Douglas wrote: > My thoughts are that the ship would use barrelponics as its basic for > food production. With some LED grow lights you can grow a lot of fish > and a large variety of plants. The system is closed, takes little > input and is very robust. I one thing you do need is an input of fish > food. The fish can eat the plants that grow on the water but a bit > more is needed because we are eating some of it.
* According to the 3E rules, "total life support" is possible. If we accept the rules on hull materials (or skill points, for that matter), why question the life support rules? * There was a TL8 attempt to build a more or less genuine, more or less closed system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2). A starship system is harder in some respects (less volume and less gravity), but easier in others (more technical intervention and less diversity). We're also talking about a TL or two more. * Getting the last ten percent in efficiency will be harder than the first ninety percent. A ship crew could eat algae mush (or whatever) stretched out with preserves for variety and dietary supplements for their health. For a decade-long flight, it might pay to bring the efficiency up to 95% or 99%, but 100% is almost certainly a waste of effort. (GMs could assume that what 3E called total life support isn't 100%, either ...) * Notably, think long and hard about including animals other than humans, they're not efficient use of calories. * Last but not least, preserved food might be an option. The 4E rules in High Tech put a man-year of freeze-dried food at 600 lbs., roughly in the same ballpark as 3E Vehicles (2 lbs. per man-day without water). So if there is near-perfect water recycling, a ton of food lasts almost three years. An interplanetary ship which goes interstellar without proper preparation is doomed to starvation or worse. A few tons of special supplies should do wonders. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
