Agricultural Areas

On Nov 03, 2007, at 03:16 UTC, Xenophile wrote:

> As long as we are talking specialized lighting, why not a specialized
> atmosphere? One of the limiting factors of plant growth is that they
> run short of CO2 while running at peak photosynthesis. So why not an
> atmosphere (separate from the living areas, of course, but that's
> pretty much a given if we're using weird lighting schemes) with a
> higher-than-natural concentration of CO2?

It's not an outrageous idea, but I'd prefer an atmosphere that won't
kill people who get caught out in it without their gear. I'm not sure
what limit that places on the CO2 concentration -- higher than
Earth-normal, I'm sure, but perhaps not a lot higher.

> I truly think that one of the industries of the early habitats will be
> providing food for the various bases and space stations and space
> hotels which have too little room to do it themselves. Importing food
> from Island One will be cheaper than importing food from Earth.

Quite true, though you don't really need a whole space colony -- I
imagine there will be dedicated agricultural stations first, perhaps
selling fresh food to the don't-call-the-hotels Bigelow space stations.

Cheers,
- Joe

Joe Strout
Inspiring Applications, Inc.
http://www.InspiringApps.com