Thomas replied to me:
The real question will be the efficiency. Vehicles makes it
all-or-nothing, but could a TL7 system reach 90% recycling rate?
Could there be 99% at TL8?
What do you mean with „recycling“ here? If your artificial eco system is large
enough and has enough time, it can decompose any bio mass and return the
components into the next life cycle.
Of course, there are some of the intermediate products that could be
potentially hazardous (Methane, for example), either for the eco system itself,
or for the vehicle containing it.
But that’s what I mean with self-regulating on one hand, and complexity that
has to be managed on the other side. We have not even fully understood our
naturally existing eco system here on earth and all its subtle dependencies, so
how can we believe that we can built our own?
My thought was to accept that the simplified biological life support
system won't give all the necessary food, and to bring in from outside
or from storage what is missing. That's the recycling rate I'm talking
about.
First approximation: Algae ponds take human waste, produce oxygen and
potable water. You're saving well over 90% of the mass of supplies right
there by recycling the water and air. According to VE, the food is 2
lbs. per person per day, drinking water is 10 lbs., add some more for
washing and toilets.
Second approximation: Algae ponds and grain fields take human waste,
produce oxygen, water, and carbohydrates. The rest of a balanced diet
comes out of a freezer. More than half of the food can be carbohydrates,
so the stores are reduced to 1 lb. per person per day.
Third approximation: Algae ponds and grain fields and some hydroponic
fruits and vegetables take human waste, produce oxygen, water,
carbohydrates, and veggies. Milk, meat, eggs, nuts, and some other stuff
come still come out of the freezer. Perhaps 0.5 lbs. per person per day,
or less.
... and so on. For instance, one could decide that no meat is produced
by the "ecosystem" and that some vitamins are always supplied from
outside, not grown inside.
I'm envisioning a scenario roughly like this:
A space mission is going to take several decades of flight time, subjective
time, plus a lengthy stay at the destination to make it all worthwhile.
Building a generation ship was considered and rejected for various reasons.
Instead, the ship uses cryonic capsules.
At the destination, the ship computers (no true AIs) will prep the life
support; this is sufficient for a small fraction of the crew. They mine
asteroids to build a habitat. The key components like the computers are part of
the payload while crude stuff like walls or pipes is manufactured out of local
raw materials. As the habitat is expanded, more and more crew come out of
cryosleep. After some years the crew refits their ship for the return trip.
Either all of them go home or a flight crew returns the ship while most become
colonists. This might be decided only after arrival, when the suitability of
the destination is evaluated.
Problems:
- Is the total life support going to run "idle" for several decades, or is it
going to be restarted from a total shutdown? Both are difficult.
- Is it possible to predict what trace materials for the biosphere can be found
and what needs to be carried along? Spectrographic analysis of the destination?
- How many "imported key components" does it take to build a station with life
support and a shipyard?
From the view of game master, the described scenario is fascinating. But from
a real life position, your plan has too much balls in the air (too much, not
too many …), and only very few may be dropped before no one will survive.
The PCs could stumble over a sleeper ship that is dead in space, but to
make that interesting the encounter should happen while the sleepers are
still alive in cryosleep. The ship's computer would react to problems by
waking humans and then the humans would die while they try to salvage
the situation -- going back into sleep is a no-win option for them, they
need to refit their ship to return home.
And the question regarding the key components can be answered in various ways.
So you need to answer how deep your manufacturing tree will be … can you build
the tools to build tools to build tools to build tools to build something? So
is it enough to put silicium crystals on board and build the integrated
circuits that you need at your destination? Or do you have to store a decent
supply of all electronics?
Same with other materials - can you make plastics, or can you just give
existing plastic a new form?
Can you just refine the fuel for your engines, or can you build a refinery?
From scratch, or only from pre-fabricated parts?
Look at the size of the supply chain for computers right now. I wonder
if a TL10 minifac can make TL8 chips?
Regards,
Onno
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