So this got a little out of hand, but I was curious in running an estimate on how much Venusian Tib would cost. So here it is.
Mining Tiberium on Venus is a very long term project that will require several steps.
We need interplanetary transportation infrastructure to deliver the industrial quantities of machines and equipment for the operation. We need tib harvesting equipment and tib refineries (I'm assuming no one is considering shipping industrial amounts of tib back to Earth). Local transportation infrastructure from the mines to the processors to orbit. The living quarters for those working on site to prevent light lag from causing accidents. The starport to receive and deliver goods and manufacturing facilities for local goods. Hydroponics sections to feed those present, and enough power to run everything. Lets take each of these piece by piece and see what is needed for them to be accomplished.
Interplanetary Transportation. This means either industrial large, long term portals, which we have not developed even the prototype of a proof of concept for, or it means lots of space ships, ie the Conestoga Class. In order to build the Conestoga Class we need to develop it, which is 1 die and 30 R, then we will need the shipyards to mass produce it. I don't know if those will be a Bay on the Enterprise or if it will be a different station. In either case that is more than 2000 progress >23 dice 460 R. This of course assumes the Conestoga can function as a transport, which is not guaranteed as its description says its a revised Pathfinder. In fact it is highly likely that we will have a further space ship development as the Conestoga is certainly not designed to transport large numbers of people.
Interplanetary Transportation Total: 24 dice and 490 R minimum. Likely far more.
Tiberium Harvesting. The Venusian Tib is described as one massive Red Zone glacier if I recall correctly. So I will operate on the assumption that the combinator Red Zone Harvesting/Tiberium Glacier Mines projects are applicable here. Each paired project provides 2 mitigation on Earth and costs 310 Progress total, at 30 R per die. I am taking the higher number and writing the 5 R difference from RZ Harvesting as costs of doing stuff on
Hell Venus. I will be operating under the assumption of 310 progress at 30 RpD providing 2 mitigation and 65 RpT on average. Also operating on the assumption that we want a minimum of 50 mitigation to ensure the Venusian patch does not continue to grow. Those assumptions combine to a total of 7750 progress, 87 dice and 2610 R. It would provide on average 1625 RpT, which as operations spool up would defray some costs. Additionally the Harvesting would cost 125 Logistics.
Harvesting Total: 87 dice and 2610 R.
Tiberium Processing. Since our estimate for our harvesting gives an output of 1625 RpT we need enough processing to handle that. Each tib processing plant would cost 200 progress at 30 RpD and give 600 Processing. This means we would need a minimum of 3 processing plants. Or 600 Progress, 7 dice, and 210 R. It also takes power and logistics to run these to the order of 12 Energy and 9 Logistics.
Processing Total: 7 dice and 210 R.
Local Transportation. Due to the size of the Venusian tib patch, the likelihood of using aerostatic or orbital habitats for the colonists, the need for transportation to Venusian orbit, I'm going to use suborbital shuttles phase 3 as a model for producing logistics on Venus. 200 Progress, 25 RpD for 8 Logistics, with the required 134 Logistics yields: 3400 Progress, 41 dice, and 1025 R.
Local Transportation Total: 41 dice and 1025 R.
Colony. First in order to prove the viability of a Venusian Colony and gain experience in keeping large number of people continuously in isolated facilities. That means completing Columbia, 2160 Progress, 33 dice and 660 R. Our choices for where the colonists are going to live are either in aerostats or in orbit, living on the surface of
Hell Venus is non viable even before the tib started spreading on the surface. For the aerostats they may be tethered to orbit, to the surface, both, or free floating. The first would almost certainly require an orbital ring as aphroditostationary orbit is 117 times the radius of Venus (geostationary is 6.6 times Earths Orbit for reference), this is due to how slow Venus rotates. Free floating is not desired as we would want Taibai* Station to be roughly stationary over the tib patch for logistics easing if it was in the atmosphere. Being tethered to the ground is possible, but it would have to be tethered well outside of the Tib patch to prevent tib contamination on the tethers. In orbit Taibai essentially would be a duplicate Columbia. It is also possible that a combination of areostats and orbital habitats would be used. For simplicities sake, I am going to operate on the assumption that Taibai is orbital and is a duplicate of the cost of Columbia.
Colony Total: 66 dice and 1320 R.
Starport/Manufacturing. I am going to assume this is a duplicate of Enterprise (~3000 Progress) in orbit of Venus with an interplanetary transport bay. This means it would double as a manufacturing hub for local use and a storage depot in between shipments.
Starport/Manufacturing Total: 37 dice and 740 R.
Hydroponics. This would first need Shala complete (2160 Progress, 33 dice, and 660 R) followed by a smaller facility either as an add-on to Taibai or a stand alone station in Venusian orbit. Either way I will assume that an equivalent to Phase 1-3 of Shala would be built (580, 7 dice, and 140 R)
Hydroponics Total: 40 dice and 880 R.
Power. We currently do not know the progress cost and power output of Orbital Power Stations, which will be unlocked when we complete Orbital Clean Up Stage 11. However that or Fusion will be what will power Taibai. The power needs should be manageable to one set of Fusion Plants or the equivalent, 300 Progress at 20 RpD for 16 Energy.
Power Total: 4 dice and 80 R.
Total: 306 dice, 7355 R. R wise that is about one year of output by the entire GDI. Dice wise assuming Orbital and Tib dice were applicable and we used all our free dice that is just under 4 years of dice.
*If you will excuse the indulgence of picking a name so I'm not constantly saying the Venusian Colony.
Taibai Jinxing is the name for Venus in Chinese Astronomy.
