Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Marvel's Inferno #2 (on sale October 27) significantly escalated the split between the secret co-conspirator trio of Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X (AKA Moira MacTaggert) and the members of the Quiet Council who support Mystique and the newly resurrected Destiny.

Written by Jonathan Hickman with art from Stefano Caselli and David Curiel, the issue revealed the circumstances behind Destiny's mysterious resurrection in Inferno #1, and added even more complications to fulfillment of Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X's hidden agenda - perhaps even setting up the additional factions that will find themselves at odds by the time Inferno reaches its coclusion.

Inferno #2 opened with the secret explanation behind the surprise resurrection of Mystique's deceased wife Destiny, the precognitive mutant whose resurrection has been shadowbanned by Xavier, Magneto, and Moira.

Kicking off with a flashback to the scenes of Inferno #1 that seemed to show Xavier and Magneto collecting and destroying the means to resurrect Destiny, it's revealed that those scenes actually depicted Mystique using her shapeshifting powers to steal Destiny's psychic records and DNA, and to trick the Five into resurrecting her by posing as Xavier.

Resurrected as a younger woman, closer in age to the time she initially met Mystique, Destiny initially struggles to adjust to her resurrection. But it's revealed that she's been alive for over a month prior to her surprise arrival in the Quiet Council chamber, during which time she and Mystique reconnected as romantic partners and as co-conspirators to overthrow Magneto and Xavier.

This also means that Xavier and Magneto never had a chance to eliminate her from their resurrection database even after being asked to by Moira.

This brings Inferno #2 up to speed with the ending of #1, with the Quiet Council about to vote on whether to admit Destiny or not. Xavier vows to call an immediate vote to remove Destiny and Mystique following the vote on Destiny's membership, but the mutant precog wryly warns Xavier that events won't follow to his liking.

Destiny is elected to the Quiet Council in a vote of six to four in favor, with Exodus, Sebastian Shaw, Mister Sinister, and Emma Frost shown to have been convinced to vote 'yes' by Mystique prior to the meeting - with Mystique bribing Emma Frost with a mysterious object she seems to covet enough to potentially turn on her allies. Nightcrawler also votes to instate Destiny on the Quiet Council, but only out of a desire to please his mother Mystique.

With Destiny now on the council, and apparently surrounded by allies, Xavier abandons his plan to call for a new vote, instead regrouping with Magneto and Moira to discuss their next move. Moira initially insists that Magneto and Xavier murder Destiny and prevent her figuring out their plans, but they refuse, stating that such a thing would be beyond even their twisted principles now that she's on the Quiet Council.

Instead, they decide to bring Emma Frost into their conspiracy, introducing her to Moira, whose presence on Krakoa has remained totally secret, and explaining Moira's mutant powers and their implications. Unfortunately, their plan to include Emma seems to backfire, with the White Queen stating that as a "true mutant" and member of the Quiet Council, she will give the matter of dealing with Destiny's precognitive abilities "proper consideration" - but also states that Magneto and Xavier have "lost her loyalty forever."

At the same time Xavier, Magneto, and Moira are meeting, Mystique uses her shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate Sage's security system, uncovering the location of an Orchis facility that's been attempting to breach Krakoa.

Using a Krakoa gate, Mystique travels to the Orchis facility, infiltrating it in the form of one of the organization's scientists and discovering they have plans to harness the full power of the sun itself for some action that will dwarf the achievement of mutants terraforming Mars into Planet Arakko, at least according to the Orchis scientists.

Back on Krakoa, Xavier assembles the Quiet Council to call for another vote - not to remove Mystique and Destiny as he previously vowed, but to fill the final empty seat on the Council with someone who Moira tells Xavier and Magneto that they "know they can trust."

Elected in a vote of seven to four, with Mister Sinister, Mystique, Destiny, and Sebastian Shaw voting "no," and Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, and Exodus all voting "yes", Colossus enters the chamber to fill the final seat of the Quiet Council - presumably with full knowledge of Magneto, Xavier, and Moira's conspiracy, and a willingness to do whatever must be done to ensure the sanctity of their vision of Krakoa.

Interestingly, many of the allegiances being cultivated by Mystique and Destiny are drawn on the same lines that traditionally separate the X-Men and their enemies. Though Nightcrawler did vote to add Destiny to the Council, he's the only one who wasn't secretly swayed by Mystique - and the only one who isn't traditionally part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or Hellfire Club (Magneto notwithstanding, given his own involvement in the conspiracy with Xavier and Moira).

Will the split in Krakoan society come down along lines so simple as the X-Men going up against their traditional enemies? Or will the apparent sides being formed become more complex as more Krakoans potentially learn the truth about Moira X and her role in Krakoa?

And furthermore, what's Mystique's actual side plan with Orchis, that requires her to apparently sneak around behind Xavier and Magneto's backs even more?

Perhaps these questions will be answered when Nimrod attacks Krakoa as teased in the solicitations and cover for November 24's Inferno #3.

You don't have to be a precog to know what's coming for Marvel's mutants - you just need our listing of all the new X-Men comics planned for release in 2021 and beyond.

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X-Men Inferno #2 turns the Quiet Council against Magneto and Xavier - Gamesradar

Sometimes, the stars just dont align; life doesnt dish up the opportunities that you want it to and as a result, you end up posting a Best 50 Games Weve Ever Reviewed that doesnt feature the best game weve actually played. But hey, every cloud has a silver lining. This isnt a review of Terraforming Mars, really, its a review for all of the current expansions Hellas & Elysium, Venus Next, Colonies and Prelude.

Firstly, lets cover some basics. Anyone who is already deeply invested in the tabletop hobby will be well aware of what Terraforming Mars is and who it appeals to. For everyone else though, it must look like an absolute shambles at first glance. Terraforming Mars is a game that has such a low production quality out of the box that it becomes almost impossible to justify.

The board itself is fine, albeit a little unattractive how would you expect to jazz up the Red Planet, after all? The player aids, however, are pieces of thin card covered in various tracks that serve a functional purpose and nothing else. Onto these tracks, players will place coloured cubes to show their production capability, whilst held resources will be placed into adjacent boxes. The problem with this is that if someone knocks the table, these cubes scatter everywhere, which can spoil the game entirely.

As youll see in some of my photographs, Terraforming Mars is well-loved by many to the extent that a number of companies now provide three-dimensional overlays for these player aids. Other companies replace certain components entirely, which leads to some incredibly well pimped editions of the game being in circulation. Such products simply could not exist, were it not for the popularity of the game.

So why, despite being of a particularly lacklustre construction, has Terraforming Mars gained such a large following? Well, thats a simple question to answer. This is an incredible game. It offers a design that has such a low barrier to entry that anyone can pick it up within about fifteen minutes, but the range of strategies available and the stories that are created over the course of two hours are probably more varied than in any other game out there.

Each and every time you play Terraforming Mars, you will remember what you did, the moment your plan came together (or didnt) and how each of the starting corporations that define your early strategy evolved over time. Did you begin as a multinational megacorporation and end up as an ecological force of nature? Maybe you began as a mining corporation and your control of minerals proved to be crucial in your offworld expansion. Terraforming Mars allows players to create plotlines in a way that no other game that I can think of does.

But what about all these expansions? Well, with four already out in the wild and at least one more planned, Terraforming Mars has been well supported by both designer and publisher to date.With so many ways to expand the game though, it can be hard to know where to begin. Each expansion brings its own nuances and, much like almost every other board game expansion, can be categorised in two ways; more of the same or something extra. Let me tell you all about each of them, as well as how it feels to play Terraforming Mars with everything included.

The currently available expansions for Terraforming Mars are:

Played in isolation, each Terraforming Mars expansion offers changes to the base game that make sense, either because they subtly enhance the core experience more corporations, more projects or because they expand and change it slightly. The Hellas & Elysium maps, and the Prelude expansion, for example, are quite subtle, tweaking the base game and introducing new strategies rather than changing anything fundamental.

Venus Next and Colonies, however, radically affect the player strategies from the outset. In some games, a player might ignore Venus altogether and still win, whilst in other games, if one player runs rampant on Venus, then they will almost certainly steal an unopposed victory. Colonies introduces a number of mechanisms that change how players execute their strategy, although its fair to say that there isnt really a Colonies strategy as such.

With all of these expansions in play, Terraforming Mars is simply too much to take in. The main board (or the alternate main board) alongside the Venus board is one thing, but then adding in a load of colony boards is such a table hog. It also creates a situation where whole swathes of one or more expansions will be ignored. The sheer number of project cards with all expansions in play is also close to unmanageable, and it can be mean that entire strategies (like colonies, or Venus) are swallowed up entirely.

Despite the fact that I dont think its sensible to play with all of these expansions at once, I do think that each of them is a superb addition in its own right and I love to combine them in different pairings. I dont think that Id ever play the game without Prelude now, and the additional maps from Hellas & Elysium add much needed variety when youre into your hundredth play of the game.

Colonies and Venus Next are probably the two that should be considered carefully and I have to say, perhaps surprisingly, my preference is Colonies because it doesnt detract the players attention away from Mars itself. Whilst the marketplace style interface that it introduces is a bit elaborate and overly complex, I find that it offers a way for players to expand their strategy in a wide variety of ways.

When all is said and done and despite the crappy production, Terraforming Mars must be considered one of the best, if not the best, modern board game. A lot of people will tell you that title belongs to Gloomhaven, but they are just wrong. You cant ask a complete novice to spend two hours with Gloomhaven and expect them to walk away with the kind of satisfaction that they would get from Terraforming Mars.

