[Spaceships] Total life support

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fish

I disagree. You could fit a crate of dried oranges in a much, much smaller space than is required to put an orange tree complete with atmosphere, temperature controls, fertilizer, human waste reclamation, water, and so forth. Of course, the dried oranges only last a limited time — but a properly designed self-perpetuating orange tree biosphere can last for many years. (It might even last forever, but then you'd need things like self-repairing machinery, self-cleaning filters, and so forth. I imagine a typical space-based food factory has to have regular planet-side maintenance every few years, just like any other piece of complicated machinery, to replace any pieces which become worn or unusable.)

The question is, what do we mean by "life support?" Do we mean stored food? Or do we mean continuous, infinitely renewable food production?

Well, aside from the definitional statement "total life support that grows or manufactures food"...

My point was that a crate of dried oranges per person might be mission-long food supplies for some ships (or more accurately some missions), twice as much as you need for others, and a hundredth what you need for others. Total life support weighs the exact same per person for all of these ships. Therefore, total life support is nothing like crates of dried oranges.