Human labor required to setup automated mining outpost on faraway planet?

Glossing over the technological implications of interstellar travel, what sort of human labor might still be required in a future where we are capable of setting up nigh-fully automated endeavors on faraway planets? For example, a commercial mining outpost on a faraway planet operated by mostly autonomous robots?

Some number of personnel would be need to oversee the outpost of course, tweaking algorithms, trouble shooting, etc. while remotely operated robots could be used to deal with on-site problems necessitating physical intervention, it could be argued that due to the communication delay over huge interstellar distances, that even for remote control some people would be needed to stay on-planet.

The idea I'm working with is a hastily fabricated quasi-city in the middle of a habitable planet where a corporate venture has dropped off about 1000 workers to oversee an army of automated machinery. The plot is somewhat self-contained, as all these people have died and all the machinery is dead -- but to understand the layouts based on the needs of these people, what sort of jobs would these people have had? Is 1000 just ludicrous? I would love some help thinking through this, even if through regrettable reverse engineering, to avoid as much handwavium as possible in the final product.

posted almost 4 years ago

Delirium‭

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