New Member

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:01:45 -0500, Steve Long wrote:
(...)
> How many people would live in a Stanford Torus? About 5,700? (My
> shaky math suggests that's the starting number to reach six billion in
> twenty doublings.) I'm imagining a million Stanford Tori orbiting
> Earth, trying to beam their energy down without microwaving each
> other. The image I get is the Washington Beltway at rush hour, with
> phasers ... :-)

Actually, energy would be beamed from SPSs, not from the habitats
themselves, and considering automation you surely won't need billions
of people to maintain a network of SPSs around Earth in order to
supply energy to the whole planet. There are even those who argue
that, if and when better AI/Robotics develop, you will need *no* human
being living in space to provide that. (Personally, I am quite skeptic
about groundbreaking developments in AI in a foreseeable future, but
maybe I am wrong.)

> But then, what will they sell to Earthlings, when no one is left on
> earth to buy?

If and when the population in space reach billions, Spacers will
obviously trade much more with each other than with Earthlings. By the
way, due to the distribution of natural resources in the Inner Solar
System, a population of billions does not look likely for Cislunar
space (as you apparently suggested), though it would be comfortably
sustained by NEOs. Unless, of course, massive amounts of NEOs are
moved to Cislunar space (not a comfortable thought for Earthlings).