User blog comment:Zathronas/Speculative Author - What's the deal with Salem?/@comment-10390252-20160218132739/@comment-10390252-20160218185056

Refined Dust is inactive beyond the atmosphere. I'm thinking that its energy comes from the interacting dust-based ecosphere; once you get too far from this energy flow, the Dust loses its potency.

It's sort of a technological catch-22. Dust has allowed the people of Remnant to short-cut to technology levels beyond Earth's early 21st Century. However, it is also a shackle as Dust energy only works close to the huge power generator of the subsurface raw dust reserves.