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Comment by PyErr_SetString | Hacker News Reader

While I think this looks really cool, there are people who think domes are not the way to go. Part of the reasoning kind of makes sense.

https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/domes-are-very...

Either way, these things are fun to read about...

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Nice link from Casey there. I was captured by his analysis of perchlorates in the soil, because you can decompose it to release oxygen, as well as obviously make another type of rocket fuel (on top of other local products like methane, oxygen, and hydrogen).

https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/even-the-dirt-...

This isn't strictly related but in the section on tensile structures the author mentioned the Goodyear Inflatoplane[1], which is one of the craziest things I'd never heard of.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodyear_Inflatoplane

Pah! If you're going to get crazy with inflatables, why not ride one all the way to low earth orbit:

http://www.jpaerospace.com/ATO/ATO.html

One of the sections of the wikipedia article is titled, "Survivors," which made me think there had been some horrible disaster.

It's about surviving examples of the plane.

I always enjoyed the layout of the Moonbase[0] from Space 1999, I don't recall a single dome in that setup yet it made sense.

[0]https://alphanpeter.tumblr.com/image/177610992673

The massive thick solid aluminium domes in Andy Weir's Artemis make sense I think, but they wouldn't be nearly as pretty.

Building underground makes more sense. Due to the radiation shielding. But its not an issue in fake Mars (earth desert)

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