why outer space?

From: Ian Woollard [mailto:ian.woollard@...]

I think all habitats need a defensive strategy of some kind.

Building a habitat is a hassle.

One technique of obtaining a habitat involves emptying an
existing habitat and claiming it for yourself.

Emptying might involve explosive decompression, or conventional
boarding and shooting if there is a biosphere to conserve.

Either way you have something to defend.

I suspect that it would be impossible to take an orbital habitat by force
without doing so much damage to it as to get into diminishing returns. For
example, in the explosive decompression scenario, the already-balanced and
functioning biosphere would be one of the prizes you'd be trying to claim,
and decompression would obviously put you back to square one there. The
hydrogen in the water and the nitrogen in the air would be among the
costliest elements, which you would now have to replace. In the
"conventional boarding and shooting scenario, let's remember that most of
this habitat would be spinning with a good deal of angular velocity. Entry
points would be few, and thus easy to defend.

Between building a new habitat, and raising an army and equipping it with
the necessary weaponry, building the new habitat may turn out to be the
cheaper proposition. Perhaps a cause for hope...

Regards,

Mike Combs

From:
Ian Woollard [mailto:ian.woollard@...]
I think all habitats need a defensive strategy of some kind.
Building a habitat is a hassle.
One technique of obtaining a habitat involves emptying an
existing habitat and claiming it for yourself.
Emptying might involve explosive decompression, or conventional
boarding and shooting if there is a biosphere to conserve.
Either way you have something to defend.

I suspect that it would be impossible to take an orbital habitat by force without doing so much damage to it as to get into diminishing returns. For example, in the explosive decompression scenario, the already-balanced and functioning biosphere would be one of the prizes you'd be trying to claim, and decompression would obviously put you back to square one there. The hydrogen in the water and the nitrogen in the air would be among the costliest elements, which you would now have to replace. In the "conventional boarding and shooting scenario, let's remember that most of this habitat would be spinning with a good deal of angular velocity. Entry points would be few, and thus easy to defend.
Between building a new habitat, and raising an army and equipping it with the necessary weaponry, building the new habitat may turn out to be the cheaper proposition. Perhaps a cause for hope...

Regards,
Mike Combs