Re: food from space

Its all a function of cost and productivity.

I have outlined a method above that produces first generation space
colonies at about $180,000 per acre. This is improved land, with
water, mild climate and so forth. NASA studies indicate 20x increase
in output from even the best farms on Earth. So, think Southern
California irrigated farmland. Divde $180,000 by 20 and you get
$9,000 - per acre - which is cheap.

Now, this cost figure is based on a 2,000 ton nuclear pulse spacecraft
fleet harvesting small asteroidal debris - suited for our purposes -
built into a NASA style space colony optimized for human habitation.
Changing the habitat design to optimize it for farming - as Bradford
says - changes the cost.. to about 1/3 to 1/10th the figure above.
and perhaps improving output by 20% or so. This reduces the effective
cost below $900 per acre farmland. This is improved land - not raw
land - so, this is a helluva deal.

Now beyond economics there are logistics - and politics.

Farms on orbit would be a REVOLUTION in the way food is consumed on
Earth.

Consider a head of lettuce you pick up at the store. First you have
to go to the store to pick it up. Drive there, walk around the
aisles, find a lettuc head, pay for it, walk out, drive home, stick it
in the fridge - pull it out when you need it.

This is just the tail end of a HUGE supply chain. MOST of the cost of
that lettuce is in supporting that supply chain. So, beyond the raw
productivity increases possibleon orbit, there are HJGE logistical
improvements that can RADICALLY cut the cost of farming on orbit.

Lets follow this head of lettuce back to tis field in California.
Before it was on the refrigerated shelf at your local store, the
lettuce was in the cooler in back of the store. Then it was in a
refrigerated truck that serves the store. It was in a refrigerated
warehouse before that. Before that it was in a refrigerated train
car. Before that another refrigerated warehouse. Before that another
refrigerated truck. Before that a refrigerated warehouse near the
farm. Before that a refrigerated truck FROM the farm. .. before
that, in a cleaning and processing station near the farm. before
that, in the bin of a harvester, before that, sitting in the field.

About 95 cents of every dollar you pay supports all those refrigerated
spaces and trucks and all the people who touch the lettuce to get it
to your door. And all the people who finance all the equipment
needed to do that.

if you had a farm on a hill that had a cannon that could shoot heads
of lettuce to people as they needed it - you could dispense with ALL
this bull***.

In fact, if you were describing two systems to non-technical people,
they'd immediately see, that a network of roads trucks train and rail
with refrigerated warehouses and armies of people with fork lifts -
would be the crazy idea!

I'm merely supposing that we can make MEMs based rockets to soft land
things like heads of lettuce, for about the same cost as the head of
lettuce.

The lettuce farm with the cannon on the hill, provides fresher food
more quickly at lower cost than the farm connected to the valley by
truck, railroad and an assorted array of warehouses manned by armies
of people.

So, taking today's price for a head of lettuce, and understanding that
95 cents of every dollar goes to the delivery infrastructure, and
noting that at the prices that are feasible with my system of farming
satellites, we can cut the 5 cents down to 0.5 cents - and here's the
beauty part - we can cut the 95 cents down to 0.5 cents - we then take
a $1.00 worth of lettuce and reduce it to $0.01 - available to ANYONE
ANYWHERE.

Here's the otther beauty part - We charge the $0.10 for $1.00 worth of
lettuce to the 20% of the market that has 80% of the wealth - and use
$0.08 of that to subsidize food distribution world wide - keeping
$0.02 profit - and increase food production world wide 500% - this
sets the stage for a consumer revolution as people everywhere have
more money to spend on consumer items - and consume more energy.

(this is built after i put up power satellites to provide hydrocarbons
and hydrogen to the world's energy markets)

- communications
- energy
- manufacturing
- food
- fiber (wood paper)
- homes

Well before we have space homes, we will deorbit cities manufactured
on orbit - that will be heated and powered by laser beams - that will
allow them to float.

This simple approach ioriginated with Buckminster Fuller in 1967.
Light weight structures hundreds of meters in diameter, heated and
powered with a small nuclear reactor, would house thousands of people,
who would float freely over the earth trading in goods and services
wherever they went.

I have updated this concept. And done some engineering work on it.

Powered by laser beams from space, and the air heated by those same
beams, these cities float as well. The people on board, are fed from
orbit, they also work on orbit telerobotically.

So, I imagine I could say at some opint to all the people of Earth -
that a new Colossus has arisin... and would repeat with deep
conviction and meaning...an ancient poem from another age...

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus, 1883

These floating cities, made in space - will be the first step toward a
more peaceful and prosperous planet, and the first step of humanity
off-world

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldjjj/109033997/

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