As any artificial garden in a space ship or habitat would be significantly too small to be self-regulating, the absence of human would require a sophisticated AI, controlling some „manipulators“ of some kind, to keep the garden alive over a longer period of time. No idea *how* sophisticated that AI needs to be (which TL it should have), in order to be able to control all aspects of an eco system and to keep it running, but I would guess that a TL10 AI would be the minimum.
Regarding the O2/CO2: if I remember it right, some plants do „breathe“ O2 and exhausts CO2 in some stages (if they are in flower?). Another way to produce CO2 would be to burn some organic substances (ethanol?) that has been produced previously or was put into the system from the outside. -- Thomas Thrien Geo 51° 28' 12" N 7° 32' 17" E > Am 02.05.2016 um 07:25 schrieb Onno Meyer <[email protected]>: > > 3E Vehicles and 4E Spaceships describe total life support, a life support > system that can provide food in addition to air and water. If you look at the > stats in Vehicles, this is 1,000 lbs. per person at TL8, 400 lbs. per person > at TL9-10, 40 lbs. per person at TL11+. For TL10 and below the system might > be described as some sort of hydroponic farms. > > I've been wondering if a closed-cycle hydroponics system that can feed humans > indefinitely can be kept on "hot standby" indefinitely, and if so what that > does to the menu. Are the humans an indispensable part of the cycle? > > - What happens if you have excess capacity in the hydroponics? The plants are > supposed to take the CO2 exhaled by humans and to be fertilized by human > waste. The fertilizer might be handled by green manuring (plowing crops under > rather than harvesting them), but what about CO2? > > - Could a total life system which combines grain and vegetables with fish > ponds, chickens, etc. cope by introducing non-human predators that become > part of the menu when more humans show up, or become more numerous when there > are fewer humans? > > - What happens if there are no humans at all? > > - How would you describe the procedure of "activating" or "deactivating" a > total life system, and how long does it take? Would it be possible to harvest > seeds from the last crop and store them? > > Regards, > Onno > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
