pavelcherepan

I would agree in the case of Mercury, but Venus has only slightly higher delta-v requirements compared to Mars and quite a bit lower than Jupiter. Check out this handy Solar System Delta-v Map. Also Venus has a significantly more sizable atmosphere which can assist with aerobraking and if you decided to land on it, doesn't require retrorockets or space cranes etc. The biggest downside is that Venus missions require a boatload of protection for the spacecraft if landing is planned.

Ground/surface waters washing away the foundation?

Well, you didn't exactly specify what actually trips you here. You have all the data and all the formulas, you just have to plot the data into formulas. Reciprocal cell is an extremely important concept in crystallography when you're dealing with crystal structures and x-ray diffraction. Normal unit cell identifies actual relations of positions of atoms in crystal structure, but when you put your protein in the difractometer and run it through analysis the diffraction pattern that you'll get as a result would represent the reciprocal unit cell, which is a Fourier transform of the normal unit cell. Could you specify exactly which part are you having issues with?

Great idea. Really like reading your posts, but can't usually comment on anything because you put a lot of thought behind what you write. Still, I wonder whether there is a significant enough necessity to map the Moon at 75 mm resolution? Wouldn't it be better to concentrate resources on preparations for manned Mars mission?

If we look at musical voices, lowest frequency male voice is the bass. As the article says, the standard range from this type of voice is beween E2 and E4 which is 82.4-329.6 Hz. For females the deep voice is contralto which is between 174.6-698.5 Hz. I doubt you'll have much luck with that. On average the lowest fundamental frequency for the male voice is about 85Hz. Hence, you're not very likely to find someone who can produce 80 Hz at all.

Moving to other planets won't help with overpopulation, because initially only a limited number of colonists would be able to come and once the colony becomes big enough and starts to have population growth, only limited amount of newcomers will be able to arrive due to limited resources. How do you plan to move carbon dioxide? Wouldn't it be easier to get stuff from near-Earth asteroids. Mining and processing regolith is awful and can only be feasible if nothing else is available. Energetically, going to NEOs is slightly more demanding than the Moon, but your output will be better. Plus in the initial stage you want your self-replicating robots to increase in number quickly, and that is easier to do when metal is more readily available and easier to process.

Unfortunately, my couple attempts to learn Latin have ended in disasters so I have to resort to the English translation, which gets a bit confusing at times. I've read quite a bit about Ghenghis Khan' campaigns in China and also quite a bit about the Golden Horde, but thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely have a look at that one!

Commentarii de Bello Gallico - absolutely fantastic read about a really interesting period in history and written by the man in charge. While no being very descriptive of the surroundings and general life in Gaul, Caesar gives some great insights into local politics in Gaul at the time and first-hand view on all the battles and sieges. It's written in a slightly weird manner with Caesar referring to himself in a third person and also uses some pronouns, specifically "he" way too often, especially considering the fact that he refers to himself as "he" too. In many cases this makes it a bit hard to understand who he's actually talking about. But it's still a really awesome read, wish I'd read it sooner, and after I finish this one, Commentarii de Bello Civili is going to follow EDIT: Before reading the book Caesar in my personal rankings held top marks for his skill as politician and tactician and slightly lower for strategic planning (due to being cut off from supplies and reinforcements in Greece and besieged in Egypt). After reading, though, I have even higher regard for his skill of tactician, because winning battles against overwhelming odds and such a blatant disregard for reconnaissance is nothing short of brilliance. Twice being ambushed by an army that he's been chasing? Being besieged, while besieging a city himself? Really?