"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

Usually the founding institution will form the initial government, which will
gradually abrogate its control to the population as the investment is paid off. A
timescale for this is often written into the constitution, typically seventy to a hundred
years. Even when the institution itself relinquishes political control, it will invariably
remain the largest single corporate entity in the star system, and so will continue to
generate a return on its investment. It is therefore in the institutionтАЩs own interest to
create a properly working economy.


Asteroid Settlements
Zero-gee industrial stations form an integral part of any star systemтАЩs
technoeconomy. Planets and asteroid settlements need each other in order to trade and
enhance their economies, therefore any attempt to colonize a planet with an
industrial-based society must also include the establishment of asteroid settlements
within the star system.

Asteroid settlements retain a degree of independence from the planetary government,
but when full industrialization is achieved a system-wide congress is usually formed
to cover defense, criminal extradition, currency regulations, mutual economic policy,
transport regulations, etc. (the Edenist habitat will not form part of the congress). It is
usually this congress which sends a representative to sit in the Confederation
Assembly on Avon, and to speak for the whole star system.
 Asteroid settlements use a mix of fusion and solar power, depending on location.
They always try to be self-sufficient in food production, using protein vats and
hydroponics. The cavern chamber biosphere is usually planted with fruit trees and
edible vegetation. Like Edenist habitats, the asteroid settlements provide a healthy
market for imported food.

There are two types ofтАФor locations forтАФasteroid settlements.

High orbit
Typically in orbit 100,000km above the terracompatible planet, these are asteroids
with a high metallic content, and have been maneuvered into their orbit by a series of
controlled nuclear explosions. They average 30тАУ40km in diameter, and in their first
stages provide nothing but raw metal for the planetary industries. The number of
asteroids thus captured is in direct proportion to the planetтАЩs population, and a newly
founded colony will only have one orbiting asteroid for probably the first hundred
years. After that, as industrial capacity expands, more asteroids will be captured to
feed it. A rough guide to how long a planet has been industrialized is the number of
asteroids in its orbit.

Regarding the method of settlement, to begin with a central habitation chamber will
be hollowed out of the rock and the whole asteroid given a rotation to provide gravity.
Hydrocarbons are then processed to provide a habitable biosphere within the
chamber. Because of the cost of shipping in the necessary chemicals, scoutships will
always try and locate a metallic asteroid with a smear of hydrocarbons, usually left
over from a past collision with a carbonaceous chondritic asteroid.

As the population of an asteroid increases, and the metal ore reserves decline, so the
asteroid turns to manufacturing as its principal economic activity. In turn it will start