Orbis station sustainability

[sam445]

Alright, so the goal of this thread is to find out the exact maximal population of an Orbis space station without resorting to vertical farming and the creation of food from pure energy (the amount of energy generated by the fusion power plants should be enough to reconvert atoms from one element to another with some effort).

So let's assume that we can only grow food into the rings. We got two rings types:
If someone would be so kind as to provide exact measurements, it would be greatly appreciated!

1: The massive ring at the front with a radius of 4km and an approximated width of 200m
2: The smaller ring(s) on the back spine with a radius of 2km with an approximated width of 125m

So the open surface in square meters for each types of ring is:

1: 2PI * 4000 * 200 = 5 026 548 square meters.
2: 2PI * 2000 * 125 = 1 570 796 square meters.

According to http://www.tylerdwyer.com/files/OASIS_Final_Report.pdf , 50 square meters that are continually cultivated and rejuvenated in nutrients are enough to sustain one person (if that person accepts to be vegetarian).

So assuming that the Orbis station has one massive ring, it can sustain 100 530 persons. The station can support an additional 31 415 lives for each additional minor rings.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Surely, bringing food grown on the planets is pure lunacy... Let's grow everything on the station. But thanks for calculations

 

[sam445]

Now one thing that is needed is to know the volume of an Orbis station (with the volume of the hangar substracted) to know the maximal housing volume.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Now one thing that is needed is to know the volume of an Orbis station (with the volume of the hangar substracted) to know the maximal housing volume.

I'm pretty sure with technologies of world of Elite you can get more food per square meter of land. Also greenhouses can be stacked so one 'floor' or 'level' does not necessarily provide only one field. I bet your estimates can be doubled at least.

 

[sam445]

I'm pretty sure with technologies of world of Elite you can get more food per square meter of land. Also greenhouses can be stacked so one 'floor' or 'level' does not necessarily provide only one field. I bet your estimates can be doubled at least.

Oh it can be more than tripled. I just wanted to have a base number.

 

[Sapyx]

These stations are not really designed to be self-sufficient, but rather as specialized cogs in the galactic economy - hence the high demand for foodstuff (and the high supply of biowaste) at non-agricultural planets.

In other words, the people of the 34th century have decided that it's cheaper to import food from a few specialized food-producing areas than it is to allocate precious space to growing food on each and every station.

Further, read the description of the "food cartridges" commodity - this is the cheap, space-saving foodstuff which the vast majority of humans subsist on. Only the wealthy, or the people who actually live on the agricultural planets, routinely eat naturally-formed food. All this grain, fish, coffee and tea that we ship around is luxury food, for the middle and upper classes and/or for special occasions.

 

[Wullail]

Soylent green *nods*

 

[Vasious]

Based on demands Food Cartridges are primarily processed from Algae, too.

Not sure how that factors in to the equation.
Just that it seems to be
Agri >Algae > Industrial > Food Cartridges

 

[Patrick_68000]

100,000 people regrouped ? Thargoids should like this