10-17-2008, 12:44 AM
(Before I forget about this again... I've mentioned a few times that Noah's waiting on Rockhounds to deliver a mined-out asteroid to Stellvia. Also, Fenian was wondering what Noah was going to do with two of the Jason's rosebushes. One bush is going into Noah's office, but the other... Well, read for yourselves, and please point out any obvious gaffes.)
====== Wonderland ======
Formerly known as [[gazetteer:companies:Rockhounds]' Space Rock #11, **Wonderland** is the single largest post-[[gazetteer:government:great_justice|OGJ] source of produce for station //[[ships:Stellvia]//.
===== History =====
"Earth is the only place you can get vegetables." - Alice (Arisa) Glennorth, //Uchuu no Stellvia//
As much as Noah Scott likes that particular anime, this one line from it always bothered him. Why not grow vegetables in space? He quickly found out how impractical it was to grow more than a token amount of food crops in the disused nooks and crannies on his station, but he never completely abandoned the idea.
Finally, in October 2013, [[gazetteer:companiestellvia_corporation#stellvia_trading|Stellvia Trading] took possession of Rockhounds' Space Rock #11. It was fully mined-out, with a maze of twisty little passages (all alike) throughout its body - ideal for widening and turning into huge caverns. His staff have enlarged the various chambers to the point that there are over two hundred acres of land available for cultivation, and handwaved the chambers so that they'd have earth-normal gravity and day-night cycles. Stellvia Trading also purchased topsoil from 'Daneside developers who were turning farmland into suburbs, and used it to turn the asteroid's barren rock into farmland.
In recognition of needing to go down "rabbit holes" to get to the farms and in honour of Alice, Noah re-named the asteroid //Wonderland// when he officially opened it on January 1, 2013.
===== What's Down the Rabbit-Hole? =====
Wonderland's largest chambers are usually devoted to grasses and similar plants; wheat, barley, quinoa, amaranth, rye, and maize are all in the collection to a greater or lesser degree. Smaller chambers hold beans, berries, edible flowers, and other vegetables - especially potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa beans, sugar beets, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and roses. (Although the large chambers sometimes grow beans and the smaller ones sometimes grow grasses; Mr. Freedman knows the importance of crop rotation.) And there's clover and beehives in all the farm chambers.
The smallest chambers are for long-term seed storage, short-term harvested food storage, dedicated agricultural experiments, compost and related storage (Wonderland takes most of //Stellvia//'s organic wastes for fertilizer), and residences.
Chambers with handwaved crops are carefully isolated, with independant life-support systems and no internal access to the rest of Wonderland. One of those carefully-isolated chambers holds a single Soul of the Earth rose bush, one beehive, and a selection of clover, grasses, and ornamental roses. Noah is running an experiment to determine whether, and how quickly, handwavium spreads through pollination from 'waved plants to unwaved plants.
Wonderland's chief agronomist, Jerry Freedman, doesn't believe in using GMOs; he can't bank their seeds and use them the next growing cycle, and the controlled climates of Wonderland don't have any unwanted pests. Some of the staff suggested using "heirloom" breeds of vegetables and berries for their subtly different flavours, so there are a variety of breeds for many of the local plants in the asteroid's seed banks.
The farm does its best to not compete directly with //[[ships:Babylon .5];// since that station is known for growing tropical fruits, Wonderland mostly stays out of that business.
===== Noteworthy Inhabitants =====
**Micheline Rouleau** is Wonderland's chief administrator. Hired away from Air France, she spends her time directing traffic and pushing paper, rarely even visiting the farms.
**Jerry Freedman** is the asteroid's chief agronomist. An old Kentucky boy who was happy to move to space permanently, he puts his agriculture degree to good use, ensuring Wonderland's ecosystems don't go off-kilter.
**Lea Meadows** is Wonderland's chief apiarist. This ex-pat Canadian from southern Ontario keeps the bees happy, and the honey and beeswax supply flowing from Wonderland to //Stellvia.// She's obviously biomodded, with short antenna that pick up subtle changes in wind direction and air pressure (and make it impossible for her to wear a mass-produced spacesuit).
