Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Alright. A quick calculation shows that the total leakage rate of the nitrogen is at about 1 million metric tons a year. Compared to my calculations earlier, this is actually very small.

Now, the Delta-V cost to travel from Titan to Cislunar Space is about 10 km/s and takes around 4 years. Return trip is 17.5 km/s (10 km/s if you're willing to risk a ring crossing and an aerobrake) and takes around 2 years. Assuming the structure of a tanker is about 2% the mass of the cargo, and an exhaust velocity of 1882 km/s (this is the average exhaust velocity of fusion rockets at TL 10 in Spaceships), the mass of the fuel for the Titan-Luna leg is 5.504 million kg and the Luna-Titan leg is 189 thousand kg (number of tankers is irrelevant to the calculation). If we go by Spaceships cost of hydrogen at $2000/Short Ton, total fuel costs (per year) come to $12.5 million. Even if we go down to TL9 (EV of 371 km/s), the total fuel costs only rise to $63.4 million. Assuming prices are x20 higher than fuel costs (probably dominated by costs to refit the engines), the average man on the street is paying less than 50 cents for the air he breathes.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

You are forgetting the cost of the fleet of spacecraft and tankard is actually around 5% for liquid nitrogen. You would require 1 million metric tons of capacity, probably divided among multiple spacecraft. One hundred twenty SM+12 freighters, each capable of carrying 50,000 metric tons of nitrogen, would be required for the six year cycle. If we assume TL10 fusion, they only require 20,000 metric tons of hydrogen for the roundtrip (240 mps delta-v), which can be supplied at Titan. The remainder of the mass would be three sections of armor, a habitat, a control room, and a fusion engine (with the control room and habitat being mass shielded in the core systems).

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Still, you guys are beginning to come up with the basics of the Economy.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Further notes, the time period for plague would be circa 2068. Society was slowly transitioning into TL9. The Space settlements and habitats were all TL9, early TL9, but not so early. Biotech and robotics are somewhat advanced relative to the rest of the setting.

Parahumans and genetically tailored people ala THS aren't part of the setting. However, as in Blue Planet you can buy bio-mods. Most people are given biomods (like the calcium hack that preserves everybody's bones) through the medical service. Some biomods are imposed. Example: If your PC's profession logically requires or profoundly benefits from your having the Language Talent someone will probably require you to get it. Biomods seen as useful/necessary to deal with problems that burden society, can also be imposed. Some of these have to be paid for after the fact by the recipient whether they wanted it or not. Example: An individual with Aspergers might be required to buy Empathy and have their appearance and voice improved. Both of which would make their Aspergers less painful to those around them.

More later...

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Then you make the PCs be "mutants" on the run from the bio-police.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Very close. The PCs are non-muties on the run from the IRS for not paying their public nuisance tax! ;-) Basically, as in selective service requirements, this society says it has the right to make you fit/healthy in certain limited ways. They actually have a strong respect for Freedom and Fairness, but it's a different world, so the boundaries aren't the same. I find that changing a boundary in a way that startles people can make a society very alien quickly.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Governments forcing people to modify their bodies and minds makes for a pretty dark setting.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Part of the idea. Mind you there are good things too. I wanted the setting to have alien and alienating qualities to it. After all, both Ancient Rome and Victorian England have strong attractive and repulsive qualities. Why not a Sci Fi setting? And "It's for your own good!" is often the justification of oppression. Although it's hard to call making someone objectively better an oppression, still coercion is still coercion, and can easily become something else. Cue Twilight Zone theme.This setting isn't as creepy, sick, or fascist, as the Twilight Zone episode, but it isn't a Utopia either.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

I don't see how you can get more basic of human rights than mental autonomy.
Physical is a little more arguable. Still sketchy as all get out, but kind of arguable.
But any world that would demand I undergo major brain alteration to "fix" me, especially if I never committed a crime is not one I could consider anything but a hellscape.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Right, but in a world where enforced mind alteration was common, you'd almost certainly not, since after all, that would be a "problem" worthy of fixing with enforced mind alteration.