epicenter wrote:
There's usually some bone fragments remaining (I suspect intentionally), and these are put into an urn which is then interred
Ah, no. The bone fragments are a feature of Western cremations too. It's just that the crematorium then thoughtfully puts your loved one's fragments through a bone grinder to reduce them to the same consistency as the rest of the ash.
I'd forgotten the diamonds thing. I can see a culture developing a habit of doing that - family heirlooms with a difference. Thanks.
Quote:
Unless the space station is in deep space far from any system,
the planets of the system - even if only rockballs - will almost
certainly provide all the elements required to enable the stati-
on's life support system to produce a sufficient amount of bio-
mass in bacteria tanks or algae tanks to replace the lost bio-
mass of a deceased member of the station's population (other-
wise any pregnancy of a female inhabitant of the station would
have to be aborted because the station's life support system
would be unable to produce the additional biomass of the gro-
wing child ...).
Actually, I'd say that a lot of space stations might have to have population control, because they are (compared to planets) very small and will have a maximum biomass that they can support. Unless the engineers who designed a station are bonkers, there will be plenty reserve capacity in the system though - so that if a ship of 500 crew stops off for shore leave, the station life support won't notice. But if all those 500 crew decide to stay and have 5 children, who then have 5 children of their own, and so on, then at some point the system will be unable to cope. If everyone is living 6 to a room before that happens, however, then they are more likely to move to another station than to breed the life support into collapse.