Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Upsilon Andromedae Space Program

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Is this a human species? Did they evolve in caves or in water or on land?

Well... Complex question.

The species is "humanoid" if you will, since I can't afford to recode UMMU and every single add-on used just to have a whole new physiology. They look pretty much like us in terms of physiology, although a different skin color or change to the way they look would be cool as well. (I have no idea what to do though)

As far as their origins, I would have to say underwater. The moon that they live on is moderately terrestrial at the moment, but it has extensive polar ice caps, which would make me suspect that it might be very Europa-like at various points in its history.

 

[fsci123]

Well... Complex question.

The species is "humanoid" if you will, since I can't afford to recode UMMU and every single add-on used just to have a whole new physiology. They look pretty much like us in terms of physiology, although a different skin color or change to the way they look would be cool as well. (I have no idea what to do though)

As far as their origins, I would have to say underwater. The moon that they live on is moderately terrestrial at the moment, but it has extensive polar ice caps, which would make me suspect that it might be very Europa-like at various points in its history.

I would recommend you consider a crab or lobster like appearance. Im going to offer just a simple history based on your info:

This species developed civilization under water in proximity to underwater hot-spots(caused by tidal flexing of course). It took them thousands of years before an underwater community reached their equivalent of their industrial revolution. This species' scientists were able to gather evidence of a low pressure expanse above their heads(air and space). Blah. Blah. Blah. They slowly colonize land. Blah. Blah. Blah. They discover more oceans, they discover that their planet is a moon orbiting a ball of gas, and they discover that there is a Europa like moon. A few hundred years later several of the now independent surface colonies start launching probes to colonize that europa like moon mentioned earlier.

You could explore how difficult it was for them to develop water filled environments on the surface and in space. You could invent some myths about how they believe that some advanced civ lies under the ice of this europa like moon.

 

[APDAF]

Space Dwarves, need I say more?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Space Dwarves, need I say more?

:rofl:

I would recommend you consider a crab or lobster like appearance. Im going to offer just a simple history based on your info:

This species developed civilization under water in proximity to underwater hot-spots(caused by tidal flexing of course). It took them thousands of years before an underwater community reached their equivalent of their industrial revolution. This species' scientists were able to gather evidence of a low pressure expanse above their heads(air and space). Blah. Blah. Blah. They slowly colonize land. Blah. Blah. Blah. They discover more oceans, they discover that their planet is a moon orbiting a ball of gas, and they discover that there is a Europa like moon. A few hundred years later several of the now independent surface colonies start launching probes to colonize that europa like moon mentioned earlier.

You could explore how difficult it was for them to develop water filled environments on the surface and in space. You could invent some myths about how they believe that some advanced civ lies under the ice of this europa like moon.

Ahhh, that would be interesting, but not really feasible for a couple of reasons. UMMU is hard coded to human physiology, or at least close, as is IMS, the XR fleet, and just about every other add-on I might use. The other issue would be practical in nature; I don't think it would be feasible to launch water-filled habitats into orbit around Ups And DI, or at least not feasible in our current understanding of ways to go to space.

Even if they are amphibious, I would suspect that their environmental needs would still be difficult to meet in space. If the skin needs to be moist, that would be pretty tricky to do in orbit all of the time.

So in general, I think their physiology would have to be pretty much like ours. This is also related to how they would develop a technical society; why would a species that lives exclusively underwater develop such unusually high-end brain capacity, or tools for that matter?

I like the part about the "moon stories". One interesting direction that could take would be claims that a "greater/wiser species" lives under the ice, along with all of the implications that brings, or just the plain old search for ET.

 

[fsci123]

The other issue would be practical in nature; I don't think it would be feasible to launch water-filled habitats into orbit around Ups And DI, or at least not feasible in our current understanding of ways to go to space.

Even if they are amphibious, I would suspect that their environmental needs would still be difficult to meet in space. If the skin needs to be moist, that would be pretty tricky to do in orbit all of the time.

Even if they are amphibious, I would suspect that their environmental needs would still be difficult to meet in space. If the skin needs to be moist, that would be pretty tricky to do in orbit all of the time.

It would be interesting to see that a space shuttle sized craft on this world can only hold at most 1 person...

I like the part about the "moon stories". One interesting direction that could take would be claims that a "greater/wiser species" lives under the ice, along with all of the implications that brings, or just the plain old search for ET.

My only version of the Ups A addon is so heavily modified by me that i have no clear picture of how the original system functions. Do stable orbits exist around DI? How would that tie into any hard scifi story line. Maybe increased use of electro-magnetic propulsion. There could be orbits that allow a craft to dip into a plasma torus and accelerate maybe to another planetary system or some sort of far out moon or even an asteroid...

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

It would be interesting to see that a space shuttle sized craft on this world can only hold at most 1 person...

Well give me a few days in order to get the launcher working. Once that is working I should be able to deliver a mostly fueled XR2 to orbit

My only version of the Ups A addon is so heavily modified by me that i have no clear picture of how the original system functions. Do stable orbits exist around DI? How would that tie into any hard scifi story line. Maybe increased use of electro-magnetic propulsion. There could be orbits that allow a craft to dip into a plasma torus and accelerate maybe to another planetary system or some sort of far out moon or even an asteroid...

Ahh, as best as I can tell, low orbits around Ups And DI are stable enough, but less so than the Earth orbit environment. Ups And DIII makes occasional retrograde passes at fairly close range which I think should really mess with any satellites/space stations.

Can you explain the plasma torus thing again for me? From what I do understand about those, there needs to be a source of material from within a moon system that feeds the radiation belts. In the Jupiter case, Io is the contributor to the Jovian torus, but Upsilon Andromedae D has no comparable planet to Io available.

Out of curiosity, what exactly did you do to your copy of the system?

 

[fsci123]

Can you explain the plasma torus thing again for me? From what I do understand about those, there needs to be a source of material from within a moon system that feeds the radiation belts. In the Jupiter case, Io is the contributor to the Jovian torus, but Upsilon Andromedae D has no comparable planet to Io available.

Yeah i think that sulfur from Ios volcanoes feeds the torus with neutral material and UV rays convert the gas into hot ions which start streaming around Jupiter.

Out of curiosity, what exactly did you do to your copy of the system?

I moved D1 out further. Added some moons including an Io like body(which is why i thought it was included already) and some asteroids.