Equally, its rare that the same game that can delight a gaming newcomer can also appeal to high strategy power gamers intent on min-maxing at the very highest level. Terraforming Mars deserves to be on your shelf and if its not already there go fix that before you do anything else, or at least see if you can borrow it from a friend. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

You can grab Terraforming Mars and its expansions from your friendly local game store or on Amazon. You can read more about the base game here.

Love board games? Check out our list of the top board games weve reviewed.

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Terraforming Mars might be board game perfection and is now infinitely expandable Big Boss Battle (B3) - Big Boss Battle

Cyclops announcing his desire to step down as one of Krakoas four Great Captains.Image: Valerio Schiti, David Curiel, Joe Sabino/Marvel.

While the developments of this weeks Inferno #2from writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Stefano Caselli, colorist David Curiel, and letterer Joe Sabinoare the big, flashy pearl-clutching sort, a certain someone being resurrected (or not) isnt the only major twist Marvels been teasing for its Krakoan mutants.

Even though the newest team of X-Men just got itself together, Marvels already hinted at a major shakeup to the roster following Cyclops being replaced by an unknown newcomer: Captain Krakoa. Following Captain Krakoas arrival being teased in the solicitations for Gerry Duggan and Pepe LarrazsX-Men #6, due out in December, Marvels released more detailed concept art of Captain Krakoas costume that gives you a better sense of the mutants seemingly plant-focused power set.

Captain Krakoas design.Image: Pepe Larraz/Marvel

Because Captain Krakoas civilian identity has yet to be announced, theres been some speculation as to who might be hiding beneath his visor, which looks something like a cross between the helmets Cyclops and Professor X have been wearing as of late. Given how the X-Men, along with the rest of Krakoas various mutant teams, are all finding a new footing in the universe following the terraforming of Mars, there are a variety of wild possibilities when it comes to who Captain Krakoa could be. Like, for example, him actually somehow being Cyclops in disguise after he stepped down, being able to operate as more of an unknown agent.

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Interesting as that might be, a more solid hint about whos under the floronic mask may have been tucked into Inferno #1 from Hickman, artist Valerio Schiti, and colorist David Curiel, in one of the comics quieter moments that wasnt about a certain reincarnating mutant living in fear of a certain dead clairvoyant. In a sequence immediately preceding Cyclops announcing that he plans to step down as one of Krakoas four Great Captains, were shown a snapshot of Cyphers life as he greets the day and the people most important to him in the entire world: his wife and his best friends. The degree to which Doug and Bei the Blood Moon have gotten along with one another in the wake of X of Swords is debatable, given how their respective powers make it difficult for them to communicate with one another. But Cypher insists to Warlock, the technarch hes fused with, and Krakoa, the sentient embodiment of the island as a whole that only he can understand, that he genuinely loves Bei.

Image: Valerio Schiti, David Curiel, Joe Sabino/Marvel.

Cyphers declaration of love for Bei prompts both of his friends to express a possessiveness of him that whiffs of jealousy, and the chumminess that Cyber uses to diffuse the moments tension feels like it might be a subtle hint about who Captain Krakoa might really be. Though Cypher, Warlock, and Krakoa might not be seen as the same exact kind of mutant circuit that the Five arethe mutants who govern the resurrection process that has made Krakoa the superpower it istheir pasts and power sets have made them a unique unit in the Dawn of X. Though Warlock can exist on his own, he often spends his time physically (and to a certain extent, mentally) bonded with Cypher, who himself has a profound connection with Krakoa, who appreciates that the humanoid mutant can interpret its form of speech.

Krakoa being Krakoathe literal sentient Earth landmass without which the mutants new age of glory wouldnt be possibleit was necessary for the being to have a seat on the mutants Quiet Council, mutantkinds secretive governing body, with Cypher (and perhaps Warlock by extension) joining as interpreters. Both of the first two issues of Inferno have been detailing how the balance of power on Krakoa is gradually shifting as different members play their hands at wresting control from Xavier and other members of the Quiet Council. Between Cyclops stepping down as one of the four Great Captains, and the shuffling that occurs on the Quiet Council in Inferno #2, its interesting to wonder whether Captain Krakoas arrival might be the result of Krakoa and Cypher making moves of their own, to further extend their powers reach beyond the Quiet Council itself to the primary X-Men team specifically.

What little weve seen of Captain Krakoas plant powers and costumes could plausibly be some sort of combination of Cypher and Krakoa stepping out in a new identity to mix things up a bit, but Inferno #1 also includes a curious tidbit suggesting another potential true identity for the new hero. Benjamin Percys recent run on X-Force detailed how Beast and other X-Force members came to be involved in an underhanded espionage plot targeting the human nation of Terra Verde that ended disastrously.

In response to the Terra Verdan government developing sophisticated telefloronic technology that, if left unchecked, could have posed a threat to Krakoa, Beast attempted to hack the technology for his own ends, and in doing so caused hundreds of thousands of people to lose their lives as Terra Verdes population was transformed into plant monsters. The fallout of Beasts actions were something that he and the rest of X-Force continued to deal with well into the Hellfire Gala and beyond, as individuals like Black Tom Cassidy fell victim to an unknown menace hunting people on Krakoa. While Black Toms yet to properly resurface since he was attacked by something in the forest back in X-Force #18, a medical report from Dr. Cecilia Reyes in Inferno #1 confirms that hes alive, and than ever, but suffering from some sort of profound mental trauma from his assault.

Image: Joshua Cassara, Robert Gill, Guru-eFX, Joe Caramagna/Marvel

The concerns about whats happening with Black Tom are mirrored somewhat in X-Force #21, where Reyes details various strains of intelligent plant life that now exist on Earthincluding those hailing from Terra Verde, but also those that transformed Dr. Theodore Ted Sallis into the creature known as Man-Thing. Reyes singles out plants born of Man-Thing as having given rise to the mutant Man-Slaughter strain of plants seen in the issue itself, acting as a benevolent figure and ally to X-Force. While the point of Reyes Man-Slaughter speculation was whether or not plants grown on Krakoa might have infectious properties mutants should be worried about, X-Force #21 also underlined how, despite being made of several plants, Man-Slaughter considers himself to be a singular person.

There are more than a couple of possibilities when it comes to who Captain Krakoa truly is, but whether its Cypher and Krakoa in a trenchcoat, Black Tom reborn, Man-Slaughter in a new guise, or someone else entirely, everything about the characters impending arrival points to them being rather suspicious. Flowers or not, the worlds perceptions of Krakoa are still being formed, and everything the X-Men have been working towards could definitely be ruined by one flashy Krakoan patriot insisting that he alone stands as the embodiment of the best and brightest of mutantkind.

Inferno #1 and Inferno #2 are now on sale. Captain Krakoa is set to make their debut this December, in the pages of X-Men #6.

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The X-Men Comics That Might Be Teasing Captain Krakoa's True Identity - Gizmodo

October 27's Inferno #2 raises the stakes on the split between Professor Xavier, Magneto, and their secret co-conspirator Moira X (AKA Moira MacTaggert), and the members of the Quiet Council who support Mystique and the newly resurrected Destiny.

The issue, written by Jonathan Hickman with art from Stefano Caselli and David Curiel, reveals the circumstances behind Destiny's mysterious resurrection in Inferno #1, and adds even more complications to fulfilling Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X's hidden plan - perhaps even setting up the specific factions that will find themselves at odds by the time Inferno reaches its climax.

Inferno #2 opens with the secret explanation behind the surprise resurrection of Mystique's deceased wife Destiny, the precognitive mutant whose resurrection has been shadowbanned by Xavier, Magneto, and Moira.

Kicking off with a flashback to the scenes of Inferno #1 that seemed to show Xavier and Magneto collecting and destroying the means to resurrect Destiny, it's revealed that those scenes actually depicted Mystique using her shapeshifting powers to steal Destiny's psychic records and DNA, and to trick the Five into resurrecting her by posing as Xavier.

Resurrected as a younger woman, closer in age to the time she initially met Mystique, Destiny initially struggles to adjust to her resurrection. But it's revealed that she's been alive for over a month prior to her surprise arrival in the Quiet Council chamber, during which time she and Mystique reconnected as romantic partners and as co-conspirators to overthrow Magneto and Xavier.

This also means that Xavier and Magneto never had a chance to eliminate her from their resurrection database even after being asked to by Moira.

This brings Inferno #2 up to speed with the ending of #1, with the Quiet Council about to vote on whether to admit Destiny or not. Xavier vows to call an immediate vote to remove Destiny and Mystique following the vote on Destiny's membership, but the mutant precog wryly warns Xavier that events won't follow to his liking.

Destiny is elected to the Quiet Council in a vote of six to four in favor, with Exodus, Sebastian Shaw, Mister Sinister, and Emma Frost shown to have been convinced to vote 'yes' by Mystique prior to the meeting - with Mystique bribing Emma Frost with a mysterious object she seems to covet enough to potentially turn on her allies. Nightcrawler also votes to instate Destiny on the Quiet Council, but only out of a desire to please his mother Mystique.

With Destiny now on the council, and apparently surrounded by allies, Xavier abandons his plan to call for a new vote, instead regrouping with Magneto and Moira to discuss their next move. Moira initially insists that Magneto and Xavier murder Destiny and prevent her figuring out their plans, but they refuse, stating that such a thing would be beyond even their twisted principles now that she's on the Quiet Council.

Instead, they decide to bring Emma Frost into their conspiracy, introducing her to Moira, whose presence on Krakoa has remained totally secret, and explaining Moira's mutant powers and their implications. Unfortunately, their plan to include Emma seems to backfire, with the White Queen stating that as a "true mutant" and member of the Quiet Council, she will give the matter of dealing with Destiny's precognitive abilities "proper consideration" - but also states that Magneto and Xavier have "lost her loyalty forever."

