RE: SNOW JOB

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Bell, Brian K (Contractor) wrote:

> Another reason for lower tech, local, manufacture.
> 
> Ubertech lands for a quick consolidation and mop of a minor incursion,
but
> gets sucked into a guerrilla war. 3 weeks into the campaign, they have
> exhausted their fuel cells (HMT & Fusion) and look to the locals to
supply
> more. The locals explain that everything they have runs off of
biodiesel,
> and they do not have the correct chemicals to recharge the fuel cells. 

... while scurrying around in the background trying to sink their fuel
cells into the nearest swamp for safekeeping, and frantically trying to
doctor the local modular chemical plant's records & machinery so they
don't have to supply the military...

Fuel cells are incredibly efficent, and I don't think they're that hard
to
manufacture - Ballard Systems over in Vancouver is, IFAIK, one of the
most
advanced & largest fuel cell makers & developers today, and they don't
have a staggeringly massive plant or workforce. (Could someone here tell
us all what actually goes into the making of a modern-day fuel cell?)

Fusion - Karl covered fusion better than I can - but if you can have
something small enough, powerful enough and stable enough to run an MBT,
that certainly is going to find civilian applications. Cities and large
installations are going to be using fusion plants for power supply;
depending on cost & local economics large enough ranches & outlying
stations might have their own plants.

For colonial use, I'd say biodiesel would be a fuel of last resort; the
steam engines other people have mentioned would be left in the museums
back on Earth...

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -