Feeding a starship crew for a year

[Christougher]

I want there to be some "weight" to hauling around the large supplies of food, so the crew PCs see the effects of improvements in food technologies. At low technology a year's food supply for 25 people is a fairly substantial investment of ship space, while higher technologies would feed more people using less space and for a longer period of time.

 

"Weight" in this case ties to the Active and Real point costs, and I'm having a hard time tying mechanics back to the SFX because Life Support: Need not Eat costs 3 points and lasts forever. Fuel Charges are the obvious choice, but of what length and should I use increased charges, the Usable by Others advantage or just pay for the power several times? Ignoring the Charges meta-cap and paying huge advantage values seems to add that "weight" I'm looking for.

 

Which methods and breakdowns will give me incremental rather than exponential changes? Any other thoughts or suggestions (other than replicators)?

 

Chris.

 

I think I'm gonna need a spreadsheet.

[Christopher]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Generally any Vehicle get's "UOO" for the default number of passengers on any power for free, so this one is out of the calculation.

 

You make hte fact that it wieghts a Side Effect of the power, but considering the overall weight and engine power of such a ship this weight might be a non-issue.

 

Even at our tech level, we knew how to store food effectively. Usually we get it up there dried and re-hydrate it with water.

The water on the other hand get's recycled. A lot. It is simply not feasible to haul that much water into space so it's easier to clean it again and again...

[Midas]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

I want there to be some "weight" to hauling around the large supplies of food, so the crew PCs see the effects of improvements in food technologies. At low technology a year's food supply for 25 people is a fairly substantial investment of ship space, while higher technologies would feed more people using less space and for a longer period of time.

 

"Weight" in this case ties to the Active and Real point costs, and I'm having a hard time tying mechanics back to the SFX because Life Support: Need not Eat costs 3 points and lasts forever. Fuel Charges are the obvious choice, but of what length and should I use increased charges, the Usable by Others advantage or just pay for the power several times? Ignoring the Charges meta-cap and paying huge advantage values seems to add that "weight" I'm looking for.

 

Which methods and breakdowns will give me incremental rather than exponential changes? Any other thoughts or suggestions (other than replicators)?

 

Chris.

 

I think I'm gonna need a spreadsheet.

 

I know your main question is with weight and bulk, but I have a suggestion for the mechanic itself. Have it cost END and run on a battery. Peg the speed and recovery on tech level. ie enough food (measured in END points) for twenty five people for say six months, but the recovery would take say a year, at "early" tech, while better tech would bring it down to nine, then six months (the break even point); Then at higher tech you actually have a bit of "spare" - until you invent replicators, and the problem goes away.

 

This allows your characters to go on "half rations" at need; and to barter surplus, if that interests them, later.

[Old Man]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

The idea of having chickens and pigs running around on board a starship for eventual consumption appeals to me.

[Christougher]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

I know your main question is with weight and bulk, but I have a suggestion for the mechanic itself. Have it cost END and run on a battery. Peg the speed and recovery on tech level. ie enough food (measured in END points) for twenty five people for say six months, but the recovery would take say a year, at "early" tech, while better tech would bring it down to nine, then six months (the break even point); Then at higher tech you actually have a bit of "spare" - until you invent replicators, and the problem goes away.

 

This allows your characters to go on "half rations" at need; and to barter surplus, if that interests them, later.

 

Wow. That idea is way out of left field, and actually cool enough to explore.

 

 

The idea of having chickens and pigs running around on board a starship for eventual consumption appeals to me.

 

Given that some of these will be colony ships, we can probably guarantee that it happens.

[Brother Jim]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

gardens grow food, help refresh the air and might help with recycling water.

[Christougher]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Will somebody please post the correct computation for a 1 day continuing fuel charge? I tried it three times and came up with three answers...

[Christopher]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Will somebody please post the correct computation for a 1 day continuing fuel charge? I tried it three times and came up with three answers...

For Life support and other powers that are persistent and cost 0 END by default, it's capped at +0. So that will propably be your answer here.

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Maybe just a custom Life Support power?

[sinanju]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

gardens grow food' date=' help refresh the air and might help with recycling water.[/quote']

 

I highly recommend chapter nine of T. A. Heppenheimer's Colonies in Space regarding the requirements for (and level of production) possible in a confined space like a space colony or large starship. Happily, the entire book is online.

 

Chapter Nine is here.

