The Lotus Corporation’s Mark V EcoHabitat

This paper should have some more fleshed out decisions about your colony, like the philosophical, political, and economic structures, which in turn inform your design decisions for how to set up
your different modules, sectors, and pods.
Based upon your philosophy, provide specifications for the colony you wish to
purchase. Develop a detailed budget for the colony. Specify your choices for
population, geography, climate, and settlement culture. Use the blank diagram of a
Mark V Habitat (in a separate PDF) to sketch your design.
2) Note that colonies may wish to trade with one another, provide for tourism,
specialize in something (e.g., a Musicians colony). What approach would you take?
Would you want your colonies to be specialists? Why or why not?
3) What sort of government will manage your colony? Remember, you are one of 20
principal owners of the colony — would you wish to give others some control over
your possession? Why or why not?
4) The Lotus Corporation (makers of the Mark V EcoHabitat) provides power for a
population of 30 million people as standard equipment. Lotus defines the “good
life” for your colonists to be a power consumption of 30 kW per person (this is 50%
more than the current standard of living in the US and amounts to 30 kilowatt hours
of Energy per person each hour). Power is gotten from the Sun using an array of
solar cells (photovoltaics). These devices absorb Sunlight and turn it into electricity
with 10% efficiency. What is the size of the solar array provided by the Lotus
Corporation for the Standard Mark V EcoHabitat? Assume the solar flux at Earth is
1.36 kW m-2.
5) Suppose you were to fill the Standard Model EcoHabitat’s four spokes with Air and
Food Pods. Each Spoke can hold 5 pods so there are a total of 20 Pods in the
EcoHabitat that can support and additional 600 million people beyond that of the
30 million capacity of the Standard Model colony. Suppose you allowed the
population to grow to 630 million inhabitants. What is the surface population
density in that colony? If each person is standing on the rim wall, how far apart on
average are the colony inhabitants?
6) Suppose the hypothetical above colony is still living the “good life.” How big of a
Solar Array do you need to build in order to power your 630 million person colony?
7) Would you like to live in such a colony? What do you imagine the quality of life to
be in this situation? Ignoring the moral issue of population control, what is the
maximum population you would be comfortable with inhabiting the EcoHabitat you
have designed?