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Why not build the settlement in advance of the first landing? (piefed.social)
submitted 1 day ago* by to c/mars@discuss.tchncs.de
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Sending people to Mars, keeping them alive there, and bringing them back (optional) is hard.

Sending robots to Mars is easier. It's been done in 1997 and artificial intelligence and robotics have made major strides since.

A semi-autonomous* settlement with life support should be built before we send people there. This will save a lot of time and make the mission far more likely to succeed than if we treat it like a camping trip and make astronauts set their own "tents" up.

* with high-level operations being managed remotely, but real-time operations requiring automation due to the unavoidably high ping between Earth and Mars

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[–] 2 points 21 hours ago

Mars is too small to build a colony there for anything other than to say we did it. Venus is a much easier option to eventually put humans on. Venus just really needs a few comets worth of ice, and some cyanobacteria. Might need some temporary shades as well to get the temperature down so the process can start.

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