A team of computational social scientists at George Mason University has found via simulations that 22 people is the minimum number needed to start a human colony on Mars. The group has posted a paper describing their simulation on the arXiv preprint server.
Wat? Is this a probilistic study on psychological issues? Did they just put a bunch of traits in Rimworld and see who would break?
Edit: I read the study, it’s not far off. Part of the sim was “mining minerals to be sent to earth.” We will never pull minerals out of the martian gravity well just to drop them into the earth one. That’s just dumb.
It’s like a stupid rimworld