At the same time Xavier, Magneto, and Moira are meeting, Mystique uses her shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate Sage's security system, uncovering the location of an Orchis facility that's been attempting to breach Krakoa.

Using a Krakoa gate, Mystique travels to the Orchis facility, infiltrating it in the form of one of the organization's scientists and discovering they have plans to harness the full power of the sun itself for some action that will dwarf the achievement of mutants terraforming Mars into Planet Arakko, at least according to the Orchis scientists.

Back on Krakoa, Xavier assembles the Quiet Council to call for another vote - not to remove Mystique and Destiny as he previously vowed, but to fill the final empty seat on the Council with someone who Moira tells Xavier and Magneto that they "know they can trust."

Elected in a vote of seven to four, with Mister Sinister, Mystique, Destiny, and Sebastian Shaw voting "no," and Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, and Exodus all voting "yes", Colossus enters the chamber to fill the final seat of the Quiet Council - presumably with full knowledge of Magneto, Xavier, and Moira's conspiracy, and a willingness to do whatever must be done to ensure the sanctity of their vision of Krakoa.

Interestingly, many of the allegiances being cultivated by Mystique and Destiny are drawn on the same lines that traditionally separate the X-Men and their enemies. Though Nightcrawler did vote to add Destiny to the Council, he's the only one who wasn't secretly swayed by Mystique - and the only one who isn't traditionally part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or Hellfire Club (Magneto notwithstanding, given his own involvement in the conspiracy with Xavier and Moira).

Will the split in Krakoan society come down along lines so simple as the X-Men going up against their traditional enemies? Or will the apparent sides being formed become more complex as more Krakoans potentially learn the truth about Moira X and her role in Krakoa?

And furthermore, what's Mystique's actual side plan with Orchis, that requires her to apparently sneak around behind Xavier and Magneto's backs even more?

Perhaps these questions will be answered when Nimrod attacks Krakoa as teased in the solicitations and cover for November 24's Inferno #3.

You don't have to be a precog to know what's coming for Marvel's mutants - you just need our listing of all the new X-Men comics planned for release in 2021 and beyond.

Excerpt from:

X-Men Inferno #2 explains how Mystique outsmarted Xavier and gained an upper hand in the Quiet Council - GamesRadar+

Elon Musk hopes to have a metropolis a million earthlings strong on Mars by mid-century, complete with everything from factories to breweries. But before anyone can swill down a Martian IPA, we'll first have to deal with the myriad ways the red planet can kill a person.

If you were teleported to Mars with just basic camping gear, you'd eventually die of radiation poisoning or cancer. But you'd freeze to death long before then, most likely on the first night when temperatures dip to Antarctic levels. Before that, you'd suffocate trying to breathe the atmosphere made up of mostly carbon dioxide. But before even that, the very low atmospheric pressure on Mars would cause your blood to literally boil, regardless of the outside temperature.

In short, camping out there will require much more than pitching a tent.

Fortunately for aspiring Martians, humans have spent a lot of time thinking about how to live on a relatively inhospitable planet millions of miles away from Earth. Ideas have ranged from big bubble cities to underground bases -- one of NASA's latest concepts even involves Martian homes made of fungi.

While Mars may be preferable to closer options like Venus with its boiling heat and toxic atmosphere, or the moon with zero atmosphere and space stations lacking gravity, it's still a problematic environment.

"You would fizz to death," the SETI Institute's Pascal Lee explains in the video below.

On Earth we never worry about going full soda, thanks to our very friendly atmosphere and helpful magnetic field. But on Mars we'll need to create infrastructure to solve the problems our planet handles automatically.

And of course, we also have to develop ways to extract the water and oxygen we need to survive from a Martian landscape that has hidden them away in pockets of ice, soil, rock and extremely thin air.

Easy peasy.

However, Lee and others who have cataloged the many ways to die on Mars do not see them as insurmountable hurdles. In fact, there might be one ready-made solution for living on Mars that's viable from the moment humans arrive for the very first time.

Just stay on the ship.

This futuristic render shows a collection of Starships hanging out on the surface of Mars. Elon Musk and Space envision astronauts initially living out of the spaceships while constructing a more permanent human settlement on the Red Planet.

The first people to arrive via a SpaceX Starship will likely live and work out of the landed spacecraft in the beginning.

"[Starships] are very valuable on the surface of Mars," said Paul Wooster, the company's principal Mars development engineer, in 2018 at a Mars Society convention. "You'd actually be having most of the ships stay and you'd be operating using the various systems on them to support the activities there."

Living in the ship after arrival isn't just a SpaceX idea, though.

The Mars Society, founded in 1998 to advocate for exploring and setting up a human presence on Mars, has its own "Mars Direct" plan. It also suggests traveling to Mars in habitats or "habs" that could then be used to set up a base on the surface once the earthlings arrive.

The habs could be connected together, in much the same way that modular buildings are trucked around on Earth and quickly hooked together on site.

"We could have people on Mars by 2030 and a permanent manned base by 2040," Zubrin told me in 2018.

Besides bringing their own shelter to start, Martian pioneers must also pack the right tools to harvest materials from the rugged landscape in order to build a more permanent crib.

"Very little that pertains to living on Mars in the early years will involve off-the-shelf equipment and supplies from Earth," writes Stephen Petranek in his book How We'll Live on Mars. "Almost every tool or device in use on Mars will need to have been carefully thought out."

For the long term, a basic modular camp like the one Matt Damon struggles with in 2015's The Martian may not offer sufficient protection from radiation and other dangers, especially in the case of a powerful solar flare aimed directly at Mars.

Radiation shielding doesn't need to be high-tech. A barrier made up of water or certain plastics can work, as can simply going underground.

Former NASA physician Jim Logan estimates putting our fragile, fleshy bodies behind or beneath about 9 feet (2.7 meters) of Martian soil should suffice. Zubrin has also suggested using thick bricks made from Martian regolith to construct shelter, adding a uniquely medieval castle vibe to the more traditionally sleek and futuristic vision of a Mars outpost.

Old lava tubes and underground caves are also ideal places to shelter, both early on and in the case of emergencies like major dust and solar storms that can sometimes spread across the entire planet.

In the absence of other options, 3D printing technology offers another alternative for creating custom structures. NASA held a 3D printed habitat challenge in 2019, with New York's AI SpaceFactory (which bills itself as a "multi-planetary architectural and technology design agency") winning the top prize for a system that built a lightweight but strong structure using autonomous robots requiring almost no human guidance.

Going underground or behind thick walls isn't exactly great for the agriculture that's going to be essential to sustain any presence on Mars, however.

Mechanical engineer Andrew Geiszler suggested at the 2015 Mars Society convention that geodesic glass domes could be the answer. Mars provides all the raw materials needed to create glass, plastic and metals that can then be turned into dome homes.

"Ultimately we're going to need to use native materials. It's very feasible. They're there for the taking."

The glass dome structure has been popular in visions of Mars settlements going back decades, including in some recent renderings from HP's Mars Home Planet concept challenge that asked designers to draw up plans for a city on Mars.

This leaves the question of exactly where on Mars is best to establish a presence. None of the above is possible without access to water, which we need to create oxygen, grow food and produce fuel and other raw materials. So finding precious H2O will be a top priority along with shelter from the elements when choosing a site.

Water has been found in Martian soil, in trace amounts in the air, and in significant amounts near and below ice deposits. Moving to the edge of a Martian ice cap would likely be too cold and windy, but the planet also offers intriguing craters and canyons that provide a certain amount of shelter, building materials and water from deposits of ice or possibly even springs. The remarkable Valles Marineris, a massive gorge eight times longer and four times deeper than the Grand Canyon, is one place often suggested as a dramatic second home for hardy humans.

Maintaining all of the necessary life support systems on Mars will be quite an undertaking, which is why Musk and others have a long, long term vision of expanding the habitable bubble we construct on Mars to eventually encompass the entire planet.

The concept is often referred to as terraforming, and would involve changing the planet's environment to be more earth-like. Musk notably proposed nuking Mars' poles to release massive amounts of greenhouse gases to warm the planet, although he's also amenable to massive solar mirrors.

Other methods involve importing methane or ammonia to kickstart the greenhouse effect. Regardless, such a project could be a centuries-long initiative.

"Terraforming will be incredibly expensive, and it may take a thousand years before humans can walk the surface of Mars in an environment not unlike what one finds along the west coast of Canada," writes Petranek.

That kind of long-term thinking may be required for humans to become truly multi-planetary like Musk hopes. But first, we've just got to figure out how to make it through the first night on Mars.

Continued here:

The terrifying reality of actually living on Mars - CNET

American aerospace engineer

Robert Zubrin (;[1] born April 9,[2] 1952[3]) is an American aerospace engineer, author, and advocate for human exploration of Mars. He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission. The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. A modified version of the plan was subsequently adopted by NASA as their "design reference mission". He questions the delay and cost-to-benefit ratio of first establishing a base or outpost on an asteroid or another Apollo program-like return to the Moon, as neither would be able to provide all of its own oxygen, water, or energy; these resources are producible on Mars, and he expects people would be there thereafter.[4]

Disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the success of his book The Case for Mars (1996), as well as leadership experience at the National Space Society, Zubrin established the Mars Society in 1998. This is an international organization advocating a human mission to Mars as a goal, by private funding if possible.

Zubrin was born in New York City's Brooklyn borough[3] on April 9, 1952. His father was descended from Russian Jewish immigrants.[5] He was a science teacher for 7 years before becoming an engineer.[3]

Zubrin holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester (1974), a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering (1984), a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics (1986), and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering (1992) all from the University of Washington.[6][circular reference][7] He has developed a number of concepts for space propulsion and exploration, and is the author of over 200 technical and non-technical papers and several books. He is also President of both the Mars Society and Pioneer Astronautics, a private company that does research and development on innovative aerospace technologies. Zubrin is the co-inventor on a U.S. design patent and a U.S. utility patent on a hybrid rocket/airplane, and on a U.S. utility patent on an oxygen supply system (see links below).

