The RDA can't do physics

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

If it was the slightest bit feasible, humans would go.

But the RDA is doing this for profit. They're not going to invest a sizable portion of the world's power supply FOR SCIENCE. Possibly FOR PR, but not purely for science. (It would have been a far more interesting film if Aperture Science were the ones with the Avatars. )

Originally Posted by Human No More

Do you even know the difference in scale between a cell and a molecule of a compound?

Yes. For smaller molecules it's about 3 orders of magnitude. So? What is a cell, if not a nanomachine?

If parallel data arrives at different times, it is only as fast as the last bit to arrive (error correcting code notwithstanding, but on the other hand, they only if a bit is actually received as all bits are needed to calculate if any are in error, so even that doesn't improve it).
Therefore there is always going to be a 20 minute lag time unless you wanted to send it serially multiple times, in which case you are limited to 3 bits/hour since there is no accurate enough method to maintain distributed state. Once again, considering the costs of $75,000/bit, you're even going against your original point of 'cheaper.

I bet someone's already come up with an algorithm that lets you "break" as soon as you've received the bare minimum amount of data. If they haven't, it's not going to take long for someone to do so. Regardless, you've conjured an order of magnitude: it costs the RDA $7,500/bit.

And since the major cost there is going to be scarcity, bringing 10 m/billion of the same thing is going to cost less than $7.5k a bit.

Actually, I'm not even bother going to bring 10 billion particle-pairs. It'd be easy enough to entangle a whole mol of photons/electrons. Might take a little while, but we're waiting to generate the fuel for our spaceship anyway. Now, if I've got a 1/10000 error rate per channel, and I have 6x10^23 channels...

Ah... what?

"you're still multiplying the on-world presence needed, as well as, as I mentioned before, abandoning all pretence of following the contract."

The only way I'm multiplying anything is if I'm bringing more humans than the original plan involved bringing, which I'm not. I'm only bringing enough to maintain the robots.

...so now you've made your ENTIRE argument redundant. Brilliant.

So you're saying...
(mining machines + large mercenary squad + Avatars) < (mining machines + few technicians + Avatars)

...How does that work?

A theoretical maximum range of 11447km (diameter) is very different from one of 4.4ly, not to mention the required support infrastructure (technicians there, food, supplies, buildings).

Booster stations! ...No, I'm being silly. Fine, no remote-Avatars. (Though if it is FTL over those 11Mm, then you can still use them as a very short-duration time machine. )

If I didn't know better, I'd think you are trolling. That fits in with minimising harm and impact how exactly?!

...Because you program your defenses to only shoot at things actively shooting at you? I thought that was obvious.

Please don't tell me you're one of those 'Pandora's field would kill humans' people - just because JC made a physics error in an early interview, and the same one where he said Jake had no legs and got his name wrong, as well as calling Pandora a planet, does not prove your point. Electromagnetic interference DOES happen - we aren't talking about a total cease of operation, but lack of communication, primarily.

Last time I checked, radio interference was only produced by changing magnetic fields, and if your planetary magnetic field is changing significantly, you've got bigger problems than EM interference. When you control all the radio sources on the planet, the only thing that should get in your way is LOS. And again, shielded robots will still be cheaper than humans; you can build shielded robots on-site.

And if the mountains are held up by magnetic fields, then he's right; it will kill anyone who comes anywhere near it.

1) Radiation, 2) gravity, 3) planetary impacts, even the 4) correct emission spectrum.

1) Easy. I mean, alpha/beta/gamma wavicles aren't hard to generate in large quantity.
2) Indistinguishable from acceleration. See centrifuge comment earlier.
3) ...And what does that involve? Radiation, pressure, heat. We've got all those covered.
4) Again, easy.

Actually, no,. In your rush to bash Avatar, you seem to have forgotten what you said in your previous post, which I was replying to.
Here's a reminder:

Certainly, such a process may be economical, but it does not yet exist at that time. I fail to understand why you are incapable of recognising this simple fact.

They've known about unobtanium, what, 30 years? Longer?

And simply, the method doesn't exist because it would spoil Cameron's story. There's no in-universe explanation given or possible.

FOR THE THIRD TIME: It likely is under research, but that does not mean it is going to instantly become possible just because they have started it a few years ago. In the meantime, it is either this source or nothing. Indeed, if they hadn't gone there, they wouldn't know of its existence in the first place.

They know about it because they saw the emission spectrum from Pandora. (Which doesn't actually make sense, but nevermind.) And, economically, "nothing" is the logical choice. No sane business would even touch the ISV possibility until it was proven to be impossible to synthesize Unobtanium.