Abstract
When tackling the question of what defines a place to live, one normally considers the chemical, physical or social conditions of an environmental envelope that allows growth and propagation for a given organism or group of organisms. While the environmental tolerances of microorganisms — the only habitants on Earth for the first 2 billion years of the history of life — cover a very wide range, the environmental border lines for humans are much narrower order to make a planet habitable — at least for microbial-type of life — a minimum of environmental requirements need to be considered; these are (i) carbon-based chemistry, (ii) adequate energy sources, as well as (iii) water in its liquid phase.
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Horneck, G. (2009). Mars as a place to live? Past, present and future. In: Codignola, L., Schrogl, KU., Lukaszczyk, A., Peter, N. (eds) Humans in Outer Space — Interdisciplinary Odysseys. Studies in Space Policy, vol 1. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-87465-3_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-87465-3_25
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