[gurps] Re: Re: Internet on blue planet and like worlds

[Jeff Wilson]

From: "Eric Funk"
        <eric_funk_anti_spam_this_is_a_real_email_address at r3d.net>
>> That's also part of the solution; shorter distances between towers
>> mean less alignment problems and much lower power requirements, and
>> the reduced marginal cost to add dishes and transceivers to the same
>> tower naturally lead to a finer mesh of wireless links.
>
>A few sciency facts
>
>1) smaller planets will have sharper curvatures of the surface, limiting the
>distances of directional radio.

Yes and no; the distance to the horizon is shorter, but there's less
distance overall as well. Meanwhile smaller mass makes for lighter gravity
and easier to build the tower that much higher. The greater problem with
smaller bodies is that the lower gravity also allows obstacles to
accumulate as much higher as the tower does, but retains less volatiles to
weather them down with and propels them with less force, so that there can
be more landforms blocking lines of sight - imagine an entire world like
the Tora Bora region of Afganistan. Tower-to-tower networks will be
enhanced, but links involving ground level units will be problematic.

>2) if the distance between colonies contains untamed land, rivers, marshes,
>and so on, you will not want to lay a raw cable. If you don't own the
>property between the sites, then you either build cable around, or use MW*.

It should not be a property problem since no-one else is likely to own the
land between sites either. There could be range wars, but they would be
less likely, since you've got a means of communication right there, after
all - the sodbusters can splice into the fiber they've just turned up and
immediately negotiate with the "ranchers", and at least the conflict would
begun quicker, before too much costs have been sunk to allow one side to
pull back or the other to go around.