joratto Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 The devs have said that automated supply chain management will be a thing between planets. Will we be able to set up automated supply chains between star systems too? I imagine it would be a necessity for interstellar colonisation. I’m excited to build something like the supply chain between Earth and Pandora as described in Avatar lore. There are said to be 12 ISV Venture Star interstellar vehicles on a continuous loop between Earth orbit and Pandora orbit, carrying crew, cargo, and ssto spaceplanes for travelling to and from Pandora’s surface, and eventually hauling Unobtainium to sell on Earth. For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a great video on the subject: Besides the obvious exploration/science benefits, I also wonder if there will be an economic incentive for interstellar travel/trade. I would like it if there was a resource analogous to Unobtainium that could ONLY be found in another star system, but I don’t know if that would be realistic - in what scenario is it cheaper to run an interstellar supply chain and mining operation than to just synthesise a given material at home? Just some thoughts. How would you set up an interstellar supply chain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intelliCom Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 I feel like doing something like a back-and-forth supply chain between solar systems is rather inefficient, when it would be far easier to transport people for a mass migration. An exodus, if you will. However, the one case where a supply chain between solar systems makes more sense is if one was trying to keep their home planet alive, like the Avatar lore is. iirc, Earth in Avatar is damaged severely by pollution and just general disregard for the environment, to the point where even solar energy is no longer viable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joratto Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 1 hour ago, intelliCom said: it would be far easier to transport people for a mass migration. For sure. Space is relatively easy when you don't have to bring your astronauts home . 1 hour ago, intelliCom said: However, the one case where a supply chain between solar systems makes more sense is if one was trying to keep their home planet alive, like the Avatar lore is. iirc, Earth in Avatar is damaged severely by pollution and just general disregard for the environment, to the point where even solar energy is no longer viable. Maybe exotic room-temperature superconductors from other stars could unlock cheap fusion generators for colonies or exotic torchlike engines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 (edited) On 3/1/2022 at 2:42 PM, intelliCom said: I feel like doing something like a back-and-forth supply chain between solar systems is rather inefficient, when it would be far easier to transport people for a mass migration. An exodus, if you will. However, the one case where a supply chain between solar systems makes more sense is if one was trying to keep their home planet alive, like the Avatar lore is. iirc, Earth in Avatar is damaged severely by pollution and just general disregard for the environment, to the point where even solar energy is no longer viable. Well the Venture star class was pushed up to relativistic velocity at over one g acceleration by an launch laser and braked with an antimatter engine so they could also make antimatter in tons. Ballpark for energy accelerating the ships is that you have to be an Kardashev 1 civilization and this is very generous assuming high efficiency solar pumped lasers, you also has to make the antimatter so Kardashev 1+ If they was remotely efficient they would have one pollution problem, heat and this might be an bad one, no not global warming as we think but energy use was an high faction of the sunlight hitting earth. In short they had more energy than they could use. This could be much more realistic with some magic faster than light drive as it would not require Kardashev 1. Now it looks like they had plenty of failed states, this is a bit realistic as they would need to move lots of stuff into space including mining and manufacturing and will leave states focusing on resources and not in the space race in the cold. But the setting serious problems if you start running the numbers, more stupid an single mine is an local ecological problem not an global one. But it might just be the hero being stupid. Displacing people with military power to mine an better place is evil. Getting into an war and activating an planetary defense network is kind of unexpected but Pandora was obviously seriously weird. Kind of assumes the Na'vi was an previous mining expedition mining the remains of an much older civilization. Edited March 5, 2022 by magnemoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bej Kerman Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 (edited) On 3/1/2022 at 1:10 PM, joratto said: I imagine it would be a necessity for interstellar colonisation. May I ask what seems feasible about a colony depending on shipments that only come every half a century? Doesn't matter anyway, independence is going to be a necessity with colonies. Edited March 5, 2022 by Bej Kerman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyFall2489 Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Making lots of supply trips can become repetitive, however, so I hope there will be a way to automate routine missions in the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 2 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said: I hope there will be a way to automate routine missions in the background They already confirmed that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joratto Posted March 6, 2022 Author Share Posted March 6, 2022 20 hours ago, Bej Kerman said: May I ask what seems feasible about a colony depending on shipments that only come every half a century? Doesn't matter anyway, independence is going to be a necessity with colonies. Such shipments would not need to come once every fifty years. Instead, stagger them out so they arrive once a year, every year, carrying important colonisation technology until the colony is self-sufficient. And some Kerbals may still want to come home. After all, they never grow old, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sivako Aerospace Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 (edited) On 3/1/2022 at 7:07 AM, joratto said: Maybe exotic room-temperature superconductors from other stars could unlock cheap fusion generators for colonies or exotic torchlike engines It would be kind of cool to have an Unobtainium like exotic resource that affect the performance of engines once you discover it. Potential if this mechanic was to exist in the game, it could effect the travel time of supply route ships between star systems. Edited March 10, 2022 by Sivako Aerospace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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