A City on Mars
A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmithby Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
Recommended as a realistic, clear-eyed look at the many hard challenges of building permanent Mars settlements, written with humor. Common caveat: critics say it strawmans settlers and misses their motives.
Recommended as a realistic, clear-eyed look at the many hard challenges of building permanent Mars settlements, written with humor. Common caveat: critics say it strawmans settlers and misses their motives.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Realistic view of settlement challenges
“I thought it set forward a realistic set of challenges we have to solve and experiments we have to do before building anything more than a research outpost on Mars.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “All 12 moonwalkers had "lunar hay fever" from dust smelling like gunpowder” “It's written by two giant space nerds who are nonetheless clear eyed on the many, many, many challenges to creating permanent space settlements of any kind.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “A rough guide for going back to the Moon” “A useful book on why self-sustaining settlements on Luna, Mars, or earth orbit are pretty much hopeless.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Datacenters in space aren't going to work” - Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “China Has Three Reusable Rockets Ready for Their Debut Flights”
Strong argument against Mars colonies
“If you want to get depressed about all the problems with trying to colonize Mars, I recommend A City on Mars”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “All 12 moonwalkers had "lunar hay fever" from dust smelling like gunpowder” “A useful book on why self-sustaining settlements on Luna, Mars, or earth orbit are pretty much hopeless.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Datacenters in space aren't going to work” “is a pretty damning dissection of the whole concept of Martian colonies”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “China Has Three Reusable Rockets Ready for Their Debut Flights” - Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Why Going to Mars Would Be Bad for Your Health”
Clearly covers colonization risks
“It's written by two giant space nerds who are nonetheless clear eyed on the many, many, many challenges to creating permanent space settlements of any kind.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “A rough guide for going back to the Moon” “covers the risk pretty well”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Tesla is committing automotive suicide”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Strawmans and misrepresents Mars settlers
“A City on Mars made me want to throw the book at the window so many times. Building and tearing down straw-men right and left.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Datacenters in space aren't going to work” “was a really badly researched book, full of errors, that completely misrepresented the would-be Mars settler position”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Datacenters in space aren't going to work” “Neither the Weinersmiths nor you seem to understand the motivations of people that actually want to settle Mars.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Starship V3” - Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Starship V3”
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas R. Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| A City on Marsby Kelly Weinersmith and Zach WeinersmithThis page | 11 | 3 | 79% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
16 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I liked 'A City On Mars'. That said I think it didn't have the right sense of scale.”
“It’s entertaining, informative and well researched/cited.”
“It's written by two giant space nerds who are nonetheless clear eyed on the many, many, many challenges to creating permanent space settlements of any kind.”
“Neither the Weinersmiths nor you seem to understand the motivations of people that actually want to settle Mars.”
“If that's one of the better criticisms of the book, that's a pretty good recommendation for the book.”
“Here is one of the better ones”
“their arguments are beyond bad. Indeed they miss the point entirely”
“I thought it set forward a realistic set of challenges we have to solve and experiments we have to do before building anything more than a research outpost on Mars.”
“If you want to get depressed about all the problems with trying to colonize Mars, I recommend A City on Mars”
“still a good argument against Mars is "A City on Mars"”
“covers the risk pretty well”
“A City on Mars made me want to throw the book at the window so many times. Building and tearing down straw-men right and left.”
“was a really badly researched book, full of errors, that completely misrepresented the would-be Mars settler position”
“I wasn't terribly impressed with this one. I found it mostly just a bundle of vague negativity”
“A useful book on why self-sustaining settlements on Luna, Mars, or earth orbit are pretty much hopeless.”
“is a pretty damning dissection of the whole concept of Martian colonies”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.