Zubrin was awarded his first patent at age 20 in 1972 for Three Player Chess. His inventions also include the nuclear salt-water rocket and co-inventor (with Dana Andrews) of the magnetic sail. Zubrin is fellow at Center for Security Policy.[8]

During his professional career, Zubrin was a member of Lockheed Martin's scenario development team charged with developing strategies for space exploration. He was also "a senior engineer with the Martin Marietta Astronautics company, working as one of its leaders in development of advanced concepts for interplanetary missions".[9] During his time at Martin Marietta, he drafted ideas for a potential single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft, and developed the Black Colt. However, he would eventually leave Martin Marietta to co-form Pioneer Rocketplane with Mitchell Burnside Clapp, an aerospace engineer from the US Air Force, due to a perceived lack of interest in reducing launch costs at larger aerospace firms.[10] In his book, Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization, Zubrin would write about how both large aerospace firms, and the US Government, would fail to reduce the costs of spaceflight.

In 1998, Zubrin founded the Mars Society, and in the following years, was able to attract large amounts of public interest to potential human colonisation on Mars. The work of the Mars Society was successful enough as to encourage the US Government to not cut funding for several Mars rover missions.

In 2008, Zubrin founded Pioneer Energy, a research and development firm headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado. The company's focus is to develop mobile Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) systems that can enable CO2-based EOR for both small and large oil producers in the United States. The company has also developed a number of new processes for manufacturing synthetic fuels.[11]

Zubrin has also edited or co-edited the following books, most of which include his contributions:

Dr. Zubrin is known as an advocate of a moderately anthropocentric position in the ethics of terraforming. Discussions of the ethics of terraforming often[citation needed] make reference to a series of public debates Zubrin has held with his friend Christopher McKay, who advocates a moderately biocentric position on the ethics of terraforming. For example, a written account of some of these debates is available in On to Mars: Colonizing a New World, as a joint article, "Do Indigenous Martian Bacteria have Precedence over Human Exploration?" (pp.177182)

An aging Robert Zubrin also appears as a background character in The Martian Race (1999) by Gregory Benford, a science fiction novel depicting early human explorers on Mars in the very near future. Benford, who is also an astrophysicist, is a longtime member of both the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society.[citation needed]

Robert Zubrin was also featured in a 2007 CBC Television documentary special, The Passionate Eye, dubbed "The Mars Underground".[16]

The songwriter and musician Frank Black (alias Black Francis of the Pixies) penned an homage to Zubrin, "Robert Onion", on the album Dog in the Sand. The lyrics are in the form of an acrostic, spelling "Robert The Case For Mars Zubrin".[17]

In 2010 Robert Zubrin was featured in the Symphony of Science video "The Case for Mars" along with Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and Penelope Boston.[18]

The fictional character Dr. Zachary Walzer in the 20102011 independent VODO series Pioneer One was inspired by Zubrin.[19]

In 2016, Zubrin was one of several scientists and engineers interviewed in the National Geographic miniseries Mars.

See the rest here:

Robert Zubrin - Wikipedia

Beachworld at DUST by Jackie Perez (September 20, 2021, 14:00 min)

Beachworld is an adaptation of a Stephen Kings short story as part of his Dollar Baby program. Lieutenant Shapiros ship is destroyed in a crash on a deserted desert planet covered in sand dunes. As she begins to understand the severity of her situation, she sets out to discover other survivors and formulate a rescue plan. Her crewmate Rand is alive, but spellbound by his new surroundings. Its up to her alone to figure out how to get back home. She finds their ships emergency beacon, and an unsavory salvage crew answers their distress call. Ultimately, their rescue comes too late as Shapiro has succumbed to the planets hypnotizing effect.

Review: First, Beachworld is a Stephen King story from 1985, faithfully rendered. Dont watch it if you are unprepared for horror.

After the crash onto the surreal planet, Lt. Rebecca Shapiro (Samantha Cutaran) and the already-spaced-out Rand (Tom McCafferty) dont need to speak to communicate; we just hear their voices over.

Then, in a classic horror twist, the rescue crew Shapiro is delighted to welcome Captain Reyna (Lyn Ross), Gomez (Lisa Costanza), and Dud (Eduardo Olmos) turns out to be straight out of Stephen King

Although it has won many awards, this film is unusual for attracting nearly as many Dislikes (2.3k) as Likes (4.7k). One reason may be that sci-fi and horror are not a usual mix and not to the taste of a third of the viewers..

Its true that sci-fi and horror are a somewhat unusual combination compared to, say, sci-fi and thought experiments (like Extent, for example). One outcome is that the desert planet comes off more as supernatural than sci-fi. Rand tells Shapiro that the dunes arent going to let us go as if they have some volition in the matter. Its also not clear what the crashed crew was doing for water And why dont they need to speak to be understood?

One might fault the screenplay writer for revealing the ending; on the other hand, the short story is already in print so the usual spoiler issue may not apply.

In any event, if you dont mind sci-fi horror and would prefer to view than read your short horror stories, Beachworld is a good choice.

We sort films reviewed below by length in minutes and seconds so you can choose them based both on interest and on how much time you have:

Five minutes or less

This planet is not in our co-ordinates. (3 min) A space courier crew gets a surprise when delivering a mysterious machine to a strange planet. One could almost see something like McPhersons Toys happening, as an office gag, but 500 years from now. (Animated)

The robot waits for the humans return (3:25 min). Robert is a household robot who has little to do but prowl the house while the humans are away. This very short film is a meditation on loneliness, with musical accompaniment and a robot as the central character.

A cruel experiment plays with three lives (3:32 min). Rational thought offers no contest, in this minimalist film, to the will to survive or at least get revenge in death. In 2-Bullet Solution, only one of three people can survive being trapped in a test gas chamber by shooting the other two.

Fenestra, the aliens land in a domestic drama. (3:49 min) As the alien ships loom worldwide, the cheating boyfriend thinks he can just come back At under four minutes, Fenestra gives all the elements of a good, lean story against an alien invasion setting.

Can video games save a lone survivor? (3:51 min) High Score features fine animations of apocalyptic scenes of post-civilization. The game that turns out to be an existential struggle usually benefits from a longer treatment but the animation is well imagined.

When the robot discovers nature. On a ruined planet, a dog robot get caught in a time warp. If a robot dog had a dog mind, wouldnt it prefer to be as much of a real dog as possible?

What if the future does not include smarter people? (4 min) Comic scenes would dot the aerial landscape, dispelling the usual earnestness of sci-fi films. A brief sci-fi diversion like Floaters reminds us that cluelessness is not a problem we can just solve or should even try to. (Animated)

What if an old man could see his mother again? (4:02 min) Bygone is a hard film to watch if you lost a loved one recently, but worthwhile. The old man is paying to use his own memories, retrieved via neuroscience imaging.

Machine world at its most nihilist 4:38 min This very short animated cyberpunk thriller portrays a world of autonomous vehicles where faces are very rare. In the Autonomous near-future world, pretty much everything we see, except the drug dealers, is a machine. (Animated)

Would you become an animal to save a species? (4:13 min) The animation is good and the question raised is interesting. Floreana looks at a world where we become the animals we are trying to save .. Would it work?

A choice between saving ones child and oneself Is life always so simple? Well, we shall see. (4:58 min) Zoe is a pleasant summer view with a happy ending. Well done technically and the actors are veterans. Some questions remain.

Ten minutes or less

Watch what you wish for. There IS a tomorrow! (5:01) Carl, a lonely guy, is determined to proceed through the warning and try the Luvsik procedure, to make him fall in love at first sight. The short film features strong performances by Momo Dione and Samantha Lester, and the surprise ending avoids clich.

A girl with kinetic powers faces a choice. (5:06 min) Should she help relatives with activities she knows to be wrong? Kinetic is well executed but it breaks a fundamental rule of science fiction: There must be a clear science basis for the story premise.

Its 2075! Our motto: Ignorance is Bliss (5:12 min) This animated short asks us to consider a future world in which information is reduced to a sort of haze. An aging neurobotanist struggles to preserve the knowledge of plants in a surreal landscape of clutter flying amid futurist buildings.

In No Guarantee, brain uploading proves costly. (5:22 min) In a ruined mid-21st century Britain, a couple gains tickets to a virtual world if their brains can be uploaded. But can they? In this very short film, the theme of escape by brain uploading is handled in a refreshingly mature way with characters who face serious choices.

When virtual friends are a real addiction (5:31) Animated short Best Friends begins with the thirtieth birthday party of a rather glum young man. As is the way with addicts, our hero cannot use his futurist fix for loneliness responsibly and ends up doing desperate things.

What happens if Earth passes through a black hole (5:36 min) This story isnt exactly about passage through a black hole: It is a meditation on nothingness that crashes headfirst into nihilismThe film prompts thought about why anyone should believe that there is no underlying order behind the universe. It seems obvious from the artwork that there is.

Rescuing lost people. (5:41 min) Animated, in French, with English subtitles, but dont let that deter you. The professional relationships in Protocole Sandwich sound pretty real and make it worth the watch. The animation is very good.

The disabled robot vet in A Robot Is a Robot gets a job grooming cats. (5:49 min) Definitely worth your five minutes, in part in order to see what cartoonists can do in sci-fi with animated stills. In a research paper, Max Planck scientists recently concluded that it is not possible to hobble the danger from intelligent AI. This film offers a good illustration.

