Re: [GZG] Habitable solar systems (Was: [GZG] Real Astroplitics)

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http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lAll of these
arguments are good reasons why a system with inhabitable planets would
have orbital habitats.

They don't answer the original question about why would you build a
habitat in a star system with no habitable planet.

Reasons why you might build a habitat in a star system with no human
planets.

Military base
For whatever reason the government thinks it needs a permanent presence
in the system. Maybe as a support or layover base for patrol craft.

Corporate base
The system contains one or more materials that is sufficiently rare to
justify the expense of maintaining a base and interplanetary shipping.
The corporation wants to engage in some very secret (and possibly
illegal )research project and needs a facility in a system where no one
knows to look. Also if things go wrong there is no contamination of an
inhabited system.

Colonisation
Maybe there is a planet that could be human habitable once the
atmosphere is reengineered. An orbital base could be a useful place to
oversee the initial stages of a teraforming process.

Prison
Maybe some kind of space prison for really dangerous convicts or
dissidents or those with bad dress sense could be exiled to a space
station in another solar system. No sense on wasting a habitable planets
on convicts. Could be combined with some of the other options above.

John
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Brian Burger 

  On 5/4/06, Allan Goodall <agoodall@hyperbear.com> wrote:
    > A human habitable *solar system* doesn't need to have human
habitable
    > *planets*. Any star-faring culture could build large orbital
habitats
    > around any suitable star.

    One question: why would they build it? You'd need to answer that. 

    Large orbital habitats are going to be a large capital investment.
    There would have to be a really good reason you'd spend that kind of
    money/resources to pop an orbital habitat around a distant star in a
    hostile chunk of the galaxy.

    Lots of (most of) the freighters we've seen aren't atmosphere
capable - so that means that at some point they transfer their cargo to
atmosphere capable craft, or leave it somewhere for further handling.
That "somewhere" has to be in orbit; you're going to need workers at
your orbital cargo facility, and if there's enough workers, it might be
worthwhile building a proper habitat rather than just a space station
with hab modules. 

    Plus, mercentile types might move out to the facility, to be where
their cargos are. 

    Related to freighter design: no matter how good your PSB engines,
dragging up and down a gravity well and/or an atmosphere is always going
to be more expensive in terms of fuel, time, and wear & tear on your
craft.	

    I'm not sure what the line between "big orbital cargo yard w/ a
population" and "orbital habitat" will be, but busy enough systems will
probably support a significant orbital population. Sol system's orbital
population probably outstrips most colonial planetary populations
massively.