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Traveller Terraforming Questions

Started by jeff37923, June 11, 2021, 01:17:53 AM

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Pat

#15
June 12, 2021, 05:51:48 PM Last Edit: June 12, 2021, 05:54:26 PM by Pat
Quote from: Mishihari on June 12, 2021, 05:03:56 PM
Quote from: Dave R on June 12, 2021, 10:13:58 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on June 11, 2021, 10:27:22 PM
tailored microorganisms powered by sunlight that produce oxygen and reproduce exponentially...  Positing science that can produce such microorganisms, of course.

40-50% of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from algae. If you can get to liquid surface water it's easy.

Our algae involved on top of other organisms and had their organic material available.  The part I thought might be hard is making something that can live off existing inorganic material and sunlight if the world did not have life to begin with.  It seems like it should be possible with Traveller technology though.
Algae is at the base of the food chain and thus isn't heavily dependent on other organisms, there are plenty of extremophile microbes, and we have the technology today to alter genes (CRISPR). You could create something like a primordial soup, then add cyanobacteria (blue green algae). The oxygen crisis mentioned up thread is a thing, though. Oxygen is poison, and there might be a need for a succession of microbes with different degrees of oxygen tolerance. One set probably wouldn't be enough, which suggests a delicate process that requires continual monitoring and restocking.

S'mon

#16
June 15, 2021, 03:37:13 AM
Isaac Arthur has a lot of good well informed videos on this kind of thing, eg:



S'mon

#17
June 15, 2021, 03:42:27 AM
Quote from: jeff37923 on June 11, 2021, 10:52:32 AM
Now in 2021, with our discovery of exoplanets and deeper knowledge of astronomy, the vast number of Earthlike worlds doesn't seem as possible.

There seem to be planets around the vast majority of stars, and many planets in the habitable zones of stars. Major impediments include:

1. Most stars are red dwarfs, and most red dwarfs are unstable flare stars
2. Most planets don't have a significant electromagnetic field
3. Few, possibly extremely few, planets may have plate tectonics, which may be vital for habitability.

But the jury is still out on the frequency of life-supporting worlds, they could still be fairly common.

Spinachcat

#18
June 24, 2021, 12:04:28 AM
I don't see why the Imperium at Tech 15 (at least as defined by the LBBs) would not be able to terraform planets (not quickly), or at bare minimum, keep terraformed planets liveable.

Though, its notable how many Traveller planets are only semi-habitable, aka you need some level of survival gear to exist. Perhaps those planets are the ones where the Ancient's tech has started collapsing...or they're perfect atmospheres for some other race.
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