RE: B Ark Colonist and Colonial Industry... [LONG[

--- B Lin <lin@rxkinetix.com> wrote:

> pen/pencil/electronic stylus, clothing, shoes,
> eyeglasses, gloves, tires for vehicles, windows,

Side note:  Practically all forms of eyesight problems
either are curable or will be soon.  Eyeglasses aren't
needed.

> drinking glasses, plates, oven/cooking/heating
> appliance, lightbulbs, food packaging, water
> containers, refrigeration units, doors, flashlights,
> basic tools,	plastic fasteners, zippers/velcro,
> tooth brushes, comm units, etc. etc.	Even if each
> item only requires one person to operate the machin!
>  e, chances are you want to run them 24/7 to meet
> demand and so you probably need 3 shifts, or 3
> people per machine.  

Uh, that's assuming we're trying for a modern standard
of living immediately.	Frontier societies tend to
require less support.

> Paving a single lane road probably involves dozens
> of people between the surveying, grading, laying
> down of pavment and such. If you can lay a few miles
> a day, it would still take years to lay enough to
> provide coverage on a medium (100,000 person) city,
> unless they all lived in sky-rises.  Alternatively
> you could have dozens of teams working at the same
> time.

Sure.  But there's an idea from Traveller I like--big
fusion engines on grav vehicles which vent plasma
down.  Fuses the surface into a ceramic plate a couple
inches thick.  Lots faster and more durable.  

> In addition, a population of 250,000 assuming 1st
> generation colonists would be about 60%  to 80% work
> capable - the rest being disabled or too young to do
> meaningful work, this leaves you a work pool of only
> 150,000 to 200,000 workers.  A later colony will

My initial colonization teams would be about 80% young
males.	And I wouldn't bring a quarter million in at
first.	The next group--young females and young
couples.  After that, we open it up to more
demographic groups.  The elderly are not invited until
the colony is pretty stable--and only if they are
planning to contribute and have the skills to do so. 
Disabled are not invited full stop.  Colony will
produce it's own disabled, we needn't import more.

> Education - assuming a low student to teacher ratio
> - 1:20 or 1:15, assuming education lasts a total of
> 17 years to the equivalent of a bachelors degree, if
> 20% of the population is school aged that equates to
> 50,000 kids then 2,500 people will be involved in
> teaching positions.  

Only if we use the fairly stupid modern models.  There
are better ways to do things today, and will be more
in the future.	Already ranted on that subject.

> Infrastructure maintenance: City engineers, water
> treatment plant operators, waste technicians etc. 
> Someone has to maintain the roads, pipes, haul
> trash, change street lights etc.  Figure about 1000
> people on three shifts to do continual maintenance. 
> This assumes that it doesn't snow in the city.

Depends--is the waste more valuable as fertilizer?? 
Is there central water and power, or lots of little
artesian wells and generators?	Remember--resources
are going to be far more plentiful than they are
today, with untapped water tables, and crude petroleum
bubbling to the surface in some places like it did in
the Middle Ages.

John

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