**Sergy Gudanov** is the facility's doctor. He makes his services available to the other L5 habitats when he isn't needed on Wonderland. Born and raised in Moscow, Dr. Gudanov didn't realize the folly of putting a half-acre (the entirety of one of the isolated chambers) of [[gazetteer:handwavium:handwavium_and_medical_technology|Blood Oranges] under cultivation; he's now happy to give them away, making Wonderland the largest supplier of Blood Oranges outside of the Jason himself after Operation Great Justice.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
====== Wonderland ======
Formerly known as [[gazetteer:companies:Rockhounds]' Space Rock #11, **Wonderland** is the single largest post-[[gazetteer:government:great_justice|OGJ] source of produce for station //[[ships:Stellvia]//.
===== History =====
"Earth is the only place you can get vegetables." - Alice (Arisa) Glennorth, //Uchuu no Stellvia//
As much as Noah Scott likes that particular anime, this one line from it always bothered him. Why not grow vegetables in space? He quickly found out how impractical it was to grow more than a token amount of food crops in the disused nooks and crannies on his station, but he never completely abandoned the idea.
Finally, in October 2013, [[gazetteer:companiestellvia_corporation#stellvia_trading|Stellvia Trading] took possession of Rockhounds' Space Rock #11. It was fully mined-out, with a maze of twisty little passages (all alike) throughout its body - ideal for widening and turning into huge caverns. His staff have enlarged the various chambers to the point that there are over two hundred acres of land available for cultivation, and handwaved the chambers so that they'd have earth-normal gravity and day-night cycles. Stellvia Trading also purchased topsoil from 'Daneside developers who were turning farmland into suburbs, and used it to turn the asteroid's barren rock into farmland.
In recognition of needing to go down "rabbit holes" to get to the farms and in honour of Alice, Noah re-named the asteroid //Wonderland// when he officially opened it on January 1, 2013.
===== What's Down the Rabbit-Hole? =====
Wonderland's largest chambers are usually devoted to grasses and similar plants; wheat, barley, quinoa, amaranth, rye, and maize are all in the collection to a greater or lesser degree. Smaller chambers hold beans, berries, edible flowers, and other vegetables - especially potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa beans, sugar beets, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and roses. (Although the large chambers sometimes grow beans and the smaller ones sometimes grow grasses; Mr. Freedman knows the importance of crop rotation.) And there's clover and beehives in all the farm chambers.
The smallest chambers are for long-term seed storage, short-term harvested food storage, dedicated agricultural experiments, compost and related storage (Wonderland takes most of //Stellvia//'s organic wastes for fertilizer), and residences.
Chambers with handwaved crops are carefully isolated, with independant life-support systems and no internal access to the rest of Wonderland. One of those carefully-isolated chambers holds a single Soul of the Earth rose bush, one beehive, and a selection of clover, grasses, and ornamental roses. Noah is running an experiment to determine whether, and how quickly, handwavium spreads through pollination from 'waved plants to unwaved plants.
Wonderland's chief agronomist, Jerry Freedman, doesn't believe in using GMOs; he can't bank their seeds and use them the next growing cycle, and the controlled climates of Wonderland don't have any unwanted pests. Some of the staff suggested using "heirloom" breeds of vegetables and berries for their subtly different flavours, so there are a variety of breeds for many of the local plants in the asteroid's seed banks.
The farm does its best to not compete directly with //[[ships:Babylon .5];// since that station is known for growing tropical fruits, Wonderland mostly stays out of that business.
===== Noteworthy Inhabitants =====
**Micheline Rouleau** is Wonderland's chief administrator. Hired away from Air France, she spends her time directing traffic and pushing paper, rarely even visiting the farms.
**Jerry Freedman** is the asteroid's chief agronomist. An old Kentucky boy who was happy to move to space permanently, he puts his agriculture degree to good use, ensuring Wonderland's ecosystems don't go off-kilter.
**Lea Meadows** is Wonderland's chief apiarist. This ex-pat Canadian from southern Ontario keeps the bees happy, and the honey and beeswax supply flowing from Wonderland to //Stellvia.// She's obviously biomodded, with short antenna that pick up subtle changes in wind direction and air pressure (and make it impossible for her to wear a mass-produced spacesuit).
**Sergy Gudanov** is the facility's doctor. He makes his services available to the other L5 habitats when he isn't needed on Wonderland. Born and raised in Moscow, Dr. Gudanov didn't realize the folly of putting a half-acre (the entirety of one of the isolated chambers) of [[gazetteer:handwavium:handwavium_and_medical_technology|Blood Oranges] under cultivation; he's now happy to give them away, making Wonderland the largest supplier of Blood Oranges outside of the Jason himself after Operation Great Justice.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012