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I posted about history of Newfoundland. Robert Zubrin liked to use the Louis and Clarke expedition as an example. He spoke about China exploring the world, then an emperor of China destroying the ships and shrinking to just China. But I want to use Newfoundland as a strong lesson.
Short version: after Christopher Columbus, Britain sent John Cabot to discover what he could find. In 1496 he discovered Newfoundland, mapped Saint John's bay, and the Grand Banks. Primary protein for people in Britain at that time was fish, so tell fishermen of the greatest fishery in the history of humans? And a bay that can act as a natural harbour? Fishermen set sail as soon as he reported his findings. That bay became the city of St. John's, capital of what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland. But more importantly, fishermen established a fishing camp there in late summer 1496, and built the first permanent house for a caretaker in 1497. This was not government sponsored, it was just fishermen. The government sponsored colonizes of Roanoke and Jamestown failed miserably. Several government colonize failed, settlers died, until a new colony was established at the site of the failed colony of Jametown. Jamestown was re-established and succeeded starting 1610. Notice the time: 114 years after the fishing settlement of St. John's Newfoundland. But St. John's never failed.
Failure and success had a very simple reason. Failed government colonies relied on food shipments from Europe. Due to politics, those food shipments were often delayed by months or years. People can't wait months or years to receive food. If they run out of food, they starve to death. But in Newfoundland, they never relied on government for jack shit! They accepted maps from John Cabot, said thank-you and bu-buy. When fishermen were hungry, they ate some of the fish they caught. In the 1490s, there was no refrigeration, no freezers, no canning; the only preservation technology was to fillet the fish, salt and dry. When fishermen were hungry, you can bet they fried the fish fresh. They also caught crabs and lobster, any fresh seafood. They harvested trees to build their fishing camps, and later their town.
To put this in terms of Mars, a successful settlement must start producing food with the fist expedition. In 1496, fishermen returned to England at the end of each fishing season. A house was built in 1497 for a single caretaker to overwinter, to care for the camp. It was some years before people lived year-round. For Mars, first expeditions must build the first permanent buildings including a pressurized greenhouse to grow food. But the first few expeditions must return to Earth. Only after the base has been proven safe, with reliable food production, can permanent settlement be considered. Food production with absolutely no resupply from Earth must be established before we permanently settle Mars.
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For RobertDyck .... thank you for starting what appears to be an important new topic.
You've written about this topic before, so I am glad to see a topic dedicated to it.
Please go take a look at the work of Steve Stewart to see if his concepts might provide a workable solution.
Steve has stopped contributing, but his work remains available for study.
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