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Old 02-27-2015, 04:41 PM   #41
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

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The desert is probably not the economic center, if it can't sustain a significant amount of life. The economic center is probably the tiny oases scattered across the desert.
Low Tech people's economies center on food production, so obviously require loads of water. But high tech people's center on other things with necessary water pumped over and/or recycled like crazy. Las Vegas?

Rare mining products, unobtanium, or whatever could cause cities to pop up anywhere.
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Old 02-27-2015, 04:48 PM   #42
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

Of course, you can have a mining colony in the middle of a desert even on a rather wet planet.
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Old 02-27-2015, 04:50 PM   #43
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

I foresee a lot of ghost towns on desert worlds that were abandoned after the resources they were mining dried up . . . .
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Old 02-27-2015, 05:00 PM   #44
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

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Low Tech people's economies center on food production, so obviously require loads of water. But high tech people's center on other things with necessary water pumped over and/or recycled like crazy. Las Vegas?

Rare mining products, unobtanium, or whatever could cause cities to pop up anywhere.
Las Vegas nearly was an oasis. It was a rare area in Nevada where the ground water was close enough to the surface that it could support some grass. Hence the name. But of course personally I consider oases as being a feature of deserts, just as I consider valleys to be features of mountain chains.
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Old 02-27-2015, 05:01 PM   #45
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

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I foresee a lot of ghost towns on desert worlds that were abandoned after the resources they were mining dried up . . . .
Of course but many real mines take centuries to play out.
And our hypothetical mines may slowly renew its resources. Or requires exceptionally slow and careful mining and/or processing that itself may act as a source of wealth.
Food production is only of primary importance on our world with our technology levels.
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Old 02-27-2015, 05:03 PM   #46
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Default Re: Space: Desert Planets

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Las Vegas nearly was an oasis. It was a rare area in Nevada where the ground water was close enough to the surface that it could support some grass. Hence the name. But of course personally I consider oases as being a feature of deserts, just as I consider valleys to be features of mountain chains.
An oasis, okay, but its population now is orders of magnitude greater than what it could naturally support without massive water recycling, frugality, and influx.
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Old 02-27-2015, 05:21 PM   #47
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Low Tech people's economies center on food production, so obviously require loads of water. But high tech people's center on other things with necessary water pumped over and/or recycled like crazy. Las Vegas?
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.
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Old 02-27-2015, 05:33 PM   #48
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An oasis, okay, but its population now is orders of magnitude greater than what it could naturally support without massive water recycling, frugality, and influx.
All of which argues for a massive need to minimize the costs of the water industry, which is easier to do if you transport the water over shorter paths. We can afford things like the California aqueduct system because there are large areas that have huge water resources.
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Old 02-27-2015, 08:27 PM   #49
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Obviously it would be a Mountain-and-Valley planet. Which would be excellent for producing countless little autonomous states with a dizzying variety of local social experiment.
Riverworld?
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Old 02-27-2015, 08:45 PM   #50
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Riverworld?
Riverworld wasn't a planet at all. It was a comparatively narrow strip 20 million miles long. The mountains that line the sides of the strip are just there to act as the bars of the crib. The reason why polities are small there is because agriculture and mining are impossible meaning that territorial acquisition is pointless.
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