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Old 10-06-2018, 10:53 PM   #238
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Nieuw Haarlem
Comparative Benefits
-Easier to move livestock in a lower tech city
-Gardening knowledge more common
-Fountain
-Knowledge of whaling
This is pretty good. They can't get a lot of livestock out, yet, because there are two really expensive hotels right underneath the portal entrance. Still, they can slip the occasional dirigible through, in the wee hours of the morning, and take some young animals with them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post

(SNIP)

Nets are both set in stable locations and trawled through the rich currents rising from the depths.
I had already thought of floating nets, so that's pretty good.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Sperm oil plus benzene might make a functional diesel fuel, if an animal analogous to the sperm whale exists.
Such a creature does exist. It doesn't have the same quantity of oil, since it has to fly rather than float in the sea, but there are a couple of creatures that qualify.

I need to be a bit careful, though. If I make the endless sky of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter resemble an endless sea, too much, then the Orbital Realm of Venus won't provide nearly as interesting a contrast.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post

Main crop

Potatoes on ropes, potatoes grown in sacks hung from the floating platforms, each 2.5 inch hemp type rope would produce about 40-50 lbs of potatoes every two months. Provided they are shaded with damp cloth (evaporation to mimic night time temperatures) for 6 hours or so a day. Not sure on the details of the lighting so let's say 3 ropes for each 2 yards of perimeter.

(SNIP)

.
Well, the sun on a bright day gives off about 100,000 lux (lumens per square meter), so I'm gonna say at this altitude its about 60,000 lux, because of the sepia mist, but never gets much better than 70,000 the higher you go. It gets worse, deeper down.

This whole thing with potatoes in sacks on ropes fascinates me. Where does that come from?

I mean, it would work really well near Nieuw Haarlem, because the nutrient fall from the top of the cloud would soak into the hemp rope and the sacking, and help the potatoes grow a little better, I think.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Gardens
Optimistically something like 10m2 to provide each person's fresh vegetables, maybe 15m2 if space is available for experimentation.

Continuous Light tolerant plants
*indicates no improvement in yield with continuous lighting
Sunflower*
Onions and alliums
Chickpeas
Radishes
Brassica
Tea

A wider range is possible if day/night temperature changes can be mimicked, possibly by raising and lowering the altitude.
It does get cooler at the higher altitudes, but the distances are far greater in the Orbital Realm, so mimicking the temperature shifts by raising and lowering really isn't practical.

EDIT: See discussion of orchards, further down!

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Orchard communities
If grafting is possible an orchard system is possible. Alternately fruit trees may be planted on floating native trees. Mimicking seasons will be critical in most cases, to do this there are a couple of possible approaches.
- Moving the grafted “root stock” to shelters to cool and shade the trees.
- Moving the trees to warmer or cooler parts of the environment.
A combination of the above is used near Nieuw Haarlem, the fountain provides warm conditions to mimic spring and summer while winter conditions are simulated in a shed or tent. If transportation is available the orchards may be moved to the platform for harvest.
The fountains are significantly warmer, and I could definitely see moving trees back and forth.

That might be a way to go -- grafted trees that bear fruits get moved to the edges of the fountain, and the orchard-keepers carefully cull the flotation bladders so it takes a few months for the trees to rise to the colder regions.

By the times the trees reach those altitudes, the harvest is ready and dirigibles take the ripe fruit down to the platform. They then return, and tow the trees out of the fountain.

The trees spend a couple of months in the cold heights, and then the orchard keepers cull enough floation bladders to drop them down slowly. By the time they reach zed-zed, it's time to prune them, anyway, so the orchard-keepers cut enough wood away to return them to neutral buoyancy.

Then, the dirigibles tow them back to the edge of the cloud fountain, and the whole thing starts again.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Hunter gatherers
There are two broad categories

(SNIP)

Animals
Its assumed that the residents have an easier time getting animals through their New York than the residents of the higher tech platforms.
Poultry, a simulated night cycle would be required to get chickens to lay. About 3 or 4 chickens supported by the food waste per person.
Pigs, at this TL pigs have not yet been bred to have low fat content. This may be a good source of biodiesel, maybe a gallon per animal slaughtered. They probably don't have the resources to fully process this so the fuel produced is likely mixed with existing supplies.

Belt driven machinery
A steady up draft if one exists might allow for wind power. Otherwise a central engine could be used to provide power.

I like all of this. Biodiesel engines would be used for all of this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
New Wollaston

The improvement in TL between New Wollaston and Nieuw Haarlem as well as the absence of a fountain of life makes a hydroponic system more appropriate.

(SNIP)
Very nice.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Nieuw Amsterdam
Aeroponics is a viable option at TL8, this has a couple of benefits for the situation here, less weight and far better disease control.

(SNIP)

With aeroponics and plastics it begins to become possible to have food and resource producing structures that are thin and light enough to be stretched between floating structures. They also might extend out from existing structures to catch as much light as possible.
I like this, a lot, and it would give Nieuw Amsterdam a really different sensibility than the other places. Whereas the other locations use fibrous hawsers to lash together floating trees into platforms, Nieuw Amsterdam's floating tree platforms are floored with what looks like thick, clear mylar.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Switch
Pathogen rich environment, if Earth based plant diseases thrive here reduce production by at least 75%. The exception would be the aeroponic polyhouses which would now be "clean" rooms with all the biological containment paraphenalia at every entrance and exit.
I'll turn this dial on, at least part-way, and here's why. It means Nieuw Amsterdam uses the sale of pesticides, fungicides and disease-resistant plants from the early 21st Century to help maintain its economic dominance of the region.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
School holidays here so I'm a bit rushed, I figured I should attempt to get something up rather than spend too much time polishing it. Crunch will follow, but there should be enough numbers to get an idea
This is really excellent, and gives me a number of adventure-seeds.

Thank you, very much!
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Last edited by tshiggins; 10-07-2018 at 09:24 AM.
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