had some thoughts about what's where...
- The lagrange points are valuable for Danes, due to the whole "easy stable platform" thing. The only *particular* value they have for fen (who generally have enough grav tech to grab any number of stable points in just about any frame of reference) would be the "hey, they're lagrange points. They're nifty." factor. They are far more valuable to the danes.
- Dane space programs are *expensive* in ways that fen space programs just aren't. Even piggybacking ont he back of local fen to get out of the gravity wells and such, there are enormous economic disincentives to trying to stay 'wave-free. If it's a purely commercial venture, like mining, then there's simply no way that a company that refuses to use handwavium can compete with one made of Fen - or even one that hires Fen. At this point, if a country doesn't have a serious space program to start with, then they'll never grab one - there's simply no advantage to doing it with hardtech that could possibly be worth the startup costs.
- Specifically, the advantages to having your own hardtech presence in space, rather than using Fen contractors or equivalents come down to reliabiity and trust. Reliability because it is possible to know exactly what your equipment will do. Trust because they're *your* people, rather than anyone else's. The reliability advantage means that we'll be having hardtech satellites (lifted by handwave lift assets) in orbit for quite a while to come, and that there are good and sufficient reasons to have ongoing hardtech labs in space. The trust advantage means that you'll still have consulates and embassies and the like in some of the major pop centers - because for those, you want people who've had long, established careers already, and that pretty much means 'Danes. On the other hand, just about any country out there that has open borders and decent living conditions can manage to scrape up some folks who'd be interested in going into space but would still feel a fair bit of loyalty to the old homeland when they got there. They exist, and in larger numbers than you might think. Also, a fair number of fen have pretty strong senses of honor, and decent senses of pragmatism. You find the right kids in High school, offer them enough money to put them through college debt-free and/or set themselves up with a ship afterwards, and in return they promise to act as an information source while they're up there (or some such) (with ongoing payments as appropriate so they don't get resentful).
Money is precious in Danespace, and hardtech footprints in space are expensive enough theat they'll only really have them where they need them.
- image: a random fen with a humorous streak who goes around doping existing satellites with handwavium just to see what they do. Not that he'll be able to keep it up *forever*, but...
Oh - and another group that'll be in Fenspace: migrant workers. As soon as it becomes known that Fenspace is a decent place for people who can work hard to make money, there will be dedicated folks from poor countries heading into space for jobs, and regularly wiring money home.
Of course, those guys fit in *easily*. It's the *refugees* that you're going to have issues with. Mind you, it may not happen right now - or even soon, but eventually a few of those refugees fleeing on a boat are going to start fleeing up - and they may not have much of a plan on how to survive once they get up there.
Also... to what degree has the average Australian embraced handwavium?
- The lagrange points are valuable for Danes, due to the whole "easy stable platform" thing. The only *particular* value they have for fen (who generally have enough grav tech to grab any number of stable points in just about any frame of reference) would be the "hey, they're lagrange points. They're nifty." factor. They are far more valuable to the danes.
- Dane space programs are *expensive* in ways that fen space programs just aren't. Even piggybacking ont he back of local fen to get out of the gravity wells and such, there are enormous economic disincentives to trying to stay 'wave-free. If it's a purely commercial venture, like mining, then there's simply no way that a company that refuses to use handwavium can compete with one made of Fen - or even one that hires Fen. At this point, if a country doesn't have a serious space program to start with, then they'll never grab one - there's simply no advantage to doing it with hardtech that could possibly be worth the startup costs.
- Specifically, the advantages to having your own hardtech presence in space, rather than using Fen contractors or equivalents come down to reliabiity and trust. Reliability because it is possible to know exactly what your equipment will do. Trust because they're *your* people, rather than anyone else's. The reliability advantage means that we'll be having hardtech satellites (lifted by handwave lift assets) in orbit for quite a while to come, and that there are good and sufficient reasons to have ongoing hardtech labs in space. The trust advantage means that you'll still have consulates and embassies and the like in some of the major pop centers - because for those, you want people who've had long, established careers already, and that pretty much means 'Danes. On the other hand, just about any country out there that has open borders and decent living conditions can manage to scrape up some folks who'd be interested in going into space but would still feel a fair bit of loyalty to the old homeland when they got there. They exist, and in larger numbers than you might think. Also, a fair number of fen have pretty strong senses of honor, and decent senses of pragmatism. You find the right kids in High school, offer them enough money to put them through college debt-free and/or set themselves up with a ship afterwards, and in return they promise to act as an information source while they're up there (or some such) (with ongoing payments as appropriate so they don't get resentful).
Money is precious in Danespace, and hardtech footprints in space are expensive enough theat they'll only really have them where they need them.
- image: a random fen with a humorous streak who goes around doping existing satellites with handwavium just to see what they do. Not that he'll be able to keep it up *forever*, but...
Oh - and another group that'll be in Fenspace: migrant workers. As soon as it becomes known that Fenspace is a decent place for people who can work hard to make money, there will be dedicated folks from poor countries heading into space for jobs, and regularly wiring money home.
Of course, those guys fit in *easily*. It's the *refugees* that you're going to have issues with. Mind you, it may not happen right now - or even soon, but eventually a few of those refugees fleeing on a boat are going to start fleeing up - and they may not have much of a plan on how to survive once they get up there.
Also... to what degree has the average Australian embraced handwavium?