Scarce raw material resources

[Maitrejeanthierry]

Scarce resources and the control thereof have always been a source of conflict, and therefore a great source of scenario inspiration, from sabotage to military intervention, or lobbying, industrial espionage, humanitarian actions and so on and on.

IYTU, what raw materials would these resources be ? Gas ? Oil ? Some sort of ore? I’m talking about strategic resources, scarce enough but also expensive and vital enough to warrant intervention by other systems and/or megacorps, or even possibly by higher levels of power such as The Imperium or the Sword Worlds, for instance.

Secondary question : IYTU, do you use real-world elements (Lanthanum...) and/or do you use made-up products such as Tibanna gas, Durandrium, Onnesium, Zucchai crystals or whatever ?

Ps: Zucchai crystals: I can't help but picturing either some kind of processed veggie dish or some kind of vaguely Italian confectionery. (Pardon the unrelated comment, I tend to do that a lot)

Thanks in advance

 

[Enoki]

Given what we have learned in the last few years about planets and stars I'd say one that easily is added to the game are metal rich and poor worlds. Basically, you can have systems that have an abundance of various metals while others have a severe shortage. Above iron (Fe) everything is relatively scarce as you only get many of those elements from super novae. Others like Technicium have a short half life so will only be present on a relatively few newer worlds. You could also have uncommon abundances in some locations of one or two elements or a world where extracting a particular element is particularly easy. This alone is going to cause some degree of trade between worlds.

One way to decide this is the star type(s) in the system. Those with M or D stars only are "metal poor." O and A are extremely rich. The others vary.

 

[BytePro]

In your first examples and your PS you gave significant potential answer to your own query.

Nature's own kitchen can create extremely complex, hard to reproduce 'raw materials' - ala oil.

As another aspect of stellar by products like Enoki mentioned - unique environmental conditions, including local radio-isotopes and inter-related biological (and/or pseudo-biological) systems could very well result in rare resources coveted to the point of inter-system wars...

 

[Limburger59]

Lanthanum would be a key raw material. Some radioactives too.

I would consider biologicals to be scarcer, thus prone to monopolies, black markets, industrial espionage, humanitarian actions, and government intervention. Think medicines made from rare plants or animals, aphrodisiacs, drugs (like tobacco in "Iceworld"), supercow meat ("Lone Star Planet"), monster blubber (Four-Day Planet), Tribbles, etc.

If you are unfamiliar with "Lone Star Planet", check out H. Beam Piper's books, available at no cost on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/. Piper's "Space Viking" includes diplomacy based on trading scarce raw materials.

 

[saundby]

Guano

 

[BytePro]

Crap ... that's a good one! :rofl:

 

[Enoki]

Lanthanum would be a key raw material. Some radioactives too.

I would consider biologicals to be scarcer, thus prone to monopolies, black markets, industrial espionage, humanitarian actions, and government intervention. Think medicines made from rare plants or animals, aphrodisiacs, drugs (like tobacco in "Iceworld"), supercow meat ("Lone Star Planet"), monster blubber (Four-Day Planet), Tribbles, etc.

If you are unfamiliar with "Lone Star Planet", check out H. Beam Piper's books, available at no cost on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/. Piper's "Space Viking" includes diplomacy based on trading scarce raw materials.

Biologicals could be transplanted depending on how adaptable they are. The Spanish conquistadors and explorers used to take pigs, horses, and cattle and let them go as they moved along. These animals would then breed where they were and provide future expeditions with animals for food and riding. Saipan and Tinian both had big cattle and pig populations this way. The Southeastern US has a serious feral pig problem.

So, if you have some examples or seed you can spread life pretty easy. What is hard to spread is some locally rare metal and you need to keep importing it from somewhere else.

Another might be basic building materials like cement. You need lime and that means you need water and calcium to create limestone. A near or completely waterless planet won't have the raw materials to make this. That means importing it.

 

[BytePro]

Seeds and samples may not be enough - the right conditions, especially for multi-stage life may need to be reproduced, especially in a sci-fi setting. Artificially reproducing environs can also be more cost prohibitive than transport at times.

 

[Enoki]

Seeds and samples may not be enough - the right conditions, especially for multi-stage life may need to be reproduced, especially in a sci-fi setting. Artificially reproducing environs can also be more cost prohibitive than transport at times.

I'd think that "quick and dirty" would be best assuming that you have reasonable conditions for life on a planet that otherwise doesn't have any or has very little. Dump a few hundred species on initially and hope for the best. Pick ones that should do well in the enviroment they will be in along with a few "sure" winners like algae or stromatlites.

 

[Carlobrand]

Biologicals could be transplanted depending on how adaptable they are. The Spanish conquistadors and explorers used to take pigs, horses, and cattle and let them go as they moved along.

Adaptability is indeed key. Some transplants do extraordinarily well - corn and potatos, for example. Some fail for subtle or not-so-subtle reasons. Some end up being major destructive pests - rabbits in Australia.

