Programming

Setting standards and constraints first is a good idea.

These minibots are small small small and they have microprocessors built of dirt on an alien planet. I don't expect them to be powerful and I don't imagine they'll each have a lot of memory. On the other hand, programming this entire swarm in assembler or C isn't going to necessarily be the best option available.

Alternatively, consider whether the architecture can be a microcontroller MCU manufactured on Earth. The rest of the minibot can be locally constructed but the standard SoC can be part of the initial fab. Clearly this involves resupply launches because we're not able to send the fab with 200 trillion SoCs, but we could get the site working before resupply becomes an issue. Without a working site, nothing is going to proceed.

Cost per MCU, US$0.03. as on EEVBLOG 8-Bit OTP RISC 8MHz 2V ~ 5.5V SOP-8 PADAUK weight 0.07g and there's the STM8 higher capability from ST to look at. That would get the nastiest bit of the start-up requirement trimmed. 70kg gets a million microcontrollers to the site for under $30.000. Maybe the millibots would be bigger if we started the site with so few.