“So will Martians be dark or pale? It depends which of these effects we better handle with technology. Perhaps we'll have lily white Martians in underground cities and much darker Martians on the surface.”
PBS Space Time · Ideas & Essays · October 2026
Context
O'Dowd has just described two competing pressures on skin colour for humans on Mars: the thin atmosphere lets in hard UV, which favours darker skin, while weaker sunlight makes vitamin D harder to produce, which favours paler skin.
Transcript
…strong selection for very robust individuals. That same low gravity may also affect height. It takes a lot of effort for our hearts to pump blood from our feet to our heads, and that's why lying down feels so good. In low-G, the heart doesn't have to work so hard, so it's less of a disadvantage
to be very tall. In fact, it may be a real advantage.
…It's deadly and requires artificial protection. But again, assuming this isn't completely mitigated with technology or terraforming, we may see rapid evolution of darker skin pigmentation. On the other hand, the less intense sunlight at Mars compared to Earth means it'll be harder to produce vitamin D. This factor is believed to result in the paler complexions found at high latitudes on Earth. So will Martians be dark or pale? It depends which of these effects we better handle with technology. Perhaps we'll have lily white Martians in underground cities and much darker Martians on the surface. Even more dangerous than the UV are high-energy cosmic rays and solar particles. These bombard the surface due to the sparse atmosphere and the absence of a protective magnetic field. Unless humans stay underground or in Wilkes.
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