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Old 10-04-2018, 08:56 PM   #234
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

Nieuw Haarlem
Comparative Benefits
-Easier to move livestock in a lower tech city
-Gardening knowledge more common
-Fountain
-Knowledge of whaling

While the main crop provides most of the raw calories most other food production is from container based gardens, plant pots and relatively free draining nooks and crannies. The limiting factor is the few species that flourish under continual light. Pathogen buildup is managed through the use of containers to grow plants and composting.
Working on the assumption that the bounty from the fountain provides a large amount of raw material. Nets are both set in stable locations and trawled through the rich currents rising from the depths.

Sperm oil plus benzene might make a functional diesel fuel, if an animal analogous to the sperm whale exists.

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. Call it 450 yards. 675 ropes equals about 27000 lbs per crop up to 6 crops a year. (Optimistic but plausible numbers, slight improvement if sweet potatoes used, requires a fair amount of rope and sacks/baskets) the limiting factor is soil health, with only soil rotation 1000 lbs would be required per plant. While some of this can be used for gardens, composting, chemicals, heating or fresh harvesting is required to make it feasible, as there is a thermal bringing up fresh material from the depths they use that to provide a steady source of fresh compost and soil.

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.

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.

Hunter gatherers
There are two broad categories
High quality, these are the equivalent of the hunters they use generally better equipment to collect the more valuable resources that are available from the ecosystem. Animals from higher up in the ecosystem as well as resources from more distant or dangerous areas. Surplus meat from hunting would be fed to animals for storage as refrigeration is unlikely. Each pound of pork produced would take 24 lbs of food.

Low quality Low risk high bulk resources are also useful. This category may include set nets to collect biomass for animal food and compost. Any of this bulk material that wasn't for direct consumption would require processing to increase the density. Large nets full of organic matter would be emptied into grinders to release any lighter gases, the resulting slurry would make up a percentage (10%?) of the diet for any animals present.

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.

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. Pneumatic tools, If possible they would grow crops under glass if so about 55m2 of crop space will support a person. In the open air the yield will be a bit smaller 95m2 per person, though frames would be required to support blackout material to imitate night time conditions. The crop mix to maximize yield from a small space is listed here.

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. Plastic greenhouses (polyhouses) and aeroponics would mean a relatively complete diet is possible at 40m2 per person. Algae farming reduces this space by 4m2, aquaculture reduces this by 3m2, if both are on place poultry is also supported. (Though the chicken will likely taste “fishy”) reduce space by another 2m2.
A small amount of “wild game” is required to complete the diet.

As with New Wollaston pneumatic tools are likely. If they can reliably manage temperature for manufacturing they will be able to produce nylon from the benzene present in the native algae. Solar water heating systems provide hot and warm water primarily for industrial processes. The solar heaters are likely to be placed along the sparks of the structure. While gathered firewood is required for cooking.

Bio-diesel
Clear plastic and TL 8 algae farming allows biodiesel to be produced. Careful temperature regulation should allow native and earth based algae varieties to be grown in adjacent environment. This assumes there is a laboratory available to work out the details. Assuming some synergy from light producing native algae 15g per m2 per day (one and a half gallons per m2 per year) seems possible if they have skilled biochemists. A drying system would also be required, a low micron mesh system could be used in the lower parts of the structure to do most of the work. Mechanically there would also be a drum type dryer and a press. It is unlikely the native algae could co-exist with terrestrial algae, the biofuel producing varieties are water based and the native algae would float. But a layer of luminous algae could be encouraged to grow on the transparent underside of the algae farms, improving the available energy. The result is a flat photobioreactor is efficient at greater thicknesses than one on earth. (75mm on Earth, 100mm here)
The waste material from a less efficient (2/3rds) system would also largely support aquaculture (tilapia), the rest of their food coming from insects supported by waste food. (Maybe 6 kgs of fish per m2 per year). This less efficient system uses fresh water rather than saline water.

Materials and manufacturing
Plastics, especially nylon are possible but clear, UV stable and strong plastic unlikely.
Polyhouses
Algae, carbon rich and warm water may allow for tank production of biodiesel if genetic engineering can splice in the bioluminescent code to an aquatic algae.
Bamboo is a likely addition and will be grown as a crop when it is required.
It is technically possible for carbon fiber to be made locally though a considerable investment in machinery would be required. But it may well be worth the effort.

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.

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.

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
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Last edited by (E); 10-05-2018 at 09:21 PM.
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