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On Thu, 5/7/15, xxxxxx@shadowgard.com <xxxxxx@shadowgard.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: TL, Trade and You [WAS: Re: [TML] Finding transport]
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Thursday, May 7, 2015, 4:49 PM

 On 7 May 2015 at 8:22,
 Greg Nokes wrote:

 > I
 like this a *lot* - it also goes a long way to explaining
 the
 > cannon TL disparity. You´d end up
 with mooks on the TL5 rock having
 > TL5
 gear and the rich folks using AirRafts and lasers.
 >
 > My only issue is that
 TL5 rock with out a survivable  biosphere.
 > Then, they cannot locally produce the food
 and essential gear that
 > they need
 locally to survive - so all of the environmental suits,
 air
 > scrubbers etc need to be shipped
 in. You can explain a few of those
 > away
 using the "it´s a outpost" hand wave. Then trade
 need to be
 > large cargo shipments of
 essentials arriving like clockwork. a few
 > small traders might be able to keep up
 once the colony is
 > established, but I
 have a gut feeling that the volume of trade is
 > going to be large.

 Actuually TL 5 can produce food easily enough.
 You just need sealed
 "caves" or
 whatever and reprocess the air & sewage using plants.
 And
 farm small animals.

 It's doable at a lot lower TL than
 you'd think. And you only need air
 scrubbers or vehicles and suits. Though those
 are quite low tech as
 well (lithium
 hydroxide cartridges deal with humidity and CO2, and
 activated charcoal deals with trace gases).

 Both sorts of filters can be
 reactivated be simply heating them to
 drive
 off the gases. Do that it sealed chambers that pump the
 resulting stuff into the artifical wetlands
 that reprocess the air &
 sewage and you
 are good to go.

 Yeah, it
 takes so large amounts of biomass and water. On the other
 hand, it's repairable and maintainable with
 *medieval* level tech,
 maybe even Roman.
 Artifical light is the hard part unless you pipe in
 sunlight.

 Ships will be "strongly requested" to
 dump their honey tanks and
 other
 "organic waste" storage when they visit. Ever bit
 of added
 biomass will help give a reserve
 and expand the ecosystems that
 support the
 population.

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Reminds me of the write-up of the 'Reference' system that DGP published during their  'Grand Tour of the Imperium' series in their mag. They described an inhospitable planetary enviro where a  research station was established under a dome before the Long Night.  They became isolated during the Long Night & regressed greatly while still managing to survive. When 3I scouts eventually arrived it was decided that the surviving society was "too fragile" to survive & so would be left to it's own devices. I still have doubts though that the survivors could continue to maintain things. I believe the total pop was <100 people! Also, Could the protective be able to function that long w/o deteriorating?

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