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Modding / Re: [0.9.1a] Sol System (v0.2.2 - 1/21/2020)
« on: February 03, 2020, 09:27:24 AM »
Ceres is actually the place I would advise Elon Musk to be the very first colony location, not Mars. There is nothing you can do on Mars that cannot be more profitably done elsewhere, and that is the death knell for a colony. The best Mars can hope for is a some sort of tourist industry, a location for adventuresome retirees, and to host a bunch of scientists. Everything else will be more expensive.
Ceres on the other hand has water in absolute abundance, along with pretty much everything else one might need. It's ultra low gravity means that chucking payloads to anywhere in the solar system will be extremely easy, so 'low shipping costs'. Ceres would be a windfall for exporting water, rocket fuel and oxygen, and with some local construction to avail themselves of the local resources, they could easily be a farming food exporter. The trick to colonizing Ceres is that you hollow out a torus (ultimately a whole bunch of them) and build a rotating station inside. The extremely low gravity means that all you would need for structural support of the hollowed torus would be an atmosphere retaining membrane and the pressure of the air. Digging the tunnels would not require boring equipment, just heating. Most of the surface of Ceres is essentially frozen mud. Heat the mud and you've got an excavation system.
Ceres on the other hand has water in absolute abundance, along with pretty much everything else one might need. It's ultra low gravity means that chucking payloads to anywhere in the solar system will be extremely easy, so 'low shipping costs'. Ceres would be a windfall for exporting water, rocket fuel and oxygen, and with some local construction to avail themselves of the local resources, they could easily be a farming food exporter. The trick to colonizing Ceres is that you hollow out a torus (ultimately a whole bunch of them) and build a rotating station inside. The extremely low gravity means that all you would need for structural support of the hollowed torus would be an atmosphere retaining membrane and the pressure of the air. Digging the tunnels would not require boring equipment, just heating. Most of the surface of Ceres is essentially frozen mud. Heat the mud and you've got an excavation system.