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Comment by elevaet

8 hours ago

We don't even have permanent settlements on Antarctica. Don't hold your breath.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_stations_in_Antarctic...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanza_Base

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas

  • Permanent means self sustaining. I.e biodome completely isolated from outside with its own atmosphere.

    None of those are self sustaining.

    • > Permanent means self sustaining. I.e biodome completely isolated from outside with its own atmosphere.

      According to whom exactly? For me, permanent means "permanently without breaks".

      1 reply →

    • Why on earth (pun intended), would you want that?

      You don't want to be there? Almost every other place on earth is better. So you send a skeleton crew along with what they need.

      If it is to test an actual community living isolated, sure. But I think it'll always be different because you know that help is at most a few months away and probably a lot less. I don't think you can fake that, unless you're never told you're not alone

      5 replies →

    • > Permanent means self sustaining.

      No it doesn't. "Permanent settlement" just means it's not temporary, only intended for a short-term mission.

    • Nobody’s tried because they are a short flight away from South America. No point. It’s cheaper and easier to fly it in.

      There are skeptical arguments against Mars settlement but the Antarctica thing is kind of a weak one.

      To point out one more problem with it: there’s legal and treaty restrictions in play for that continent. You can’t just go. That’s another limiting factor.

    • There's an argument that Earth, as a biodome completely isolated from outside with its own atmosphere, also isn't self sustaining.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day

      I'd keep the Moonraker film in mind as a metric for self sustaining colonies created by billionaires. They can't be trusted unless they are also working to fix what we already have.