How Can 2 Trillion People Survive on a Concrete Planet?

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Coruscant has a population of over 2 trillion souls, this is a planet with no vegetation, no oceans, no nature. How can so many living beings survive on a planet with no natural ecosystem?

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[GenerationTech]

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- Special ends November 30th.

[Scottington]

I love that George Lucas simply said 'This whole planet is one big city' and the collective fandom set about thinking of ways that's possible and the problems with it.

[Swonestone]

Unexplainable things in Star Wars.
-most atmosphere have breathable air for most sapient species.
-gravity is almost the same in all planets no matter the size(Think Mandalore and it’s moon)
-coruscant somehow hasn’t fallen apart and it’s foundation hasn’t been damaged.

[ItsAVolcano]

Videos like this remind me of a longstanding description in Legends about modern Coruscant on how the planet imports everything and at this point only exports laws and people (in the form of bureaucrats and soldiers). Coruscant basically can only exist as the head of a galactic government, as its infrastructure needs are so ludicrous.

[QuantumAscension]

Just a note on the air pressure thing, while the "surface" of Coruscant might be 7, 300+ meters above it's original sea level, even with planetary characteristics identical to Earth, the pressure would be considerably higher at that altitude. On Earth, almost everything between sea-level and Mount-Everest altitude is open-space for air to disperse evenly, but on Coruscant you have to factor in all of the artificial materials that take up volume between the original surface and artificial one we see in the movies/shows. Just like a ship displaces a certain amount of water when it floats, all of that accumulated building material displaces the air upwards.

[thesatiratician]

In "The Old Republic", the MMO, I remember a few quests on the deep levels on Coruscant, there was an old engineer who treated "The Great Machines" underneath almost like gods, because they where responsible for keeping everyone on the planet alive, there are huge, ancient, very elaborate machines constantly producing oxygen and power.

[mr.boomguy]

Durasteel must be one heck of a metal to last for thausands of years. I've long been wondering how the lowest levels that Corosant's buildings where build on hasn't collapsed yet, from either rust or corrosion

[vision-of-dog]

Coruscant probably has a thicker atmosphere than Earth. With planetary shields in place, it wouldn't be surprising if they could boost the planet's magnetic field to help it retain more atmosphere. Also, they could use a technology similar to what they use in those open hangar doors to maintain uniform pressure at all levels.

[DamonNomad]

11:39 I can confirm this statement about those who grow up at high altitudes. My grandfather was born in Tibet and lived there until the age of 11. When his family moved to the US, he could hold his breath for about 3 times as long as any of the other kids in his school, as he was used to much lower levels of oxygen than they were.

[GoranXII]

That level of development is insane given the stated population. 2 trillion inhabitants squeezed down to just the _land area_ of Earth would still be less dense than Macau or Monaco (13, 428 people/km^2, vs, ~21, 000 or ~18, 000 respectively)! So yes, you could fit the entire population of Coruscant on just 64% of Earth's land area, only using terrestrial building methods. You also have to contend with the waste heat issue.

[dianabarnett]

Honestly, the sheer scope of Coruscant, the engineering and logistical mastery it would take to build and maintain such a planetary city, inspires a bit of existential terror in me.

[wipplewopple]

I recently heard a theory that Coruscant was not only built up, but also built down. Because of the canonical number of levels, the people living in the upper levels would necessarily be living in drastically different (almost uninhabitable) pressures and oxygen levels.

[mikiroony]

This issue is actually covered extensively in Asimov's Foundation, which had the same problem for Trantor, and to an extense Warhammer 40k's Holy Terra. Many agro planets provide for them, I guess.

[Brazbit]

A ecumenopolis, like Coruscant, is an interesting thought experiment. The story Rogue Planet starts with an interesting look at the Garbage disposal process on the planet works, specifically the Wiko district garbage pit. That alone showed what an elaborate system was required for one of the most basic services.

[hirotashi]

I'm a produce manager at a grocery store and how little people think of me makes me sad everyday. The amount of strings I have to pull to get people their fresh food every single day is staggering. And all I would like is a little appreciation.

Thank you Alan for mentioning it.

[followerofthemantle]

As someone who works in retail, the amount of people who don't understand how logistics works and just think we have crates of stuff in the back or just have the stuff to make whatever they want back there is just... mind boggling. Can't imagine what it would be like on Coruscant.

[darwinskeeper]

This engineer has mixed feelings regarding Coruscant. I can't help but be impressed by the infrastructure that allows this planetwide city to support far more life than any naturel world could. There's also the realization that this world is always on the edge. It just takes a few things to go wrong before it falls apart. An extended failure of the electrical grid could shut down the life support systems that allows over a trillion people to breathe. A failure of the planet's plumbing could lead to water shortages and sewage backups. The city would have to have redundant systems, emergency protocols and an army of maintenance droids to handle malfunctions quickly. Otherwise, there is no way that it could have remained habitable for as long as canon claims that it has.

[chrisbonner]

I would consider how a revolving door works in a skyscraper. Regulate the warm air to pressurize the upper atmosphere on a huge scale.

[mithrillis]

Actually I think for a fully built-up planet, overheating rather than cold temperature would be the greatest challenge, even if the planet itself is "naturally" cold. All the energies used to power the entire civilisation would end up being heat on the surface, far more than natural heat radiation can get rid of. Every other problem you have can pretty much be solved with "use more energy", but this energy must go somewhere. I'd imagine a planet like Coruscant would need numerous heat dissipation towers sticking out of the atmosphere to prevent the surface from becoming a furnace.

[raymondalexander]

If the SWTOR game is cannon, there is a quest line for the republic characters that states that the basic living systems on the planet of Coruscant was originally created by the Gree species.