How big of a human population do you guys think a Halo ring would be able to support comfortably?
Probably the population of a few Major cities at least.
It’s hard to say without knowing exactly how much land area is covered in water, or mountain ranges etc. Also depends on what you consider comfortable.
The surface area of Alpha halo is 3,180,000 km^2
For a comparison, I’ll use Hong Kong as it is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet.
Hong Kong has a population density of 6,544 individuals/ per square kilometer.
So if Hong were the size of a halo ring it could hold a human population of 20,809,920,000. That is 20 billion, 809 million, 920 thousand.
This is a gross estimation and doesn’t take into account bodies of water and mountains as stated above. It also doesn’t take into account land that would be used to farm for food.
So if you consider Hong Kong a comfortable place to live than 20 billion is a good starting point.
so in other words, somewhere between 5 and 10 billion, while still maintaining an economically sound environment.
> so in other words, somewhere between 5 and 10 billion, while still maintaining an economically sound environment.
I’m not entirely convinced that it would have such a high carrying capacity - depending on who you talk to, earth on the here and now is above its carrying capacity - we’re essentially depleting the system faster than it can replenish.
In addition, highly dense population centers typically require a large area to feed that dense center - be it water or food.
In addition, you would need to know about seasons (do Halo rings have them?), soil quality (are there volcanoes to help replenish the soils?), are there fish? Are the fish sufficiently close to earth type fish to be edible by humans? Would the existing ecology support pollination?
On the assumption that the place was ‘earth like’ sufficiently to support humans, and the species of plant and animal we like to eat / use to keep our plants going, and given that the earth is approximately 160 times the surface area, I’d be arguing in the 10s of millions at most.
Well, united states as a country produces more than enough food to feed every human on earth and have some left over.
Earth may be 160 times greater in surface area but us as humans only cover a very small percentage of that. For instance, astronomers say that numerous amounts of meteorites hit earths surface everyday, we just dont hear about them because they go unnoticed.
someone did the math and every human could live in the state of Texas if it was developed to resemble New York City. We would just have to use surrounding land for farming and resource development. This would also be less taxing on resources since everybody is closer together.
Texas has a surface area of 694,241 km^2 and can in theory hold a population of 7 billion humans. The surface area of a ring is 3,180,000 km^2. Even India has a population of over a billion and its a lot smaller than a halo ring.
Humanity has also been said to be able to demonstrate basic terraforming capabilities so they would be able to convert the ecosystem and environment to suit their needs.
I dont think a ring could sustain a human population of billions in the double digits though.