The Mars imperative: Species survival and inspiring a globalized culture

• Humanity must establish permanent and sustainable settlements off of the Earth in order to survive.
• A cosmological attention boundary delineates the limits of modern social attention for engaging space settlements.
• The rise in enrollments between 1958 and 1975 is attributed to the Apollo lunar program.
• Settling Mars will benefit Earth and inspire STEM enrollments for decades.
• The social impact of settling Mars on Earth will be greater than any currently conceivable human initiated endeavor.

Humanity has crossed a unique technological threshold enabling self-guided survival, a first in the history of life on Earth. From a human perspective the Earth may be considered as a single interconnected ecosystem, and given our tenuous understanding and control over the environment as well as our own behaviors, ever-looming specters of social collapse or even extinction dictate enacting immediate off-world diversification and self-preservation efforts. Herein, Mars is touted as the most tenable and sustainable location in which to initiate such permanent diversification. Scientific curiosity alone cannot initiate nor drive such off-world settlement and concerted impetus and public support for such an endeavor is shown to be constrained by human attention span. Lastly, the initial act of settlement uniquely serves as humanities greatest globally inspiring self-initiated endeavor, a tangible benefit capable of inspiring generations, connecting cultures and motivating college enrollments and career path choices in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in a manner similar to the dawn of human space exploration.