Gradually settling a space colony

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Lucio de Souza Coelho
wrote:
> There is a point in producing agriculture-friendly soil only if
someone
> is (for some reason) committed to terraform a planet.
>
Now who wants to live in the "Suburbs of Space?" :)

I'd assumed that we want many of our space colonies to have trees,
many plants, possibly lakes and fish. Poeople who live there may want
to have pets (think horses) that like the outdoors.

I have lived in a rural area most of my life which does prejudice me.

But think of rich people and their country estates. There are people
that will be more comfortable in a rural setting.

In case of trouble, it would be best to have a varied ecological
balance. Enough trees and plants to produce oxygen for all the people
and animals there.

Some people will want to garden. Others will want to raise animals
like horses or goats. Possibly milk cows.

I think you are being too inflexible here. There probably will be all
sorts of space colonies, even ones we can't imagine.

Picture what the Amish would want in one.

> However, if your goal is just to produce food to an off-Earth
> civilization, then it will be way simpler and cheaper to just grow
your
> plants using hydroponics in habitats in space, instead of having the
> painful and expensive work of exporting manure from Earth to another
> planetary surface... By the way, your (techno-industrial)
civilization
> would be better in open space, with limitless energy and raw
materials
> resources, than trapped in yet another planetary surface...
>
> Lucio Coelho
>

Our civilization will probably do both. Maybe even another option
that we've overlooked. Though I have no idea what that would be.

There are worse things than being "trapped" on a planetary surface
that is much harder to destroy than a space colony.

Rick

> rick000brooks wrote:
> > Somehow I don't think we'll see nearly all the people moving into
a
> > space colony all at once.
> >
> > It is going to take time to build up a space colony, especially if
we
> > want to use mainly space resources.
> >
> > Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky dealt with terraforming a moon.
> >
> > He makes the point that it will take time to convert powdered rock
to
> > topsoil. We may see families graually expanding out areas of
topsoil.
> >
> > By the time that people move into small towns, the rest of the
colony
> > may be covered with farms. Though the farms main job may be
supplying
> > plenty of oxygen.
> >
> > Plain ordinary organic garbage may be worth its weight in gold. I
> > remember reading of how in the early days of colonizing Australia,
cow
> > manure didn't break down. Pats began coating the ground.
> >
> > Turned out that the ships bringing the cattle had kept the decks
> > washed. Thus getting rid of the bacteria that broke down the cow
> > manure.
> >
> > So the day was saved by bringing a load of cattle without cleaning
> > out the manure. Being a farm boy and having loaded many a manure
> > speader with a five tined manure pitchfork, I can imagine how that
> > ship smelled crossing the Equator with the temperature above 100
> > degrees.
> >
> > (Incidentally, I found chicken manure the worst to load. The
ammonia
> > concentration indoors was such that I had to step outside the coop
> > every 15 minutes. My eyes got to watering so bad, I couldn't
see.)
> >
> > Someday we may see a spaceship with a load of well-rotted manure
> > heading out to a space colony. Today big farms find manure
disposal a
> > problem. They might supply plenty of organic material to space
> > colonies and even pay for the privilege.
> >
> > At any rate, we will probably need garbage rich in all sorts of
> > bacteria. We probably don't know all the bacteria that is
necessary,