Green Baron

Ya know, we can have children when we want to. And we can avoid it if it isn't opportune atm. What exactly is your point ? That whole procreation thing is such a non issue in a colony, you won't believe it :-) Well, compared to all the other problems ... Of course laws would have to be set up and communicated, rules about what to to do and what to leave. There must be an exit path for those who expected it all to be soooo different. For a post modern European death penalty is unthinkable. Soylent green is no solution. I am glad that it is not a pressing issue any time soon(tm) *phew* :-)

Hehe. I read it too and it reminded me of the spikes on Pol :-) And like in KSP it may be advisable to send a probe for cartography before choosing a landing site. You might step on something sharp and pointy ....

You cannot compare behaviour of mice to that of humans. You cannot even compare the behaviour of wild populations of a species with that of the domesticated fellows. You can, of course, work out the differences.

"Daddy, what's that button for ?" :-) Seriously, nobody is going to colonise Mars in a foreseeable future. And, with regard to the op, nobody is going to run an independent colony in a desert on earth. Except for a few more or less scientific sandbox games.

What when where how by which means and who ? I am the Sun Kerbal and i have colonized Duna. But Mars ? Though the guy in my Avatar is long dead & gone i am absolutely (sic !) sure he has never been to Mars. There weren't enough hairdressers, that's why.

I do not live in California. But the sad event in your area does not get the attention it deserves in western media. I read that almost 2.000 people are confirmed dead until now ? For soil liquefaction and flow as a landslide to occur, the ground must be nearly soaked with water. An earthquake or pressure can bring the particles into suspension in the water matrix and a slope will then transport the material away and of course everything on it. This happens ideally along a ramp of more solid ground. Several cases have been described, if you search "soil liquefaction". I found a study describing the Palu-Koru fault as an area of high tension between 3 plate margins. We can put "low level seismicity" conclusion to science history now ... . San Andreas fault otoh, if i am not mistaken, is a classical transform fault of two plates slipping alongside each other.

I live right below part of the European Northern Observatory. Telescopes here produce quite a lot of papers, either alone or in combination with others.

These are the longest bootstraps i have ever seen. I can almost hear them swearing at T+20 in the capsule because of an open strap. :-)

? Do so if you must. I stay with a bit of ketchup or home made mayonnaise. I was having this, not french fries or chips: https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/2420301381997951/Bratkartoffeln-innen-weich-aussen-sehr-knusprig.html I have watched The Martian, but i don't recall any drugs. Maybe my memory fails me ...

Yeah, typical rhetorical story telling element: cut of the worm's head (or heads if numHeads > 1) and the rest will rot.

Thanks m8 :-) Beautiful !

So there is something embedded or linked in @Deddly's post ? I only see a row of numbers and letters ... Edit: i am an idiot. I have all google stuff blocked. When i open it up, it works, Sorry guys ...

[yesterday's data]

Here you go, though i am sure you just had one of these: d27e39a08330a1491ee0a2e9fa4db089c1534445866 :-) Fried potatoes. In a pan with olive oil and onion rings. One side crispy like a cracker. And a green side salad. And a little ketchup won't harm. We do not live on Mars, fortunately :-)

Concerning "Strauße". Hehe :-) Our (German) reformation of orthography in 1996 and amendment 2004(?) really messed things up. I stubbornly refuse to participate and continue using ß as often as i can. The bird is a Strauß (ostrich), plural Strauße as is the bunch of flowers (Strauß Blumen), but plural Sträuße. In last names (Strauß/ss is a not uncommon last name) both versions exist and i'd assume that these persons would insist on the correct writing in all cases. The composers Johann (I, II and III) Strauss (often written with ß, but they themselves wrote their names with ss) as well as Richard Strauss have a double s. Though phonetically it doesn't matter in this case. It gets funny with the plurals of these guys, shall we make them birds (Strauße) or bunches (Sträuße) ? Frequently, for a plural of a name an -es is added (Strausses), but that could be confused with the genitive of bird or bunch by those who follow the new orthography and write ss. All in all, here's to the English speaking world. Your comprehensible and (relatively) easy to learn language will make it into the future ! :-)

That is one reason. The other is that people actually have to retreat from areas where overgrazing and water depletion cause desertification. It leads to instabilities and all that. Programs by the authorities to contain the losses are essentially fruitless. But all in all, i think it becomes clear that even on earth building a larger population in an arid environment is doable only with huge efforts, a technological apparatus and constant inflow from outside. And, as @tater wrote, that is still a paradise compared to Mars.