[sinanju]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

I highly recommend chapter nine of T. A. Heppenheimer's Colonies in Space[/br] regarding the requirements for (and level of production) possible in a confined space like a space colony or large starship. Happily, the entire book is online.

 

Chapter Nine is here.

 

The gist of it is that you can produce mind-boggling quantities of food in a very small space, if you're willing to work at it. And if you're willing to eat rabbits and goats (because they will eat the parts of food plants humans don't, so you needn't grow extra forage just for them), you can have meat, cheese, milk, and ice cream too. Your colonists (or star travelers) can eat very well, really.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

this is where hydroponic tanks can be very useful too... grow some veggies etc... extra oxygen scrubbing etc

 

for colonization purposes we could talk about various crops that have a myriad of uses, Hemp comes to mind for starters

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

this is where hydroponic tanks can be very useful too... grow some veggies etc... extra oxygen scrubbing etc

 

for colonization purposes we could talk about various crops that have a myriad of uses, Hemp comes to mind for starters

 

But Doritos dust will clog the hydroponic tank filters!

[Christopher]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

The gist of it is that you can produce mind-boggling quantities of food in a very small space' date=' if you're willing to work at it. And if you're willing to eat rabbits and goats (because they will eat the parts of food plants humans don't, so you needn't grow extra forage just for them), you can have meat, cheese, milk, and ice cream too. Your colonists (or star travelers) can eat very well, really.[/quote']

The real downside could be the mono-culture. One big plague that affects one important part of your structure and your entire foodchain could colapses on itself.

 

There is less possibility to get some unknown germs, but you should better able to clone/bioengineer resistant plants if you try this approach.

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

The real downside could be the mono-culture. One big plague that affects one important part of your structure and your entire foodchain could colapses on itself.

 

There is less possibility to get some unknown germs, but you should better able to clone/bioengineer resistant plants if you try this approach.

Plus, the possibility of someone going crazy-suicidal and sabotaging food production.

 

Hopefully, your screenings catches said possible tendencies.

[sinanju]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Plus, the possibility of someone going crazy-suicidal and sabotaging food production.

 

Hopefully, your screenings catches said possible tendencies.

 

So your supplies include long-storage MREs (or the equivalent) sufficient in quantity to see you through a crop failure, and...plenty of seeds with different pedigrees in case of a blight. A single point of failure is always bad design, but there are work-arounds.

[McCoy]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

So your supplies include long-storage MREs (or the equivalent) sufficient in quantity to see you through a crop failure' date=' and...plenty of seeds with different pedigrees in case of a blight. A single point of failure is always bad design, but there are work-arounds.[/quote']

And pre-flight quarantine eliminates 99.9999% of the pests. So your main risk of a blight will be something that mutates from a friendly bacteria or fungus. Odds are against that.

 

Big advantage of the closed environment farming, no weeds, no noxious bugs, very few diseases.

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Plus, the possibility of someone going crazy-suicidal and sabotaging food production.

 

Hopefully, your screenings catches said possible tendencies.

 

Assuming said person is a "first gen". In a multi-generational colony ship it could be a bigger problem.

[McCoy]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Assuming said person is a "first gen". In a multi-generational colony ship it could be a bigger problem.

Again, not if screening catches them early enough that an intervention is possible.

 

And if some sort of intervention IS done. Like those cases where a kid shoots up their school. Every case but one that I've looked into the child had previously been identified as as high risk for suicide, and nothing was done until they chose suicide by cop.

 

Hopefully our multi-generation starship is better managed that the public school system.

[Old Man]

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

Another way you could do it would be, instead of stocking food on board, just load up on redundant crewmembers. By the time the ship gets where it's going, the crew will be down to a more reasonable size...

[cbullard]

On 4/19/2012 at 7:48 AM, shadowcat1313 said:

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year

 

this is where hydroponic tanks can be very useful too... grow some veggies etc... extra oxygen scrubbing etc

 

for colonization purposes we could talk about various crops that have a myriad of uses, Hemp comes to mind for starters

Aquaponics should work very well for that, too, although the water weight could be an issue.  Still, if you're talking about a colony ship, this could help keep several of your plant varieties readily available for planting upon arrival.  (or kill them off in a ship-wide blight, too)

According to some looking around (I won't dignify it by calling it "research") a few years ago, one person's food supply for a year can come from an aquaponics setup of 25 sq ft.  I think that must have been a typo and they meant 25 ft sq.

But if that is accurate, then the only extra thing you would need to haul would be food for the fish.