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| Once cooled, the sulfur pours back down like snow, forever resurfacing the terrain with the otherwise harmless substance. This condition could prove a costly and time-consuming irritation for the colonists. Significant measures would need to be taken to avoid our facilities and equiptment from being buried. |
| Fortunately, a few other options have been suggested by our engineers. While sulfur is far more sedentary than water, they claim that an adequate drainage system could be fitted at a minimal cost. Similar in concept to the conventional drain pipes used for rain, lets of liquid would cycle through them to simulate movement. |
| Our chemists have offered another solution. By applying a layer of a corrosive compound, they believe they can dissolve the sulfur on contact and without consequence. Both of these techniques are unnproven as yet, but I assure you this issue is being addressed. |
| Aside from this annoyance, the only factors that are less than ideal are Io's enormous distance from Earth, its bitter cold temperatures, and its lack of life-sustaining resources. The first two conditions Io shares with its sibling contender, Europa, and are even more pressing for the remote moon of Titan. |
| A final concern: bases would need to be established far from the equator on Io. It is caught in a three-way tug-of-war between the gravitational pulls of Europa, Ganymede, and Jupiter. This forces an unstable tidal current on the moon's outer layer which can bend and stretch its width by as much as 100 meters. |
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