Doctor Internet?

It is fortuitous that the coming of the internet, with all its multiplicity of entertainment, informational and educational opportunities, has pre-dated martian colonisation. Hard work, and hopefully community spirit is going to need to sustain colonists and enhance their mental well-being in the early years. But it is going to be a potentially lonely life out there. Entertainment and personal development are will be necessities on the Red Planet. So an early priority will be to set up communication relays that are capable of giving colonists broadband internet access if at all possible. The inevitable nostalgia for 'The Green Hills Of Earth' will be assuaged somewhat by an intimate connection with developing Earth culture and news, access to images of Earth landscapes, and, most importantly, a high grade mechanism for maintaining contact with loved ones on the mother planet.

This priority will need investment but it will be money very well spent. The cost implications of numbers of colonists developing depression and other mental illness could be considerable. And the potential for wider social disruption from anxiety and even psychoses could create broader problems that might be difficult to control in a small isolated community.

A bit of a glum prospect, this potential for mental ill-health, I fear. But it is an issue that needs to be addressed from the start in planning for a colony. Prevention is better than cure, and a lot of wise thinking is needed to minimise the economic costs of importing modern social stresses from Earth into such a much more marginal environment.

Incidentally, internet connectivity will be an important feature in the diagnosis and treatment of physical ailments as well. It will be important to have medical professionals in the colony itself  but it will be a long while before a Mars colony will be able to have a substantial range of specialist medical experts on the surface. The long time delay in communicating with Earth will of course preclude earthbound doctors from conducting remote surgery, for example, but the sharing of expertise, advice, and some actual training in techniques should be possible.