Are we alone? asks a new sci-fi short. But then why? (5:48) In Laniakea, we are introduced to a civilizations museum? Or what is it? An intriguing Sci-fi Saturday. The underlying idea of Laniakea is a serious thesis in astrobiology: Extraterrestrial civilizations die out unless they adopt an unconventional solution.

When a simulated world begins to fall apart. (6:11) In Untitled Earth Sim 64, Marie has reason to expect trouble when the simulator who explains reality to her cannot get her name right If Marie has found God amid strange events, as her friend thinks, the God she has found is highly disorganized one.

When God gets distracted (6:36 min) A clever animated short offers a take on why there is so much violence and chaos in the worldIn Tales from the Multiverse, Earth is the beta version left unattended by a God who is too busy breaking up fights between his kids, including the devil.

If you met someone in a dream every night ? (7:08 min) In a sci-fi short, a paramedic must confront a question about the nature of reality. Would a constantly recurring dream that you and another person shared be the equivalent of reality?

When sci-fi gets earnest about colonization (7:12 min) Worth seeing but we never get to find out who the characters are fighting or why some treaty could not be arranged. The Ripple Effect looks at rebellion against the colonization of a new planet but the production values create more interest than the intellectual content.

Love among the ruins, for robots. Left behind is a beautifully rendered animated short of robots looking for some place to just exist in a deserted, ruined industrial landscape (7:14 min) At 275,000 views, this short film is deservedly popular. Animation eliminates many of the problems otherwise inherent in trying to make robots characters.

A fight for the winning ticket (7:35 min) In Here comes Frieda, in a 2040 superstorm, engulfing the planet, a young woman gets hold of a ticket out. But does the way out really exist? Or is she just hanging on and clinging to a fragile hope?

If we all depended on a few handfuls of seeds (7:39 min)Actually, we do. An inventive Norwegian filmmaker has made a short sci-fi film out of a possible outcome. What if aliens got hold of the carefully bred seed stocks that feed the world? No plagues or radiation would be needed to control us.

One day the door to the robots shop opens (7:44 min) In Roy, the robot, is suddenly confronted by another robot, determined to kill or die. Its a good short film but, while the special effects are well done, it makes no sense that the characters are supposed to be robots.

A space mission to infinity (7:55 min) After the space station module crash, the astronaut finds himself befriended by a friendly but mysterious neighbor. Who is he really? Flotando, which has won many awards, is a blend of sci-fi and near-death experience, reminiscent of the 1960s Twilight Zone series.

Layers of deceit plague a high-tech call center Sci-fi Saturday (7:57 min) In Lifeline, Jess, locked in, must try to save a competitors life when she can only contact artificial intelligence choices that are not programmed to provide the needed assistance. Jess is resourceful in attempting to save Keiths life, despite the constant AI roadblocks. But much more is going on than she really knows.

Human psychology in a world without water. (8:05 min) Oasis was filmed as a response to the Capetown Water Crisis of 2018. Good short film but one can take the empowered woman thing too far. That probably doesnt really work in a desperate struggle for survival.

Killing people for Likes on an alien planet: Sci-fi Saturday If only this crisp tale didnt sound so much like the social media we actually know (8:06 min) Happy Hunting follows a social media influencer who murders doomed people to break an online record and then faces a final, fatal choice.

We have met the aliens and they are comb jellies. (8:15 min) The alien life form, when it appears in Seedling, is very well imagined. Definitely watch it for the sense of isolation when our technology bubble evaporates and for the comb jelly space alien.

What if a loved one aged much faster than you? Sci-fi Saturday Its one of the implications of faster-than-light travel (8:19 min). Should youthful Cpt. Bernhard take her now very old husband to the new Earth, Gaia? Thats the emotional and ethical dilemma in ARK.

If its real, it must be endured. (8:47 min) Its Okay?, using futurist technology, takes a woman back through her time with someone she loves. This short sci-fi film plays around with time and neatly and deftly avoids the common shortcoming of becoming just plain confusing.

Kiko: A great short but key questions unanswered A lonely retail service robot longs for a world beyond her store. (9:21 min) An agreeable short but it never addresses the question of how Charlie acquired a robot that would want something different from its programming.

When The Workplace is anything but (9:32 min) The short film starts with a woman reassuring herself, unsettlingly, I AM the boss. This sci-fi short will appeal to many who have had a job at the corner of Rat and Race and sense thats a blessing compared to the alternative.

What if there were serious wars over clouds? (9:41 min) In a world that still has technology but is desperately short of water, such wars could happen. The short sci-fi film Oceanmaker features pirates who steal precious water from the clouds and a pilot who challenges them.

If roaches formed a miniature civilization (9:44 min) The roaches have built a rocket, intending to go to the moon, and their activity wakes up a dormant human. In Rocket Roaches, humans have retreated into virtual reality and it is left to the cockroaches to be the smart species that explores the universe.

What if cloning were as easy as shopping? (9:57 min) A couple stumbles on a means of cloning life forms and they get, shall we say, far more than they bargained for This thought experiment, posed as a film, should make us glad that cloning is technically tricky and used mainly for farm animals.

Fifteen minutes or less

In a Future Market, Time To Live Is Bought, Sold (10:57 min) An employee wants to rebel against the greed and injustice but then she would run out of time The Bargain raises some issues as a thought experiment that appear in real life in the illegal organ trade

Terrified by a Scrap Monster (11:09 min) Well, if you have never been terrified by a Scrap Monster, as in Pinki. you are clearly missing out. Its fun watching a middle class South Korean business executive try to cope with the Scrap Monster. Perhaps an allegory of our big environment issues.

What if insects could put humans on trial? (11:11 min) In Science+, a shrunken inventor finds himself facing Ant Justice. In a comic turnabout, the ants, seen face to face, turn out to be roughly like people, of whom Matt discovers he has killed nearly 3500.

What if your AI started to talk like a human? (11:12 min) Should you just shut it down and leave the building? And not tell anyone? Intelligentia features strong performances and provides a good introduction to the Turing Test (how would we know if a machine had achieved consciousness?)

When the human race is down to its final offer (11:23 min) The aliens want Earths oceans (have they wrecked their own?) and now the fate of Earth turns on a single question: Is Henry really the worlds worst lawyer? The downbeat human lawyer and the alien corporate lawyer in Final Offer achieve artful comedy by the too-little used technique of comic dialogue, not gags.

Could stored memories bring back the dead? A nerd sees a way to bring back his friend Adam from Adams girlfriends memories (11:45 min) In Adam 2.0, the quest to bring back a dead friend from memory turns on a central question about the nature of human identity.

What would the ruins of Eden be like? Sci-fi Saturday (11:51 min)Scavenging for artifacts on a ruined planet, a space drifter comes across the ruins of a high-tech civilization. The derelict remains of an advanced civilization are sobering picture our own civilization looking like that.

If your life could be told in five photos Sci-fi Saturday

A young woman accepts five key photos concerning a grandfather she never knew, taken at his death via a futurist technology. (11:58 min) Its a story about what happens when estrangement and loneliness become final, with the death of the one from whom one has been estranged.

Why you do NOT want to duplicate yourself. (12:07 min) The Unboxing Video offers philosophy as well as dark comedy around the question of what being oneself means. A lonely guy, filming himself unboxing his new android replicant, discovers how hard he is to live with when there are two of him. But can he return himself?

Speed of Time at DUST (12:19 min): A computer nerd writing a pizza delivery program discovers that his work is way more important than he, or anyone, thought. Imagine what happens when an accomplished ground warrior busts in from another time on a quiet family at the breakfast table

Landing back on Earth as the sole inhabitant unless we count the cat (12:24 min) In Origin, an astronaut from an interstellar colony explores the effects of deadly radiation on Earth.

How much can will power do against nature? (12:29) Despite his career-ending disability, Aaron as an alternative to accepting life as a bystander is trying to use his skills to take down a gunrunning gang. The climax will hearten persons who live with a disability though it leaves some fundamental questions unresolved. Maybe they cant be resolved.

The artists android has a surprise in store for him (12:33 min) He makes the fateful decision to allow her to depart from her programming during a crisis. In Muse, the gradually humanizing android Kay raises some interesting ethical and philosophical issues about being/becoming human.

Android asks, is immortality truly a benefit? (12:43 min) He argues that he can never appreciate life if he knows he can never die. More philosophy than sci-fi, Extent delves into the question of how much of the meaning we find in life derives from the inevitability of death.

Drapers chess metaphor seems apt: Life would be endless games where none is intrinsically connected to the previous one in any meaningful way.

Merv is the last man in a ruined radioactive world. (13:05) Hes been alone so long that the thought of another human being panics him. When Merv must confront another survivor, the story takes a classic turn but we might have expected that. Life goes on.

In a world run by robots, a bot becomes a joker (13:12 min) The dull, dystopian atmosphere of an Australia dominated by robots, portrayed in System Error, is well done and worth the watch. The story prompted this viewer to consider what thoughts a robot simply couldnt have without some kind of input from consciousness always the Hard Problem.

An asteroid lingers near Earth and devours time (13:23 min) Or, at any rate, it devours our perception of time, as one man discovers in Flyby. As the asteroid Chrono-7 hazes Earth, a man wakes up in the morning to find that he is living in his future, one he had never imagined.

In This Time Away, a robot helps an old fellow rediscover life (13:24 min) The robot is very well done and how he gets a name is charming. Lots of people abandon their elderly relatives, of course, so finding a helpful robot in the back yard is a pleasant fantasy.

The robot tries to learn about grief (13:37) In Rewind, an elderly woman buys a robot to help her when she finds herself all alone, due to tragedy. Investigating the womans unhappiness, the robot discovers more than it was, perhaps, intended to know.

What if next-stage evolution children appear? (13:44 min) Vikaari, a sci-fi short from Sri Lanka looks at the possibilities. The story is very well done as a parable of the social risks of continuous internal warfare.

