[gurps] Flow of passengers, cargo, fuel: TL10 hard science space background

[David Scheidt]

On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Jon Lang <dataweaver at gmail.com> wrote:
> There's the question of whether the planets are worth settling and/or
> exploiting at all: the gravity wells saddle them with a distinct
> economic disadvantage that at best can be mitigated through the use of
> space elevators and the like.  Even agriculture might end up moving
> into space, if the hardware needed to set up and operate a space farm
> is cheaper than the costs involved in shipping food into orbit.
>
> The only economic reason I can think of to settle planets is if there
> are on-planet resources that are prohibitively expensive to get from
> anywhere else.
>

Well, an earth like world, one with a breathable atmosphere and decent
climate, means you don't have to have habitats.  there are plenty of
people that would feel that it just makes sense for humans to live on
planets.  At TL10, it's pretty cheap to get into orbit from an earth
like planet -- a buck or so a kg if you've got a beanstalk, two or
three if you don't.  It's more if you don't have an atmosphere.

-- 
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com