There are issues the Spanish never had to deal with - differences in the quality of light, gravity, specific atmospheric mixes - that might play a role in whether an animal pursues its instinctive breeding behavior or not, or whether a plant is able to fertilize and spread its seeds. The local flora may lack some essential nutrient a cow needs. It might not be able to endure a sheep's manner of foraging, leaving you with dead, denuded areas wherever your newly transplanted flocks wander.

I agree that biologicals have a lot of potential for scarcity. Even if you can manage to transplant it from World A to World B, there's no guarantee it will take on World C, D, and E - and if it's something very precious or popular and in high demand throughout the sector, successfully transplanting it on one or two other worlds may still not alleviate the scarcity problem. From potent anagathics and medicinals to uniquely flavored meats and exotic pelts and such, there's a lot of room for biologicals to throw out products that would have demand far beyond the ability of the ecosystem(s) to meet it, especially if it's an organism with rather finicky needs.

Other potentials include radioactives - which include a lot more than just the common uranium and such, there are quite a few other radioactives with a lot of uses in medicine and science - and certain rare or difficult to refine elements. Perhaps there's a heavy demand for tantalum in the far future.

 

[BytePro]

Well put.

Referring back to the OP's original post, I'd add that raw materials don't have to be rare to be the root of conflict. Strip mining on a habitable world and jumping material may just be more economical than canvasing a local asteroid belt, mining in near vacuum conditions and dealing with independently minded belters.

Likewise, environmentally devastating effects may be readily accepted if its in someone else's system - something that could result in inter-system war.

 

[Timerover51]

Adaptability is indeed key. Some transplants do extraordinarily well - corn and potatos, for example. Some fail for subtle or not-so-subtle reasons. Some end up being major destructive pests - rabbits in Australia.

There are issues the Spanish never had to deal with - differences in the quality of light, gravity, specific atmospheric mixes - that might play a role in whether an animal pursues its instinctive breeding behavior or not, or whether a plant is able to fertilize and spread its seeds. The local flora may lack some essential nutrient a cow needs. It might not be able to endure a sheep's manner of foraging, leaving you with dead, denuded areas wherever your newly transplanted flocks wander.

I agree that biologicals have a lot of potential for scarcity. Even if you can manage to transplant it from World A to World B, there's no guarantee it will take on World C, D, and E - and if it's something very precious or popular and in high demand throughout the sector, successfully transplanting it on one or two other worlds may still not alleviate the scarcity problem. From potent anagathics and medicinals to uniquely flavored meats and exotic pelts and such, there's a lot of room for biologicals to throw out products that would have demand far beyond the ability of the ecosystem(s) to meet it, especially if it's an organism with rather finicky needs.

Other potentials include radioactives - which include a lot more than just the common uranium and such, there are quite a few other radioactives with a lot of uses in medicine and science - and certain rare or difficult to refine elements. Perhaps there's a heavy demand for tantalum in the far future.

Short of finding a planet with naturally-occurring uranium reactors, which is theoretically possible, the only way to get radioactive isotopes is make them in a nuclear reactor, and then process them. That would dictate something like a Tech Level 5 or 6 world as a producer.

I normally go with with something like this from H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy for items for interstellar trade.

Ingots of gold and platinum and gadolinium. Furs and biochemicals and brandy. Perfumes that defied synthetic imitation; hardwoods no plastic could copy. Spices. And the steel coffer full of sunstones. Almost all luxury goods, the only really dependable commodities in interstellar trade.

And he had spoken of other things. Veldbeest meat, up seven per cent from last month, twenty per cent from last year, still in demand on a dozen planets unable to produce Terran-type foodstuffs. Grain, leather, lumber. And he had added a dozen more items to the lengthening list of what Zarathustra could now produce in adequate quantities and no longer needed to import. Not fishhooks and boot buckles, either—blasting explosives and propellants, contragravity-field generator parts, power tools, pharmaceuticals, synthetic textiles.

For additional luxury items, how much would seafood be worth if imported to a Desert World, or spices to a Water World? A Water World located near an Agricultural World might be very tempted to try a takeover to get a reliable food supply. The same would hold true for a Vacuum World or Asteroid Belt.

 

[BytePro]

Short of finding a planet with naturally-occurring uranium reactors, which is theoretically possible, the only way to get radioactive isotopes is make them in a nuclear reactor, and then process them. That would dictate something like a Tech Level 5 or 6 world as a producer.

Sorry - that is mistaken. We are surrounded by radioactive isotopes - there is no environ on our planet without them! (Over 50, IIRC.)

There are, in fact, several commercially important elements whose mining is hampered by the commonality of their radionuclides.

Now, in any abundance, those are of primordial and cosmogenic origin and ones above number 92 or so don't occur naturally on Earth (or long enough to be useful).

A planet with no magnetosphere in an active star forming and Nova region may have quite a bit.

