Scientists Reveal How Many People You'd Need to Colonize Mars

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-reveal-how-many-people-youd-need-to-colonize-mars

9 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

"Long enough to establish a human presence" is a very fuzzy goalpost. Very limited usefulness even as a mere operational definition.

You need a minimum of 50 to avoid inbreeding issues and 500 to minimize genetic drift in a population.

It sounds like they're just looking for enough people to build a pied a terre though.

Korkki@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

It's not about colonization, but a initial base not collapsing within 28 years. And collapse is here defined that the population doesn't go under 10, because that is the safest lover limit to run a mars colony. It doesn't include more arrivals in that time so no extra colonists. Nor does it consider things as inbreeding.

FediMan@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 2y

And number 3 might surprise you!