Ok, fair enough. Definitely a social issue. I think part of the problem is that we overestimate the extent of what we think of as our community. I've lived in small towns, where everyone knew everyone else, and there was always a sense of trust and connection within the community. You could go to a bar and have a beer with your friends without ever thinking that someone would do (in your group, or to your group) something nefarious. At the very least, everyone knew who the bad apples were. In big cities, people can be more isolated (often, people don't even talk to their neighbours), but we still behave like we're in a connected community. When we go out to a club, we extend that same trust to those around us, even though they are an unknown in the social equation.

The social issue I see here is that there's no consensus that we're all the same tribe, and therefore should have each other's back. There are people who see others as competition at best, and prey at worst. For them, a club is not an opportunity to make social connections and strengthen the tribe; it's a feeding ground. I guess one could also turn it around and see it from the other angle. There are people who see a predator in everyone, even when it's not the case. Either way, we're losing something valuable by inhibiting the development of these kinds of social bonds.

How about using the police?

It was a trap!

With respect to not having any business there, I respectfully disagree. I think something like this is just what we need to get our shit together. We've been getting away with lots of unsustainable practices here on Earth, because our ecosystem is big enough to absorb the damage so far. The problem with this is that the consequences are too far away in time or place for us to care. Boiling the frog, and all that.

Mars, on the other hand, is a pretty unforgiving place. If we can't be self sustaining in a small closed environment such as a habitat for a few dozen people, we'll know pretty quickly. A successful setup on Mars should breed a conservationist mentality in Martians that can be applied back on Earth.

I would lose the Uranium shielding, and just bury the thing instead. We need to use as much local material for construction as possible. As someone else mentioned above, nobody wants to pay to keep a colony going, so once we're there, it's probably a good idea to live as though we're on our own for good. If we want to sustain and expand our colony past the initial setup, we need to do it without Earth sending us stuff regularly. So, houses we can make out of Mars. That being said, I would make a couple of exceptions. First, I would ship some kind of self contained power source, like maybe a modular Thorium reactor, or something like that. Doing big construction projects is power intensive, and solar might not cut it. The second thing I would take would be fabrication tools for any supplies that can't be 3D printed, I guess. I mean, eventually, stuff is going to wear out, and Mars doesn't seem to have much in the way of tradable resources, so we're going to have to make our own stuff. By "stuff we'll have to make ourselves", I'm thinking space suits and mining/refining equipment.

Popcorn may not be the best snacking choice for a water shortage.

The first thing I thought of when he said "water memory" was this.

Just curious; if your sword is hanging off your hip, it isn't concealed, so do you still need a "concealed carry" permit to carry it? How does the Second Amendment work, if you need permission from the government to have a weapon?

Bullshit. Swordfighting hasn't been common in thefts for centuries. I don't even think you can legally walk around with a real sword any more.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. I used to be all fanatical about that stuff back in the 90s. The idea with the thermal mass is that the sun comes in through the windows and heats up the walls, and then, at night, the walls radiate the heat back into the house. It's like a thermal storage battery. If you want it cooler, you draw the curtains and open the roof vent. You have buried air pipes at floor level that go outside, so the hot air escaping from the roof vent draws in cool air via the floor vents, with the earth around the pipe also cooling the intake air. Works really well in desert environments, where the days are hot, and the nights are cold, but I've read about people building them in places like northern Ontario too, where the winters are -40C. The biggest issue with the winter climate ones actually seems to be too much solar gain, instead of not enough, and also controlling the humidity. If you're hard core about living off the grid, it's viable, and as a bonus, your house will look like something out of a '70s scifi flick.

You might want to check out "earthships". Basically, rammed earth construction utilizing the thermal mass of the ground to moderate the house temperature, lots of sun-facing windows for solar gain in winter, and chimney-style ventilation to draw in cool air from the ground-level and expel hot air at the top.

Actually, they tend to break wind.

Actually, they tend to brea

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." John Kenneth Galbraith US (Canadian-born) administrator & economist (1908 - 2006)