But, in general, its not very hard to create radioactive isotopes (pretty common since the 1930s) - more about just getting fertile heavy isotopes for the more useful ones - so I don't overly consider this a likely choice for the OPs query, myself.

 

[Timerover51]

Sorry - that is mistaken. We are surrounded by radioactive isotopes - there is no environ on our planet without them! (Over 50, IIRC.)

There are, in fact, several commercially important elements whose mining is hampered by the commonality of their radionuclides.

Now, in any abundance, those are of primordial and cosmogenic origin and ones above number 92 or so don't occur naturally on Earth (or long enough to be useful).

A planet with no magnetosphere in an active star forming and Nova region may have quite a bit.

But, in general, its not very hard to create radioactive isotopes (pretty common since the 1930s) - more about just getting fertile heavy isotopes for the more useful ones - so I don't overly consider this a likely choice for the OPs query, myself.

I was thinking more of artificially created isotopes, such as Strontium-90, Cesium-137, used in some radioisotope thermal-electric generators, the various isotopes of Iodine, and Technetium-99, used in nuclear medicine treatment.

 

[Carlobrand]

I was thinking more of artificially created isotopes, such as Strontium-90, Cesium-137, used in some radioisotope thermal-electric generators, the various isotopes of Iodine, and Technetium-99, used in nuclear medicine treatment.

Those are indeed useful and arficially generated. Then there's naturally occurring radium (which actually saw more use before we realized how dangerous it was, but they're looking into it for some medical applications) and radon (a bit problematic in your basement - it occurs in the soil and can accumulate in a poorly ventilated environment - and used in medicine until they found they could make their own radioactives) and thorium (which has some interesting potential applications for energy production).

 

[Maitrejeanthierry]

1) Thanks for all the quick and interesting replies. Food for thoought, food for thought, actually much more than I initially expected when posting.

2) I especially like the whole biological/genetics suggestions. Quite original.

3) So, for some of you, oil would still warrant inclusion to the scarce highly strategic resources inventary?
Why not, but what for would this oil be needed? Surely not for internal combustion engines, at least not to the point of triggering hi-tech interplanetary intervention. Well it might work, profitwise I mean, if the target market would happen to be a very hi-pop (like in the billion range), lo-mid tech (4-5) world. What do those who suggested oil think?
Or else, oil might be needed for petrochemical processes, plastics, pharmaceuticals, whatever, but wouldn't other hi-tech subsitutes be available?
But which ones, though?

 

[Timerover51]

1) Thanks for all the quick and interesting replies. Food for thoought, food for thought, actually much more than I initially expected when posting.

2) I especially like the whole biological/genetics suggestions. Quite original.

3) So, for some of you, oil would still warrant inclusion to the scarce highly strategic resources inventary?
Why not, but what for would this oil be needed? Surely not for internal combustion engines, at least not to the point of triggering hi-tech interplanetary intervention. Well it might work, profitwise I mean, if the target market would happen to be a very hi-pop (like in the billion range), lo-mid tech (4-5) world. What do those who suggested oil think?
Or else, oil might be needed for petrochemical processes, plastics, pharmaceuticals, whatever, but wouldn't other hi-tech subsitutes be available?
But which ones, though?

I am not sure what you mean by hi-tech substitutes for oil and petrol-chemicals. To me, hi-tech means "manufactured" and "manufactured" normally means more expensive verses something that is naturally occurring. Nor am I so sure that internal combustion engines suddenly vanish after Tech Level 7 (assuming that is where we are now). The Traveller Book lists air rafts at 800,000 credits, available at Tech Level 8. That is about on par with a current private jet. How many of your average citizens are going to be able to buy an air raft? Oil is still going to be a valuable commodity.

 

[Limburger59]

3) So, for some of you, oil would still warrant inclusion to the scarce highly strategic resources inventary?
Why not, but what for would this oil be needed? Surely not for internal combustion engines, at least not to the point of triggering hi-tech interplanetary intervention. Well it might work, profitwise I mean, if the target market would happen to be a very hi-pop (like in the billion range), lo-mid tech (4-5) world. What do those who suggested oil think?
Or else, oil might be needed for petrochemical processes, plastics, pharmaceuticals, whatever, but wouldn't other hi-tech subsitutes be available?
But which ones, though?

To quote from The Graduate, "I just want to say one word to you...Plastics!"

 

[aramis]

To quote from The Graduate, "I just want to say one word to you...Plastics!"

Almost all current plastics can be synthesized from plants without needing petrochemicals. It's energy intensive in some cases due to needing to hit that intermediate state of petrochemicals, but generally, almost all can be made from plants.

 

[Timerover51]

Almost all current plastics can be synthesized from plants without needing petrochemicals. It's energy intensive in some cases due to needing to hit that intermediate state of petrochemicals, but generally, almost all can be made from plants.

I agree that most plastics can be made from planets, but on Desert Worlds, Vacuum and near-vacuum Worlds, and Asteroid Belts, plants are more likely going to be needed as food, and not chemical feedstock.