FAQ?

Is there an FAQ for this group?

I'm a game designer, and will, in the next couple of years, define
some space habitats in the setting of my game - getting some figures
for construction, population density, return on investment for the
building partners, long term habitability, etc, would be quite
useful to me.

One of the fundemental logical syllogisms that I've used is that
without truly fundemental changes in human behavior and economics,
the combination of the 5-7 year economic cycle, and human tendencies
to put off maintenance and repairs means that the average lifespan
of a hostile environment habitat is around 2-5 generations after
local autonomy is given; longer durations come from more autocratic
societies. This is, as technological societies go, a span of 40-180
years. Failure mode either means a collapse of the local economy
(followed by a collaps of infrastructure, followed by either a die-
off or ecacuation), or a catastrophic collapse of infrastructure,
followed by the death of the local economy.

Trigger points are things like volatile prices spiking - you'll
eventually need to replenich nitrogen, hydrogen and a few other
things that are hard to find, or the combination of a bad business
cycle hitting at the same time frame that critical repairs are
needed...or the flight of wealth from the community reducing the
local municipal tax base to the point where it can't self-repair.

I really don't believe in magic nanotech solutions to these things.
If you have nanotech sufficient to keep a space station viable
indefinitely, you have nanotech sufficient to make the entire planet
Earth as pleasant as San Diego, build space elevators, and bring
down resources from orbit with remote probes - no need (and precious
little desire) to settle space.

This is based off of historical models on how cities grow, expand,
and rot, and having worked in the local county planning office.