Futurology: A space for the discussion of the future of us - the human organism, and the relationship we have with the spaces we may inhabit.
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Asstronaut
"Long enough to establish a human presence" is a very fuzzy goalpost. Very limited usefulness even as a mere operational definition.
You need a minimum of 50 to avoid inbreeding issues and 500 to minimize genetic drift in a population.
It sounds like they're just looking for enough people to build a pied a terre though.
It's not about colonization, but a initial base not collapsing within 28 years. And collapse is here defined that the population doesn't go under 10, because that is the safest lover limit to run a mars colony. It doesn't include more arrivals in that time so no extra colonists. Nor does it consider things as inbreeding.
And number 3 might surprise you!