# What to bring to colonize a new planet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2024, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055 "2024-12-23T08:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/141 "2025-01-01T07:47:23Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > But if we do, we would need to find ways of analysing and decoding the geological history and the composition of the planets we land on (and the asteroids that surround them), to determine where the best ores can be found. You just had it as a parenthetical, but really, any colony that starts out with space capacity is way better off doing a few decades of asteroid mining before putting boots on the ground, if they must. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/142 "2025-01-01T07:58:25Z")
IIRC I read that the movie “The Martian” got it right that potatoes are a great food source. Easy to grow, lots of nutrients. Assuming you have to produce food on the new planet rather than live on what you carried with you I think potatoes might be a first step for a sustainable food source. Bring whatever you need to make that a doable thing. I think the first days/weeks/months on the new planet will be establishing renewable food sources and clean water. Tech can come later. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/143 "2025-01-01T09:39:59Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > You just had it as a parenthetical, but really, any colony that starts out with space capacity is way better off doing a few decades of asteroid mining before putting boots on the ground, if they must. This might turn out to be a logistical problem which would take some dedication to solve. The asteroids inside the frost line would have more useful minerals and ores, while the ones beyond the frost line would have more volatiles; to collect these resources together would require time, energy and planning. Note as well that the volatile rich objects are located far from the local star where solar panels work less well. Although an asteroid belt is resource rich when taken as a whole, it is also very widely distributed. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/144 "2025-01-01T10:09:33Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > I, a full-grown adult, was once run away with at the trot by a Shetland pony. Those wee buggers are strong! They might be ponies but they are _draft_ animals. On the islands they come from they’ve always done heavy work. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/145 "2025-01-01T10:54:48Z")
I think you’d start by picking up as much as you can just on your way into the system, where you’ll pass through both zones anyway. Pick one or two large targets on the way, drop off robotic processors, or even a small manned mining station, and that should sort out your colony for generations worth of material. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/146 "2025-01-01T12:36:58Z")
You say that as if you have one tech, a “chem lab”, and that gives you the capacity to make all of the “chemicals” you need. But every chemical has its own process for making it, and you need the tools and raw materials for all of those processes. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/147 "2025-01-01T12:59:08Z")
**Peace offerings.** When those subterranean aliens decide to scuttle out of their dank tunnels to exterminate us pesky surface-dwelling nose-breathers, we’d better come armed with shiny trinkets—like glitter-encrusted rubber chickens, or glow-in-the-dark stress balls—to let them know we’re cool. After all, what better way to say, _“Hey, we’re friendly, please don’t vaporize us into oblivion”_ than a basket of sparkly distractions, right? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/148 "2025-01-01T13:25:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You say that as if you have one tech, a “chem lab”, and that gives you the capacity to make all of the “chemicals” you need. I’m saying _most_ chemicals that you absolutely need can be made in a good university-level chem lab. The acids and suchlike that you need to run a fabber, definitely. Not at industrial scales, but that’s hardly a concern for a small colony. > [@Chronos](#): > > But every chemical has its own process for making it, Most of which are fairly standard ones or variations thereof - very few chemical compounds _can’t_ be made with the kind of setup I’m talking about. Or let’s try a different approach - _you_ name a chemical that would be hard to make in a university-level chem laboratory. > [@Chronos](#): > > you need the tools THat’s what the well-equipped lab is for > [@](#): > > and raw materials See above post about getting the raw materials on the way in. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/149 "2025-01-01T19:40:35Z")
A _really_ advanced replicator technology could do full nuclear synthesis, making obtaining raw materials trivial. But at that point we’re talking about near-magical cornucopia machines, which would make our primitive concepts of colonization obsolete. **ETA** : which brings to a head the whole question of science fiction depictions of the future and especially what is to become of humanity. Since the first proto-humans discovered breaking a rock to give it a sharp edge we have been technologists, using and even coming to need technology. Making stuff is a fundamental part of humanity. But we’ve advanced more and more into secondary and tertiary technology– machines that make machines that make other machines that make stuff; and the ultimate end point of this process would be a magic wish-granter (i.e., an AI-controlled universal replicator) that produces anything just by being asked. At which point technology would be at an end and we would no longer be technologists. At what point do we want to stay hands-on and do stuff for ourselves even if a machine could do it faster, better or easier? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/150 "2025-01-01T23:00:46Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > A _really_ advanced replicator technology could do full nuclear synthesis, making obtaining raw materials trivial. And emit lots of energetic neutrons or gamma rays as well, I think. Nucleogenesis/alchemy is a dark and dangerous art. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/151 "2025-01-02T05:21:44Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > And emit lots of energetic neutrons or gamma rays as well, I think. Nucleogenesis/alchemy is a dark and dangerous art. In the Charles Stross book _Singularity Sky_ a shipload of people from a post-scarcity human world visit a world that has fallen back to a much lower level of technology. For the lulz they dropped a large number of phones to the surface. For anyone that picked one up a voice offered to give them anything that they want. One person asked for a goose that laid golden eggs: > It was a wonderful animal, until you held it close to a railway man’s dosimeter and discovered the deluge of ionizing radiation spewing invisibly from the nuclear alchemist’s stone in its gizzard. Which you only thought to do when the bloody stools became too much to bear, and your hair began to fall out in clumps. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/152 "2025-01-02T19:24:58Z")
Asimov’s golden-egg goose was a lot user-friendlier. It worked by decreasing the ambient background of radioactive material. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055/153 "2025-01-02T20:21:14Z")
If I’m recalling the same story, the goose somehow converted oxygen-18 to gold-197 because the two isotopes had identical binding energies and so wouldn’t release a huge surplus of nuclear energy. Deactivating the radioactive tracers the investigators attempted to use was a side effect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-bring-to-colonize-a-new-planet/1012055.md?page=7)