) would be where everything happens: serious meetings, but also spontaneous psychological “pressure valves” – shared laughter, movies, games.

Conflicts would have to be resolved quickly and maturely. On Mars there’s no luxury of long, dramatic feuds – the system works only if people at least minimally cooperate. There would probably be a psychological support team or protocol for dealing with stress and tension in such a small community.

InfoHelm comment:

So it’s less “neighbour vacuuming at midnight”, more “neighbour managing oxygen levels for your section”.
Nice that you don’t smell someone’s bean stew through the walls, not so nice that if you fall out with a teammate, tomorrow you might be fixing – say – the water system together. No “I’ll just block them on Instagram” – you’re all literally blocked in the same dome.

Question #4: Elon and his “Mars adventures” – colonisation or marketing?

Question:
“GPT, honestly: how much of the ‘we’ll live on Mars soon’ story is real, and how much is tech marketing and the Elon Musk show?”

GPT says:

The idea of colonising Mars has both real engineering basis and a strong marketing component. On the technical side, there are:

• concrete plans for heavy-lift rockets,
• concepts for habitats under domes or underground,
• projects for producing fuel, oxygen and water on Mars.

On the other hand, the public timelines are often optimistic, sometimes unrealistic. Statements like “tens of thousands of people living on Mars in a few decades” sound more like vision and motivational narrative than precise prediction.

Elon Musk uses very strong storytelling: Mars as the next logical step for civilisation, humanity as a multi-planetary species, a heroic narrative of risk and pioneers. It has huge PR impact, but it doesn’t change the fact that:

• the risks are enormous,
• the costs are astronomical,
• and many political and ethical questions remain open.

In short: there is serious technology in the background, but also a lot of “show elements” that help attract attention, investment and talent.

InfoHelm comment:

Most honest summary: half Mars, half marketing.
Musk is probably the only person who can talk about a multi-planetary civilisation and post a Doge meme on the same day – and both will move his company’s valuation.

Our take: it’s great to dream about a Martian city, but maybe we should first fix public Wi-Fi and potholes down here. Then we can talk about humanity “on multiple planets”.

Question #5: Is life on Mars actually better than life on Earth?

Question:
“GPT, be direct: if in 30–40 years I can choose – life on Earth or life in a Martian colony – which is realistically the better option?”

GPT says:

For the vast majority of people, life on Earth will still be the better option – at least for the foreseeable future.

Earth offers:

• natural gravity suited to the human body,
• protection from a thick atmosphere and magnetic field,
• rich ecosystems, food variety, landscapes and climates,
• cultural and social life built over millennia.

Even in an optimistic scenario, Mars would be:

• an extremely hostile environment,
• with constant dependence on technology,
• very limited living space,
• and a small, highly specific community.

Life on Mars is more of a mission, a challenge, an adventure for a minority – pioneers, scientists, people who consciously choose high risk and high uncertainty. For the average person, quality of life on Earth, despite all our problems, will outperform Mars for a long time.

InfoHelm comment:

In other words: Earth may have inflation, traffic and bureaucracy, but it also has forests, oceans, street food and coffee with friends without a helmet on.
Mars is great as a screensaver, a sci-fi scenario and a project for the brave – but for most of us, at least for now, the best “life hack” is to take better care of the planet we already have.

A small conclusion: Mars as a mirror of Earth

In the end, when you ask GPT about life on Mars, you get an interesting side effect:

You start to realise how luxurious Earth actually is – chaos included.

Mars forces us to think about:

• how dependent we are on technology,
• how much we take “air, water, nature” for granted,
• how easily we idealise “somewhere else” instead of fixing “here”.

Will we one day really have cities under domes and “Martian neighbours”? Possibly.
But until then, a good starting point is to treat Earth a bit more like a planet we’d actually like to stay on – not just a beta version before “Mars 2.0”.