Population

The composition of the Population of a colony on Mars will be subject to several conditions. This article tries to outline the case of a growing automomous colony.

Skills

There are a lot of different tasks for the colonists to do. Mars is an alien world and bears imponderable conditions. People may have the need to improvise. The following skills are vital:

Profound knowledge and experience in technical matters and engineering
Scientific expertise in Geology, Biology, Medicine and Radiology
Agricultural knowledge
Capabilities for Education, Nursery and Psychology

Biological

During settlement planning, if the human population is to reproduce, careful consideration into the size of the starting population must be carried out. The size of the human population must not be too small due to the risk of inbreeding depression (causing genetic disorders) and it must not be too big due to the risk of overpopulation (causing lack of food/resources).

To achieve a big genetical diversity an idea is to bring a few adult colonists and many fertilized human eggs to Mars. It gives a chance to build a big community on Mars with a comparetively small transport effort.

Social

A group of male individuals tend to be more aggressive than a mixed group of males and females. The mix in age of the individuals has an effect, too.

While the first Martian settlers, who grew up on Earth, will be full of enthusiasm, the next generation might have a different attitude. This has to be taken into account. An initial population of mixed age can reduce the effect of division into groups with different interests.