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Original Paragraph:
[ Modified Thu Dec 11 16:14:28 PST 2003
]
[ Modified Mon Sep 20 16:51:28 EDT 2004
]
[ Modified Mon Sep 20 17:00:06 EDT 2004
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[ Modified Fri Oct 29 02:10:48 EDT 2004
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[ Modified Fri Oct 29 02:15:01 EDT 2004
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[ Modified Mon Nov 15 14:48:11 EST 2004
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[ Modified Mon Nov 15 15:00:27 EST 2004
]
Seasteads can choose their level of self-sufficiency based on
factors like size, distance to land, initial capital available,
and desired levels of trade and luxury. The initial seasteads
will probably be small and less self-sufficient. The variety of
goods used in modern life is staggering, and it will simply not
be feasible to make them all onboard. This is especially true
because the ocean is a demanding environment, and it will be
difficult to meet its challenges without some serious technology.
Fortunately water transport is quite inexpensive, which makes
importing many goods feasible. Thus we expect needs will be
served by a continual series of compromises between local
production and trade.
Source: http://seastead.org/commented/paper/infra.html#Seasteads_can_choose_their_level_of_selfsufficienc
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Comments:
[Wed Jun 30 14:36:51 PDT 2004-181] Randy Campbell (NOSPAMranulfc@aol.com.NOSPAM):
You state:
"Fortunately water transport is quite inexpensive, which makes importing many goods feasible" which is true... as long as your counting on using STANDARD shipping. There-in lies a problem with your design choice. The pillar/spar seastead doesn't 'suffer' from wave action, but without a breakwater structure any shipping WILL! The reason that almost all equipment and personnel are FLOWN by helicopter to an oil rig is because of the difficulty, expense and danger of ship to platform transfer. Any wave activity makes the ships motion reletive to the platform severe. Cargo transfer can only be done by crane and hook-up/lift, and downloading operations have to have constant adjustment of the crane cables to ensure safety.
The SeaLaunch Commander/Launch platform combination gets around this by having multiple redundent thruster clusters on both ship and platform and by having multi-plex intercommunication between position keeping systems on both. This is an expensive option and NOT at all standard.
Randy
[Tue Sep 21 22:58:28 EDT 2004-264] octavian (NOSPAMtavi408@hotmail.com.NOSPAM):
I HAVE TO AGREE W/RANDY REGARDING YOUE CHOICE OF DESIGN.THE PILLAR/SPAR DOESNT PROVIDE ANY DOCKING FACILITIES.I WROTE YOU FEW YEARS AGO AND SEND YOU SOME OF MY DESIGNS FOR AN ARTIFICIAL FLOATING ISLAND.YES,SHIPPING IS THE WAY TO GO,BECAUSE OF THE HIGH AMOUNT OF BULK CARGO THAT CAN BE TRANSPORTED,BUT YOU DO NEED A PORT TO UNLOAD.OCTAVIAN
[Wed Mar 2 18:42:59 EST 2005-60] Peter McCluskey (NOSPAMpcm@rahul.net.NOSPAM):
If it were hard to transfer people or person-sized cargo from boats, that
would be a major impediment to the incremental approach. But I haven't been
able to confirm Randy's claims, and I'm inclined to suspect the problems
are only serious with larger cargo, which I think would be tolerable problems.
One possibly relevant difference is that a floating platform can match
the velocity of the current, but an oil rig will have current interfering
with the docking.
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