Can an alternative universe save a lonely girl? (14:05 min) A girl finds fighting space aliens easier than fighting a brain haemorrhage and a sense of guilt. CARONTE ends as it must not happily but inevitably, and with at least some sense of redemption.

Can parents get back a dead child as an android? (14:10 min) In Article 19-42, they arent even united in their grief; they just think they must do something to get back a facsimile of what they remember. They have no philosophical or spiritual resources to fall back on in order to avoid this dead end.

What if a new start in life were two pills away? (14:23 min) Would you feel the same about suicide? In Cam Girl, a woman whose life is going nowhere, largely by her own choice, learns what it means to be genuinely desperate.

A future where dreams have been privatized (14:26 min) Unfortunately, the dream Carlos wants in I Dream is to see his missing family again and thats illegal More dystopia than science fiction but the post-5G surveillance environment amid mass poverty and oppression is well imagined.

When emergency services are run by AI (14:38 min) Its not just that AI doesnt care; it cant. And that shows. In Stuck, a young woman in a mine accident far from Earth navigates confusing advice from bots to free herself.

What if sweet sleep were a distant memory? (14:51 min) In a world going mad in Dont Forget To Remember and dying from insomnia, a young woman may have a cure. The big challenge in writing about insomnia is not to be a cure for it. From the harrowing opening scene on, this film certainly clears that bar.

Twenty minutes or less

Could you be reconstructed from your memories? Sci-fi Saturday If you were, would destroying the digitized you be murder? (15:46 min) The Final Moments of Karl Brant is an intriguing sci-fi murder mystery crossover that raises intriguing philosophical discussion points.

When you are the only human left Sci-fi Saturday. Are you the only human left alive or are you the only one who is not alive? (16:19 min) In Martha, the stark reality of two girls on the brink of eternity slowly seeps into the viewers imagination.

A one-girl war with the total surveillance state Sci-fi Saturday (17:24 min) The acting, ambience, and special effects in Bolero are top quality. Bolero tackles the pressing topic of total government surveillance, imagining it in the United States. But it is an everyday reality in China.

Alone at DUST. (18:49 min) Space engineer Kaya Torres, the only survivor of a black hole, contacts an interstellar penpal to keep her company until she dies. She manages a desperate escape but then experiences one of the astonishing implications of time travel.

When terraforming Mars means Mars-forming people. (19:14 min) In this award-winner, the underground humans must, according to the terraforming colonys rules, deny emotion, which pretty much guarantees a story. The New Mars colony embodies a contradiction: The alleged better world created by science and logic cant accommodate the nature of humans.

Can a Robot Find a Better Planet Than Earth? (19:31 min) The trouble is, the robot in Avarya is governed by Isaac Asimovs three laws of robotics. After 55 habitable planets, theby then very oldfellow is beginning to suspect something about the robots judgment

Twenty-five minutes or less

Limbo profiles a futurist approach to punishment (24:21). The convict must live in a vision, induced during a coma, as the victim (or bereft loved one), in an attempt to rehabilitate him by teaching empathy. For one innocent convict, its a nightmare of incomprehensible suffering, from which friends stage a rescue attempt.

Can we live in more than the present moment? (24:42 min) When a tech entrepreneur succeeds with time travel, he gets trapped in his own past errors. In Container, the time traveler is locked inside his lab and can only get out by repeated, dangerous efforts to go back in time to when the door is unlocked.

The Beacon (25:10 min) at DUST. Refreshingly realistic, especially the harrowing Arctic encounter where the grieving husband finds out what really happened. Not to be missed is Marks encounter with the bureaucrat from hell.

Forty minutes or less

The Big Nothing melds sci-fi and whodunit in a taut drama. (37:54) The combination of the sci-fi and detective genres takes some skill to pull off but this Australian crew succeeds. Arriving at a mining station near Saturn, Detective Lennox must interview three suspects in the captains murder. All have motives. Who is lying?

Excerpt from:

What if the Rescue is the Worst Part? Sci-Fi Saturday - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Update for Oct. 17: The video feed above has been updated for Day 4 of the 2021 International Mars Society Convention.

The 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention begins Thursday (Oct. 14), and you can watch the whole thing online for free.

The Mars Society, a space advocacy group supporting the human exploration of Mars, will have virtual panels online between Thursday (Oct. 14) and Sunday (Oct. 17). Register here for your ticket (including an optional donation) and check out the full schedule at this link.

"The four-day online forum will bring together leading scientists, government policymakers, commercial space executives, and space advocates to discuss the latest scientific and technological developments and challenges related to the human and robotic exploration of Mars and the eventual human settlement of the Red Planet," the Mars Society said in a statement.

Presentations will take place over Zoom, while attendees and presenters can network over platforms including mobile app event platform Attendify, chat and collaboration tool Slack, and virtual networking and social virtual reality platform AltspaceVR by Microsoft.

Related: Behold! The 1st panorama of Mars from the Perseverance rover

According to the Mars Society, here are some of the highlights attendees can look forward to:

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow uson Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

Correction: The Mars Society sent updated information to its initial press release indicating that the organization is now using AltspaceVR. The article has been updated to reflect this information.

See the rest here:

Live this week: Watch the 2021 International Mars Society Convention online - Space.com

Beyond M&Ms, space espresso and astronaut ice cream, a lot of work remains when it comes to securing nutrition in space. Knowing how to cultivate, culture and cycle consumable nutrients will be necessary for humans to successfully settle deep space. And it might be helpful for feeding hungry mouths on our home planet, too.

As our planetary next-door neighbor, farming on Mars seems like a natural starting point to investigate. However, such lofty field goals are not without their obstacles. Many resource-finding challenges are in store for future Terran transplants, including locating water and nutrients, removing toxins and, perhaps most ironically, finding room to grow. On Earth and off it, one of the biggest obstacles to farming is space itself.

On Earth, the traditional method for tackling lack of space is to build terraced farms. More recently, Closed Environment Agriculture (CEA) has taken root. In 2018, Aerofarms in New Jersey claimed to grow 2 million pounds of greens annually without sun or soil in a vertically stacked system, as CNN reports. Water usage in that vertical farming project, housed in an old steel mill, was reportedly 95% less than conventional, ground-based Earth farming.

Vertical farming is a great example of technology transfer, from up to down in this case. NASA started growing plants in space without soil or water in 1997. Starting from either cuttings or seeds, plants engineered to grow rapidly are misted with liquid nutrients. Plants grown by aeroculture appear to take up more nutrients. Without gravity to hold them down, they also grow faster in the case of tomato plants, more than twice as fast. Small, inflatable aeroponic food systems can grow more than 1,000 bunches of vegetables in less than a month, as NASA reports.

Farming microbes might also be a necessary way to bulk up the nutritional and caloric content of space diets for every life form on a Mars mission. People arent the only ones who munch on microbes for their health. Plants, do, too! Adding microbes is a critical step toward making Martian regolith a term used to describe sterile material into a plant-friendly growth medium, as Utah State University notes. But before we add nutrients to non-living Mars dust, turn it into soil and start farming on Mars, well need to make sure we remove the poison.

That poison comes in the form of chlorine atoms connected to four oxygen atoms, a.k.a. perchlorates. These compounds are produced by living organisms as well as inorganic processes. On Earth, they are found in many places, including the groundwater near NASA JPL. On Mars, the Curiosity Rover picked them up, literally, while looking for signs of organic life in the regolith, according to NASA.

With some tinkering, perchlorates can be turned into explosives, fertilizer or fireworks, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But on their own, perchlorates are highly toxic to people.

Perchlorates in the regolith are by no means an intractable farming problem quite the opposite. In space, wasting is not an option. Perchlorates could be used to feed microbes or power rocket engines and mining equipment. Future Martian farmers dont necessarily need to eliminate the perchlorates; they just need to collect and extract them. Plus, if perchlorates are fed to microbes, theyll produce a super-helpful compound for humans living in space: oxygen.

None of these methods for farming on Mars rise to the level of terraforming Mars: making it similar to Earth. Transformation on that scale could only occur if the entire planet were shielded from the solar wind. Allowing Mars atmosphere to grow, the air pressure to rise and water to remain on the surface in liquid form would require a magnetic field on the scale of our own magnetosphere. According to Phys.org, NASA computer modeling indicates that, with a truly enormous shield in place plus several hundred million years of waiting the planet would warm, the polar caps would melt, and the atmosphere would grow enough for terraforming Mars to take place en masse.

Fortunately, our efforts at space agriculture and settlement need not wait that long. Farming in enclosed environments, on Earth and in space, has been happening successfully for decades. The options for us to begin the process in deep space include sending food-growing systems in advance of the mission and finding ways to use the resources available once we arrive. Given how many calories humans require, we probably need to use both strategies at once.

Todays Martian regolith needs a little love to become soil, but as ScienceNews points out, with the help of multivitamins, minerals, microbes, perchlorates removal, air pressure and radiation shielding, that may not remain true for long. Human mastery of genetics is growing. It is increasingly possible for us to engineer life forms such as those living on the outside of the International Space Station that find the current surface of Mars appealing. Even without terraforming Mars, we might be able to raise plants that will, with the right encouragement, take root in the new earth.

Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are, too. Take a look at open positions at Northrop Grumman and consider joining our team.

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Roots in the Sky: An Astronaut's Guide to Farming on Mars - Now. Powered by Northrop Grumman.

Note: This guide is meant for players which have bought not only the base game but also all the expansions (which you should, it's a really good game). It therefore refers to some buildings that are available only in the expansions. If you have just the base / Space Race version of the game you can check my original guide here:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-primer-redux-updated-for-space-race.1133562/

This guide is also divided into a basic introduction section for first-time players, and an addendum filled with notes for advanced players. For Terraforming, head to the very last addendum of the guide.

