In which I post about a TL9 solar system

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Considering that TL8+ factories are capable of producing biological materials (if so designed), a TL9 factory could produce its hourly capacity in flesh through cultured meat (I would say one pound per $1 of capacity [GURPS$ rather than 2020$]). In the station that I suggested above, diverting 10,000 minifacs to meat production would produce 5 million lbs of meat per hour, far more than the facility could produce through raising animals (milk, ivory, leather, etc. production could substitute for meat production).

In the case of actual animals, they would provide the sort of "exclusive luxury items" that certain people buy because they are expensive, and perhaps a bit forbidden, rather than for any value of the item itself.

As to the production, 5 million lbs of meat per hour seems a bit high. Also, looking at it again, I'm not sure where you got the specific number of 20,000 fabricators, nor a price of $10B, which doesn't seem to occur on the chart for fabricators. If you got it from the cabin space of a SM+15 habitat, a factory that size would cost +$150B, not +$10B; while producing +$5M of produce per hour would make it a SM+12 fabricator, for $5B.

That being said, 20,000 people would probably eat 20,000 lbs of meat per day, plus 2-3 lbs of other foodstuffs. Call it 3.5 lbs per person, and that SM+12 factory can feed 1.4 million people, or 70 times the population of a SM+15 habitat.

Add in the necessity to make a net profit... still seems a little high?

Perhaps look at it the other way: $1 is the "finished goods" price, and its actually producing $0.4 of material goods. That gives 2 million lbs of meat; the fabricator can feed 571,000 people, or 28.5 times the population of a SM+15 habitat.

That seems more reasonable, I guess?