Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

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This episode is sponsored by Raycon.

We spend a lot of time talking about how to colonize other planets, but not so much about

life for folks doing it.

What does it take to become a colonist and what would life be like as one?

We've often looked at colonizing planets, particularly in our Outward Bound series, and some years back we did the life in a space colony series trying to look more at the process

of getting to those new worlds, in our solar system or beyond and getting set up.

While both series were very popular, one complaint I sometimes get is that I never really

addressed what it took to become a colonist and what their lives would be like.

So today we'll be taking a look at life as a space colonist.

That's a fairly broad topic since we need to look at everything from selection criteria

and motivations to all the

ways life might be like on all the different worlds we might colonize.

Life would be very different under the dome on Mars or the lava tubes of the moon or the

cloud cities of Venus, and doubtless every planet in the galaxy will be unique in some

way.

Of course to experience those unique worlds, you first have to be selected as a

colonist and make the journey there. It is highly unlikely any planet will have folks

arriving without permission after the first wave gets in and establishes a radar array around

...