04-15-2023, 09:44 PM
Re the issue of how long it took to move from small habs to larger ones - a factor in this would almost certainly be a certain amount of learning curve when the current RL theoretical designs (or more likely some future descendant of them) start actually being built (or people attempt to build them anyway).
Without doubt there will be some amount of design flaws, unexpected/unplanned effects from being in a space environment (both on the structure and on the people building and/or living in it), etc. All of these sorts of factors will work to slow down hab construction and evolution. OTOH there will also almost certainly be some number of currently unknown/unforeseen positive results (design innovations, new tech, taking advantage of some element(s) of the space environment) that mitigate the problems or even accelerate some aspects of space development. Logistics and raw materials are also both going to have an impact. We touch a little on early asteorid mining but don't get into it much, but presumably at some point it would supplant Earth provided resources. It would also go thru a similar positives vs negatives of space dev process which would impact the speed of advancement too.
We're an SF project, not a research lab so not suggesting we need to actively try to figure out the details of this kind of stuff. But we could at the least use it as a reason or meta-reason for it taking a bit longer for larger habs to get built.
Re the issues of density and food production - We mention elsewhere in the context of Earth that higher density food growing is developed in cities and such. That same tech could have application in early (or even Y11k) habs and could itself take lessons from the development of space based food production (creating a feedback loop that could benefit both fields). Incidentally, this is an area that neither we nor anyone else (AFAIK) has explored in any depth. Possibly an aspect of the setting to dive into at some point.
Re population density - being 3D structures, space hab could potentially host very high density populations while still leaving room for some amount of green space (the development of Earth based arcologies could impact this and/or the dev of space based high density living could impact arcology development back on Earth). On the flip side, it's also possible (even likely?) that there are biological/psychological limits on how well a general population of humans can handle living in an enclosed space for an extended period that will impact how small or enclosed a space hab can be if it is to be used as a home rather than a temporary worksite. Not everyone is cut out to crew a nuclear submarine and living on an oil rig for months vs living there with no plans to ever leave could be two very different things (as it were).
Not sure if there are RL resources that get into human limits/health in this area, or if we want to get that deep into the weeds on this, but it might be possible to locate some and use it to at least partly inform this aspect of things. Or we could just keep these kind of factors in mind and aim for a consensus on what we consider plausible in this area and move forward from there.
Todd
Without doubt there will be some amount of design flaws, unexpected/unplanned effects from being in a space environment (both on the structure and on the people building and/or living in it), etc. All of these sorts of factors will work to slow down hab construction and evolution. OTOH there will also almost certainly be some number of currently unknown/unforeseen positive results (design innovations, new tech, taking advantage of some element(s) of the space environment) that mitigate the problems or even accelerate some aspects of space development. Logistics and raw materials are also both going to have an impact. We touch a little on early asteorid mining but don't get into it much, but presumably at some point it would supplant Earth provided resources. It would also go thru a similar positives vs negatives of space dev process which would impact the speed of advancement too.
We're an SF project, not a research lab so not suggesting we need to actively try to figure out the details of this kind of stuff. But we could at the least use it as a reason or meta-reason for it taking a bit longer for larger habs to get built.
Re the issues of density and food production - We mention elsewhere in the context of Earth that higher density food growing is developed in cities and such. That same tech could have application in early (or even Y11k) habs and could itself take lessons from the development of space based food production (creating a feedback loop that could benefit both fields). Incidentally, this is an area that neither we nor anyone else (AFAIK) has explored in any depth. Possibly an aspect of the setting to dive into at some point.
Re population density - being 3D structures, space hab could potentially host very high density populations while still leaving room for some amount of green space (the development of Earth based arcologies could impact this and/or the dev of space based high density living could impact arcology development back on Earth). On the flip side, it's also possible (even likely?) that there are biological/psychological limits on how well a general population of humans can handle living in an enclosed space for an extended period that will impact how small or enclosed a space hab can be if it is to be used as a home rather than a temporary worksite. Not everyone is cut out to crew a nuclear submarine and living on an oil rig for months vs living there with no plans to ever leave could be two very different things (as it were).
Not sure if there are RL resources that get into human limits/health in this area, or if we want to get that deep into the weeds on this, but it might be possible to locate some and use it to at least partly inform this aspect of things. Or we could just keep these kind of factors in mind and aim for a consensus on what we consider plausible in this area and move forward from there.
Todd
Introverts of the World - Unite! Separately....In our own homes.