Thomas replied to me:
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.
Would it help if it does not look like a natural garden? Lettuce in
hydroponic vats, shrimps in a pond, chickens in a coop, all connected by
tubes and pumps?
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.
Plants consume O2 at night, but they are a net consumer of CO2 and a net
producer of O2.
Johannes replied to me:
I always envisioned it as generally blob shaped stuff that grows. Algae,
fungus, vat-meat ect.
"In front" there is a processor, that takes input of a certain range
(including human waste) and transforms it to nutrient solutions for
the blobs.
Perhaps at TL10, but probably not at TL8 or TL7. If I read VE77/78
right, the rules allow total life support at TL7.
You either cut away "excess" growth of the blobs, or they consist of a
"core" component and "fruit" components, that grow on it and can be
plucked off easily or fall off on their own.
In either case i would assume, that the processor can use the
generated food as input.
In the first case, i would assume, that you can slow growth simply by
reducing the nutrients, in the second there could be some trigger
mechanism (hormones, nerve impules) that switches the production of
"fruits" on and off.
It also would be sensible to start your blobs from "seeds", that are
small and survive ordinary storage. They then would be "spare parts".
Dependent on the business model of the producers, the blobs might also
create new seeds on their own, either after some trigger is applied, or
just a small amount over time.
The business model of the life support makers will take second place to
the business model (or research proposal) for the deep space mission.
_______________________________________________
GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]>
http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
