Re: Planets and Resources
 

So if we're sticking 2-3 facilities on an asteroid*, how many on a planet the size of Pluto (~55 times the surface area)? How many on a planet the size of Earth (~500 times the surface area in land alone, ~1700 times if you include the seas)?


* Personally I wouldn't go for anything much smaller than 150km across, our asteroid belt has about 75 of that size that we know of, and an asteroid of that size gives a rough land area of 100,000/150,000 Km^2 per facility (for 3/2 facilities)

Re: Planets and Resources
 

With asteroids, surface area would presumably include the interior - thus the possibility of fitting a whole lot of stuff inside an asteroid. They're easier to hollow out than planets are :)

Re: Planets and Resources
 

After further thought, why not abstract asteroid belts somewhat? Treat a beltas a single location with effectively unlimited space, but with costs being very different from planets.

They'd start out ferociously expensive to build facilities/colonies in, but as tech levels improve (artificial gravity, cheap tech that lets you hollow out and reshape rocks, etc.) costs reduce. Eventually, asteroid belts end up holding most of a system's production etc.

Re: Planets and Resources
 

Nah, if you treat it as a single location how are you supposed to attack any particular asteroid?

There's only a fraction more volume in a 100km diameter asteroid than in a 50m deep (a height/depth that was nothing to people even half-a-century ago) subterranean complex with the surface area of the USA, and said complex wouldn't need to provide its own air or food either.