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Beginner's Guide to Surviving Mars

Introduction & Key Concepts

Surviving Mars, despite the name, is NOT a "survival" game. Indeed most "survival" games are misleading because they are not really about survival - instead you simply collect more and more resources to build bigger and bigger things.

Surviving Mars is instead a management simulation - more specifically an engine-building game. You start with a pile of resources, which you convert into investments (e.g. power plants, mines, colonists) which produce more resources. Newly produced resources are then converted into more investments which expand the engine. Done consistently, this leads to a "virtuous cycle" wherein your produce more and more resources to the point you enter the state of permanent surplus. At this point, the sky is the limit with regards to what you can build and achieve (and thanks to the Green Planet expansion, this end objective should be to fully Terraform Mars into Earth-like conditions).

However, engine-building games are suceptible to something called "systems collapse". This can occur if your consumption of resources - particularly the maintenance of buildings - exceeds your production. If you are unprofitable for too long then a situation can occur called a "deadlock" - wherein you can no longer acquire/produce specific key resources to keep your system running, causing everything else to stop running and fall apart.

This is why - contrary to the advice of most Youtube Streamers - beginners should NOT aim for self-sufficiency to begin with. There are multiple types of resource and a shortage of any single type can lead to deadlock.

Instead, beginners should focus on the one resource in Surviving Mars which can fix any deadlock situation - namely money. Players keep forgetting that you can import additional resources from Earth - using either a supply pod or your rocket - in order to make up for any shortfall. With money you can buy food to feed your starving colonists, or arrange for a shipment of polymers to fix your broken battery. You don't have to worry about building a farm or polymer factory just as your colony is beginning to fall apart.

In short, success in Surviving Mars can be summed up with these two lines:

Do not aim to be self-sufficient.

Aim instead to be profitable.

Self-sufficiency may allow your colony to survive indefinitely, but without profit your colony cannot deal with emergencies or expand its operations.

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Creating Your First Profitable Colony

With "profitability" always in mind, it's important to realize that Surviving Mars has three distinct phases:

1) Early game exploration - which is defined by the period BEFORE you land your first colonist, and your main priority is finding a good rare metal deposit.

2) Establishment of your first Dome - which is defined by creating your first "profitable" manned settlement as a proof-of-concept that produces a profit.

3) Expansion - which is basically replicating your early successes and / or exploring new ones.

This section will discuss these phases for first-time players, assuming relatively easy game settings (no special rules and few disasters). Note also that we will NOT discuss Terraforming yet. While you can start Terraforming immediately, it is not recommended until you have a more extensive industrial base.

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Exploration:

One of the unique mechanics of Surviving Mars is the fact that you are NOT forced to start sending colonists immediately. You instead start off with an unmanned mission - consisting of various rovers and drones - who are supposed to explore the area and build your initial infrastructure. You can theoretically Terraform Mars or build up enormous stockpiles of basic goods before landing a single colonist.

That being said, the most consistently profitable "business" in the early game is selling rare metals to Earth. Some sponsor combinations may generate money in other ways that allow for more flexibility - Europe being a particular standout as they earn money from research - but all colonies can turn a profit via rare metal mining. Hence, your primary goal in the early exploration phase is to find a good rare metal source - preferably of "average" quality or better (as this affects how fast you can mine it).

In this regard, it is important to remember these key principles:

1) You are NOT required to build on the first "revealed" sector. You do not even have to land there. If the resource mix on the initial scanned site is poor (or it's isolated by mountains), you can land somewhere else. That said, it is highly recommended for first-time players to pick the "Astrogeologist" Commander Profile as it guarantees a rare metal deposit in your initial scanned sector. This allows you to start building immediately while you continuing your exploration (as you want to reveal more resources!).

2) You don't have to bring orbital scanners to find "better" spots. It is generally cheaper (and better long-term) to land and build Sensor Towers. Your initial rocket should bring in some electronics and build a sensor tower (plus a small solar panel to power it) on your initial landing spot to scan the surrounding area.

3) Your rocket, after landing, needs to be refueled. Otherwise it will stay on Mars and be unable to export rare metal for you. Fortunately, setting up a refueling system is really easy using prefabricated buildings - just remember to bring a Moisture Farm and a Fuel Refinery on your first trip. Build them beside your rocket, then build some solar panels, and your rocket will be refueled in a few days. You should setup this refueling system right from the outset since it's independent from any on-site resources beside metal for Solar panels.

Note: Solar panels only work in the daytime, so you should also build a Concrete Extractor (requiring machine parts) and bring in some Polymers so you can add a battery that will allow the whole system to work both day and night. You need about 7 Solar Power panels and 1 battery for your three initial buildings (with some power to spare). See the "Planning for Power" section for more details. You also want to start stockpiling concrete anyway to build Domes, and to build a rocket pad that makes everything tidier.

4) Though the "exploration" phase will typically be over after a few Sols, you should continue building sensor towers as outlined in Step 2 until you have fully scanned the map; as your primary source of metal in the early game are surface deposits (revealed by scanning) which are collected by your Transport Rover. They also allow you to plan better for the expansion phase - e.g. by discovering where there are more rare metal or water deposits. Scanning the map also reveals anomalies - which can be scanned using an Explorer Rover for research bonuses and more technology.

Given this, my ideal initial rocket cargo setup would be the following:

1. Moisture Farm Prefab - for Refueling the Rocket2. Fuel Refinery Refab - for Refueling the Rocket4. Transport Rover - to collect Metal for Solar Panels and other buildings5. RC Rover - to control drones and build sensor towers in other sectors6. Exploration Rover - to scan anomalies7. 5 Machine Parts - to build a Concrete Extractor8. 5 Electronics - to build sensor towers9. 5 Polymers - to build a battery

Except for SpaceY all sponsors should be able to fit this in their initial rocket; but if you forget anything don't worry - just send a resupply pod with whatever you are missing. Also any additional space in your initial rocket should be filled up using drones - as more drones helps reduce their workload and speeds up construction.

Your First Dome:

First, the math: A small deposit of just 300 rare metal, selling at $20M (the minimum), would generate $6000M once fully consumed. This exceeds the initial funding of all the "hard" difficulty sponsors, thus giving you enough cash to build even more Domes while reusing most of your initial investments (e.g. fueling depots, and no-maintenance drones + rovers).

It is in fact "okay" to import stuff like machine parts and polymers early on to fulfill your maintenance needs, and food is so cheap that having hydrophonics is really unnecessary. Just make sure your supply of parts or food will not dry up before the arrival of the next resupply rocket, and make sure you don't over-order. In an emergency, use resupply pods as they ignore disasters and reach Mars faster than the rocket.

In terms of actually building the Domes, it pays to remember that most Domes require cement, metal, and polymers to build - plus generally more cement and other stuff to build the structures inside of it. Hence from a cash perspective Domes are actually "cheap" - as only the Polymers and the machine parts for the concrete extractor are bought in from Earth. Therefore as a general principle players should always think in terms of building more Domes whenever they feel that they've run out of living space (See Housing Myths for more advanced details).

Finally, your initial Dome should be a MicroDome - as it does not require Polymers while giving you a very efficient initial setup. Some players may complain and feel that a MicroDome is too limiting in terms of space, but note the following:

- You can power your MicroDome and all of its work buildings by just adding six more Solar Panels and another battery (import more poylmers as necessary).- You can very easily supply the MicroDome with Oxygen from a single Moxie. Indeed it is highly recommended that you build an Oxygen tank and only run the Moxie during the daytime - relying on tanked Oxygen at night.- You can supply your MicroDome with water using your original Moisture Farm as you only need 0.5 water/hour. Simply turn off the Fuel Refinery for the afternoon and evening shift, and add a water tank to store up water during this time. Note though that this will considerably slow down your refueling progress - but this is a temporary problem because an early research upgrade can increase the Moisture Farm to 1.5 water production which allows you to resume full-scale fuel production.

Note: Buildings must be upgraded individually, and upgrades usually cost some resources. In this case you need to pay a few polymers to increase your water production to 1.5 after research. It is NOT applied automatically.

In short, the MicroDome can be supported with a very minimal amount of additional infrastructure, which in turn means very low maintenance cost for more profit. While it is certainly possible to start big, I recommend against this for first-time players so that they learn to be efficient and discplined. Don't build more than you actually need, because all those extra buildings simply eat up more maintenance and lower your profits.

The MicroDome in fact is exactly big enough to let you operate one mine and one research lab - giving you not only money but a significant research boost. Just note the following:

1) You should initially build ONE basic living quarters to fill a big triangle, and a bunch of services to fill out a second big triangle. This is because you are not allowed to send more colonists until 10 days after the initial settlers unless a child is born in your colony before then. Having only residences + services increases the chance of a birth occuring. Make sure to open all shifts of your service buildings to maximize comfort at this stage. Also, obviously, most of your initial colonists should be Geologists, Scientists, or Medics - but do not stress yourself if you lack the right number of specialists. An unspecialized workforce is better than none at all (see Labor Myths for details)

2) Your service triangle should consist of three medium and one small building. The three medium buildings should be an Infirmary, a Diner, and a Grocer. The small building should be a park of some sort. This "service slice" will be replicated throughout your colony - with an average of one service slice for 30-60 residents and only some minor variation (generally this means replacing the Grocer with a better store).

3) When the birth happens you can then "fill out" the colony and build a second living quarter on the other big slice. In addition you can then build the rare metal extractor on the deposit and a lab on your remaining medium slot.

4) With 28 living spaces and a fully populated colony you should theoretically be able to man all the buildings in your colony for the two day time shifts, plus a few more to hold children. You thus have a nice, reasonably happy colony that regularly produces money (from rare metal exports) and research!