Yes. In deserts around water holes and oases. The journey in between was (and is) dangerous. I hesitated with the central Sahara because groundwater table isn't far away, there are oases. Still, 200 years ago a caravan had to plan thoroughly or risk the loss of beasts or people. Not so in the Rhub al Khali for example. People couldn't enter in there in pre-historic times, at least in phases with a climate like today. *hough* :-) Edit (i always edit): in principle all deserts on earth are geographical features with a limited lifetimes. They come and go, grow and shrink with climate and circulation patterns. Which makes them less dreadful for a geographer or geologist. Yet, even these guys and girls can die of thirst ...

Nope. ;-) It is outside. Nevertheless, it is in a desert climate. If you cut it off from supply people will have to move elsewhere. Today, people rely on sea water desalination and pipelines of 100s of km, waste water treatment and in dwindling parts on fossil groundwater, but the table is sinking. Omani (and Morocco and others of course) desert farming relies in parts on fossil ground water, with the same future problems. And still there is water only 2km or so away ;-) Edit: what i am up to is building a self sufficient colony in these areas is a challenge that nobody has taken on for now. If there is a road and electricity, people may live there if supplied. Even build a farm in areas that allow tapping fossil water. But if you cut the supply routes they will have to leave. Which brings us back to the op question, or so. Or otherwise. Who knows ;-)

<Cuts the road and waits for the trek of beggars> Yep. :-) That's is not a desert where you live. Not even a steppe. It is greener than where i live and yet they grow bananas here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahuan_Desert#/media/File:Antelope,_Otero_Mesa_NM.jpg Am talking of Rhub al Khali, Gobi, Atacama, central Sahara ... you know what i mean i think. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Rhub+al+khali&amp;t=ffsb&amp;iax=images&amp;ia=images&amp;iai=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luomoconlavaligia.it%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F06%2Fimage0026-Rub-al-Khali-Oman.jpg

We aren't even "colonizing" the deserts on earth.

Earth's biosphere is NOT "self-sustained". And a certain organism called human must use up resources like land, water, raw materials, ... in order to make a limited living. A greenhouse can NOT be run by just pooping into it or adding algae. Depending on what is being grown (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, ...), specialized nutrients must be added, lighting calibrated, waste disposed, gases mixed and added, others drawn out, constant water flown and moisture controlled, contamination by malevolent bacteria, fungi, etc. removed, etc. pp. And after some time one may have a fraction of what humans need to survive for a certain time. Everyone (including me) could just start to read the publications, studies and data sets provided as links here and elsewhere on the danger of getting answers to at least some of the questions. Running in circles, flinging numbers and formulae at each other, does not lead to new insights ;-)

The biosphere in itself is in constant exchange with cryo, atmo, hydro, lithosphere and energy from the sun (space). In modeling, for the sake of simplicity, some of the numerous processes can be regarded as being closed (adiabatic), but irl they are of course not. Extinction events are simply abrupt changes in the rate of interaction between biosphere and the other spheres. Processes are disrupted or reconfigured by external or internal series of events and evolution needs some time to adapt. But that does not change the principle that energy and nutrients are needed for the biosphere to keep going. The biosphere is not a closed system. Switch it off from cosmic energy supply and it freezes stiff. Stop plate tectonics and the carbon cycle will be disrupted. Once all the carbon has been bound by corals and other skeletal organisms and these have died it'll become different to keep up the complexity. And the atmosphere will probably cool down to freezing temps as well (has been the case in earth history when strong weathering of mountain ranges bound much carbon). And these are only two quick examples that went through my head. There are many many others, in all scales. All not that easy to grasp, but understandable :-)

When i saw him as a Star Trek villain i could not avoid but imagine an old lazy red dragon lying on his gold picking his teeth with a huge toothpick ...

Silly Musk's Tesla is an artificial satellite of the sun. It is of course not a planet since it does not even fulfill one of the three requirements. This is silly. Its orbit isn't even stable, it will come close to earth and moon periodically and has a good chance of impacting one of these in the coming millions years. Read the IAU's definitions, they are published together with all the whys and hows you need because these guys are aware. And with that, i am out.

@kerbiloid: 2015 TG387's ? 11.66°