Mars has no coal and likely no oil

Creating and editing buildings and Commodities.
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Just Crazy Jim
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Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

It occurred to me as I was posting in this thread last night that, based on what we know, that being that Mars never had a Carboniferous Period and its liquid water on the surface was so short lived that it likely never had massive quantities of zooplankton in whatever seas it may have had, "Mars has no coal and (very) likely no oil".

Also to consider is the fact that with oxygen being relatively scarce in the atmosphere of Mars, even should they exist, fossil fuels would be rather difficult to exploit and a counterproductive effort on top of that.

That was as far as I made it with the thought, but I am left wondering what would replace these cargoes and industries in a Mars setting, even if in nothing more than a custom LNG file.

Any colonization effort of Mars (or any extrasolar planet orbiting α Centauri, β Centauri, Proxima Centauri, etc - the list of which keeps growing) would need water. But replacing "Oil" with "Water" would still leave us with an Oil Refinery and "Diesel" to deal with, so the end product "Diesel" would be a better choice to relabel "Water". But what to do with the Oil refinery and Oil? Maybe "Water Purification Plant" could replace "Oil Refinery", but I'm left pondering the replacements for "Oil Well" and "Oil". :?:

"Coal" is a bit easier. Replace "Coal" with "Minerals" and relabel the "Electric Plant" as "Atmospheric Plant" or "Terraforming Facility".

Also, in such a system, water would be too precious to use as the cooling agent in a thermonuclear power plant, so the current model for "Nuclear Power Plant" is a bit out of sorts. Assuming I went in the direction of a tokamak reactor, a new model would be simple enough to make. And a "Uranium Mine" could be relabeled "Centrifuge" (a nicely vague term) and its output relabeled as "Isotopes" (also a nicely vague term).

And very obviously, the house models would all need replaced. And the farms... which will be problematic. It would be easier with the animal farms since they don't have any trees associated with them.

And speaking of trees, what then to do with "Logs", "Pulpwood", "Lumber", "Furniture", "Logging Camp", "Lumber Mill". "Paper Mill" and "Furniture factory"? It's not even out of the oven yet and this layer cake already has too many layers... *!*!*!
"We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own."
-- François de La Rochefoucauld. Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales. 1665.
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Gumboots
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Re: Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

Why Mars? Pick another planet. One with more resources.
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Just Crazy Jim
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Re: Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

True, but as things stand currently, our options are 1. Mars. Unless we want to go all "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" in a magical universe where we manage to travel faster than the speed of light. And then, ever model and industry in the game is still an anachronism. :lol:
"We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own."
-- François de La Rochefoucauld. Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales. 1665.
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Gumboots
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Re: Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

I thought you were going all Duck Dodgers anyway. :mrgreen:
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Just Crazy Jim
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Re: Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

For the moment, in my fit of madness, even though I am going Duck Dodgers, a terrifying moment of reality passed over me. *!*!*!
"We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own."
-- François de La Rochefoucauld. Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales. 1665.
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Gumboots
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Re: Mars has no coal and likely no oil Unread post

Don't worry. I'm sure it'll pass.
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