Expansion:

Now that you are making money, you have the freedom to expand and diversify your colony. Just remember to remain within the virtuous cycle of ever-increasing profit, and not fall into the trap of deficits which can result in deadlock or even collapse. Here are some final ideas to guide your expansion.

1) Specialize your domes - each should only have one or two different kinds of primary worker. Your original Geologist/Scientist combo is fine. A pure agricultural Dome full of only Boatanists is even better. Managing specialized Domes is easy if you simply make a Dome "prefer" a specific set of specialists. For instance your first mining colony should be made to prefer Geologists and Scientists. That said specialized Domes should NOT reject other specialists - because you might not have enough specialists of the right type to fill out all your slots. See Labor Myths for more details.

2) Agriculture Domes are best delayed until you have farms, as Hydrophonics and Fungus tend to eat up power and other valuable resources in addition to being less productive than farms. Agri Domes also need quite a bit of water, so they should be built near a water source. That said, a single basic Agri Dome with just 3 farms (plus 2 living quarters and a service slice) can easily feed a hundred colonists, and with improved crops of various types it may push closer to 200. Later in the game, the water consumption issue all but vanishes with the addition of a water reclamation spire; at which point they stop really needing the water source and can rely on Moisture Farms again. For reference, it takes 0.2 food to feed a colonist each day.

3) A science-focused Dome will generally produce more research than your starting sponsor rate, but labs requires electronics for maintenance which are the most expensive type of import. On the other hand, you can simply spend money outright to get research through Outsource. Long-term Science Domes are generally desirable and should be built, just make sure you can support them and do consider just Outsourcing in the meantime. Unfortunately a previously available "business model" - wherein money is generated by researching patents - has been nerfed so building a lot of science Domes to make money is less viable, but it's still possible.

4) Manufacturing Domes can produce multiple types of advanced resources - because they're all reliant on Engineer specialists. That said, electronics factories tend to require much more manpower than machine parts or polymers, so it may be better to leave them in a separate Dome due to manpower concerns.

Indeed, I suspect a lot of the manpower issues lies with how people try to cram all three types of factory in a single Dome - resulting in too much labor demand and not enough workers. Likewise, small factories tend to be much less efficient than big ones - so wait until you have big factories before starting production. Obviously, your supply of raw materials should also exceed your manufacturing capability - there's no point in being able to produce 10 machine parts per day if your metals production is only 3!

Finally, there are no spires which enhance industrial production, so you should consider Domes without spires but extra space to house industry. The Barrel Dome in particular is a great pick for an industrial center.

5) Have a specialized Dome for training specialists once you unlock the university. Make sure the university always works all shifts. Set it to prefer non-specialized adults and REJECT any specialists. That way non-specialists go into the university Dome and are kicked out as soon as they get skills. Name it after some famous real-world university town like say Heidelberg. That's part of the fun of the game.

6) Eventually your Domes will become "clogged" by Seniors and children, who do not contribute to the work force but prevent vital factories from being manned. At this point, a "retirement" Dome and a "children's" Dome might be in order.

However, unlike "specialized" Domes which prefer certain specialists, you must do the reverse: To create a Senior's Dome, you must select all other Domes and have them REJECT Seniors. The retirement Dome then prefers Seniors but does not disallow other age groups (except maybe children).

This is because seniors will not automatically migrate to the "retirement" dome unless their parent dome rejects them. Meanwhile, you still want the retirement dome to have a few working-age people (to man the services).

Apply the same logic to create a children's Dome, albeit the children's Dome should be full of nurseries and include schools and playgrounds to educate the next generation of Martians; similar to the university Dome.

7) Rely more on single-resource depot than universal ones, as this allows you to more easily set transfer routes between Domes using your RC Transports. If you do use universal depots then make sure to disable resources that are not needed in that Dome (e.g. fuel in a spot where the rocket never lands). Shuttle technology is also something to beeline for if you're having difficult micromanaging everything, though RC Transports remain the best and most efficient method of bulk transport.

Anyway, that's all for the beginner's guide. Good luck, commanders!

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Addendum for Advanced Players

Addendum 1: General FAQ and Notes on some Game Features

1) Landscaping

Definitely use landscaping to flatten the ground and give yourself more building space, and use landscaping to build ramps across cliffs instead of building tunnels. Landscaping mostly takes time, whereas a structure like a tunnel requires resources. Tunnels also cause some pathfinding issues for your rovers.

2) Sponsor / Commander Notes and Advice

IMM - I actually don't recommend this for beginners, because you start with such an embarassment of riches that you can end up over-spending without becoming profitable. I would instead pick IMM for experienced players who want a very fast start - e.g. one where they setup multiple domes on the first few sols, or those who want to start terraforming immediately.

America - the better first choice for beginners, as you get periodic income which can bail you out of a deadlock if you've spent yourself down to zero money. Malls are a mediocre service building however - they fulfill a lot of needs, but require a lot of staff and their comfort rating is not that high.

Blue Sun - a great choice for new players who are familiar with setting up mining Domes, as this sponsor earns more from rare metal mining and can spend this cash to resolve labour shortages. The Corporate Office should be avoided early - it just doesn't generate enough money for the manpower required. It is instead a lategame building that opens up a Dystopian Corporate future where you can rake in unlimited cash from your workers via endless paperwork.

China - the population bonus fades once you have enough people on Mars to produce a surplus of children, but they do have an excellent Rover (arguably the best in the game) which produces 30 power! You won't need to build Solar Panels for the most part - simply buy another RC Rover which you needed anyway for drone control. The Tai-Chi park is also underrated as it has a significant comfort boost.

India - people greatly underestimate the amount of resources you can save with India's bonus, not to mention the faster build time (since most of the "build time" is largely taken up by transporting resources to the site).

SpaceY - having a lot of rockets is honestly not that great, albeit that combined with half-priced Earth imports can allow you to setup a lot of infrastructure quickly; albeit you have a small applicant pool and thus can't really fully utilize a lot of infrastructure. My advice would be to focus on tourism - your rockets are faster and can carry as many tourists - plus tourists help make babies to fill up your infrastructure.

Europe - a research powerhouse, whose first MicroDome should be a pure research center that combines an internal Research Lab and an external Low-G Lab. Lack of early mining money isn't an issue because you gain money from research. My personal favorite.

Russia - I'll be blunt - challenge sponsors aren't really that challenging, they just make the game slower than it normally is. The rare metal drill even side-steps the early money problems, letting you drill as much rare metal as you want given enough time without the need for any colonist or maintenance.

Paradox - a really slow start due to the refueling penalty and low applicants, and only a potentially stronger end due to more breakthroughs. It is also supposedly the most difficult sponsor, but see my note on Russia. Play Paradox if you really care about difficulty percentage numbers (which will really impress no one at this point) or if you want a lot of breakthroughs.

Last Ark - a more interesting challenge sponsor. After you get past the early problems - no research, low funding, and only a single rocket - you get a doubled birthrate bonus which really lets your colony grow rapidly without having to rely on Earth. A great pick for various self-imposed challenges, like say an isolationist colony which refuses to sell rare metals to Earth.

Brazil - the passage penalty isn't really a big deal to make it a central mechanic for a sponsor, but the extra money for colonists does make Brazil the most profitable tourist sponsor.

Japan - the real challenge for Japan is the tiny applicant pool, which is so low that it becomes a different experience compared to other sponsors. Once you get past it though it's a fairly ordinary game.

Commanders:

Astrogeologist - recommended for first-time players to guarantee a rare metal deposit, a poor overall choice otherwise. It doesn't bring enough to the table.

City Mayor - another good beginner choice for extra money and a discount to buildings.

Inventor - a quality of life pick. Drone Hubs are very convenient but cost too much power and maintenance normally. This lets you rely on Drone Hubs without paying power or maintenace costs.

Oligarch - a very poor pick that is unfortunately overvalued because a lot of beginners keep trying to fit everything in their existing domes instead of building more. Arcologies are in fact a poor building - they cost almost as much as a whole new dome both in terms of construction and maintenance!

Hydroengineer - a thematic pick that has less value than Astrogeologist because water is easy to get using Moisture Farms.

Doctor - a good pick for increasing population and making your workforce more productive as a whole, but there are better picks.

Psychologist - a worse Doctor. Sanity really isn't a big issue.

Politician - the additional money isn't really worth giving up on some other, better picks.

Futurist - for difficulty percentage chasers only. The bonus is minimal and the technology is very easy to research.

Ecologist - the better Doctor. Hanging Gardens are the best way to boost comfort and thus birthrate, and getting these early is a significant boost. That said you have to build and maintain Hanging Gardens, so the Doctor is still a valid option as his tech is no-maintenance.

Rocket Scientist - another quality of life pick. If you plan to have a lot of spread out colonies early, then you want the Shuttle Hub tech unlocked early.

3) Mysteries

Mysteries are fun in that they give a bit of a narrative twist to each game, so I won't spoil them.

That said - If you're stuck in a mystery, click on one of the Mystery's unique objects on the map. They often let you do things to it (see your options screen) which allows you to progress.

Alternatively, just wait. Mysteries sometimes just require a few days of wait time before progressing.

4) Connections

You don't really need them and I highly suggest to ignore them in your initial playthrough. The game was originally designed without connections and it can still be played without them as long as you are disciplined with regards to specializing your Domes. Use them once you've mastered specializing Domes, not before.

As a background: They were included because players kept clamouring for a big interconnected colony, and because many players misunderstood how Comfort works (see Comfort Myths for details). In reality interconnected colonies were not very efficient with or without connections, and having access to the Casino in the adjacent colony did not make colonists noticeably less miserable.

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