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[helmacon]

Colony Ship

   In the year 2205, the remaining powers of old earth were faced with their imminent demise. The planet had deteriorated beyond a point from which we could stabilize. Seeing the end of all they had fought for, they managed to put aside their differences and unify at last to work for the good of humanity and it's future. They built a massive colony ship in orbit, the last hope for mankind. A grand structure of dark steel and shining solar panels, representing the very peak of human achievement in it's architecture and technology. 

You are the grand council to which the ships operation has been entrusted until such time as it can find a new home for those aboard. Choose wisely, least all of humanity perish from you hands.

Based loosly on the game SeedShip by John Ayliff.


Each member of the council is a representative of one of the communities living within the colony ship. When joining, please describe weather your community is primarily Militant, Scientific, or Cultural because the distribution of the population in the ship will effect the opportunities, events, and actions that are available to you.


You have arrived at the first prospective planet as identified by observatories on old earth.

This planet has

Earth like Gravity*
Moderate Temperatures*
An actively toxic atmosphere *
A biosphere of microorganisms*
All necessary resources, in small amounts.*

It is up to you to decide if the colony should settle here, or move on to another star system.

[Glass]

Scientific community, thank you.

What kind of atmosphere protective technology do we have? Regarding the biosphere, do we have any of our own plants, animals, and bacteria on board?

Also, huh, it seems like I'm the first person to see this. Cool!

(Some clarification: since the biosphere is presently extremely primitive, we can basically overwrite it with our own stuff if we have it. Furthermore, by doing so, we'd directly contribute to fixing up the atmosphere for human respiration.
That said, that's also dependent on what the atmosphere is. So: )
Do we also know how the atmosphere is toxic? What specific elements are causing the issue?

[IronyOwl]

Cultural

Keep moving. "Small amounts" of all necessary resources are not going to let us overcome a bacteria-only biosphere and the need for complete atmospheric sealing and production.

[wierd]

(small beef; It always bothers me that these seed ship games never explore the rest of a system, only the target planet. In our own system, we have planets with enough sulfur to gag even a sulfur-cycle organism, planets with nearly pure methane atmospheres, moons with subterene oceans, etc. "Viable habitat" should include the neighborhood. )

[Glass]

(small beef; It always bothers me that these seed ship games never explore the rest of a system, only the target planet. In our own system, we have planets with enough sulfur to gag even a sulfur-cycle organism, planets with nearly pure methane atmospheres, moons with subterene oceans, etc. "Viable habitat" should include the neighborhood. )

Presumably, it's looking at the best planet it can in the system.

[IronyOwl]

The game itself is also pretty simple and deterministic in terms of what counts as habitable or not. You can't build underwater domes in shallow seas, suffer food shortages under a dim star, genetically engineer your people to endure cold, etc etc. Most fields are entirely static and one-dimensional in their effects.

[ZBridges]

Militant

Nope.

[wierd]

SCIENTIFIC

No to colonization. Samples of atmosphere and microbiotic life should be taken for study. Nature is full of surprises, and learning how these organisms thrive in a toxic environment may be useful. Water and soil collection also if possible. More detailed analysis of hydropshere and lithosphere of the planet may prove beneficial in screening future potential colony world candidates.

Planet coordinates should be retained in database. If possible, monitoring probe satellite should be placed in orbit.

[Shadowclaw777]

Militant

This seems like a clear case of a nope planet, and we can only gain research on how the organisms survive in this environment, the most important thing we need is a breathable atmosphere before we factor in biospheres or resource levels

[ZBridges]

Militant

SCIENTIFIC

No to colonization. Samples of atmosphere and microbiotic life should be taken for study. Nature is full of surprises, and learning how these organisms thrive in a toxic environment may be useful. Water and soil collection also if possible. More detailed analysis of hydropshere and lithosphere of the planet may prove beneficial in screening future potential colony world candidates.

Planet coordinates should be retained in database. If possible, monitoring probe satellite should be placed in orbit.

If samples of alien microbiotic life are brought aboard the ship, what is the likelihood of a containment breach?  In such a scenario, what sort of impediment to the mission might such a breach cause?

[wierd]

The environment of our ship is likely as hostile as that atmosphere is to us.

[Glass]

The environment of our ship is likely as hostile as that atmosphere is to us.

Exactly.
The thing about life is that it evolves to its environment. If this stuff is surviving in an atmosphere that's toxic to us, then it's most likely that our air is toxic right back. And if it's not, hey, that still valuable information.

[wierd]

(small beef; It always bothers me that these seed ship games never explore the rest of a system, only the target planet. In our own system, we have planets with enough sulfur to gag even a sulfur-cycle organism, planets with nearly pure methane atmospheres, moons with subterene oceans, etc. "Viable habitat" should include the neighborhood. )

Presumably, it's looking at the best planet it can in the system.

I was meaning-- Say we find a planet like venus. Its a hothouse, with a sulfuric acid atmosphere, low hydrogen content (other than as incorporated in the acid), possibly low metalicity planet.  It's in the habitable zone, but very inhosipitable to life.  Astroengineering to sunshade the planet, coupled with aggressive microbe seeding could clear the atmosphere and cool the surface enough to useful exploration and utilization industrially.   However; Elsewhere in the area is a planet like mars, with a depleted atmosphere, but with carbonate mineral rocks and frozen subsurface water. It's on the far end of the habitable zone. Astroenginnering with an array of mirrors could increase incident light levels sufficiently to melt the subsurface water, and-- coupled with atmospheric harvesting from the venus like planet, the atmosphere could be plumped.

Each in their own right is a hard NO to colonization.  As a neighborhood, it becomes hard but possible.  It always bothered me that these games never explore the neighborhood.

[Glass]

(small beef; It always bothers me that these seed ship games never explore the rest of a system, only the target planet. In our own system, we have planets with enough sulfur to gag even a sulfur-cycle organism, planets with nearly pure methane atmospheres, moons with subterene oceans, etc. "Viable habitat" should include the neighborhood. )

Presumably, it's looking at the best planet it can in the system.

I was meaning-- Say we find a planet like venus. Its a hothouse, with a sulfuric acid atmosphere, low hydrogen content (other than as incorporated in the acid), possibly low metalicity planet.  It's in the habitable zone, but very inhosipitable to life.  Astroengineering to sunshade the planet, coupled with aggressive microbe seeding could clear the atmosphere and cool the surface enough to useful exploration and utilization industrially.   However; Elsewhere in the area is a planet like mars, with a depleted atmosphere, but with carbonate mineral rocks and frozen subsurface water. It's on the far end of the habitable zone. Astroenginnering with an array of mirrors could increase incident light levels sufficiently to melt the subsurface water, and-- coupled with atmospheric harvesting from the venus like planet, the atmosphere could be plumped.

Each in their own right is a hard NO to colonization.  As a neighborhood, it becomes hard but possible.  It always bothered me that these games never explore the neighborhood.

Ah, hmn. I hadn't considered that.
Fair.

[VoidSlayer]

Cultural

If the planet was simply unbreathable or had more resources I would say yes.  That gravity mmmm yes.  Hard to dance in a pressure bed.  But keeping toxins out always seems harder then keeping air in.

Microorganisms give me pause also.  A fully developed ecosystem would be great but just enough bugs to maybe decide eating us is good but no funny birds to watch?  Pass.

As an aside, just because microorganisms didn't evolve beside us doesn't mean some of them might not decide we are fun places to live and bypass our immune system.  That said I would support bringing samples on board, I trust our science team is skilled enough to not drop beakers.