comet colonies
- Thread starter BwapTED
- Start date
Cometary commentary
I would think that Fusion power (TL8+) and a large enough comet would be all that was needed. The comet would provide sufficient water for all the colony's energy and life support needs, assuming the colony was not allowed to grow so large as to outstrip the comet's resources. The real question, I would think, would be what would the purpose of the colony be? There would probably be little in the way of mineral resources there, or other resources (besides water) to exploit. If the 'colony' were instead a research station or some other kind of base (military, refueling, etc.) then it would make sense. But to just have it be a place for a civilization to dwell, I don't think it would be very useful except in the most dire of circumstances, i.e. a last resort if nothing else is available.
I would think that Fusion power (TL8+) and a large enough comet would be all that was needed. The comet would provide sufficient water for all the colony's energy and life support needs, assuming the colony was not allowed to grow so large as to outstrip the comet's resources. The real question, I would think, would be what would the purpose of the colony be? There would probably be little in the way of mineral resources there, or other resources (besides water) to exploit. If the 'colony' were instead a research station or some other kind of base (military, refueling, etc.) then it would make sense. But to just have it be a place for a civilization to dwell, I don't think it would be very useful except in the most dire of circumstances, i.e. a last resort if nothing else is available.
Plus the whole "and don't forget we're plunging in the Sun sometime in the future" part. Why not better camp on a rock in the asteroid belt.
That said, there's someone, flykiller perhaps? who spends a lot of time in the Oort cloud, so he may have some insight for you.
TL8, fusion, cold-sleep, but no gravitics...
A near pass of a long-period comet gets exploited by the inner-system homeworld: they install a moth-balled base with the capability for rotational 'gravity', a fusion plant, provisions, and science equipment to be used by the team, who will travel in cryoberths and be awakened when the comet reaches apoapsis in the Oort cloud. The cryoberths are powered by an independent RTG.
The research team (large enough to absorb attrition from long-term cryosleep) are all, effectively, time travellers, hibernating for hundreds (thousands?) of years from the inner system to the Oort cloud, and then back.
Has their civilization gained FTL travel while they slept, and the mission forgotten? Has their civilization collapsed, to be replaced by another one? What were they searching for out there? What did they find?
A near pass of a long-period comet gets exploited by the inner-system homeworld: they install a moth-balled base with the capability for rotational 'gravity', a fusion plant, provisions, and science equipment to be used by the team, who will travel in cryoberths and be awakened when the comet reaches apoapsis in the Oort cloud. The cryoberths are powered by an independent RTG.
The research team (large enough to absorb attrition from long-term cryosleep) are all, effectively, time travellers, hibernating for hundreds (thousands?) of years from the inner system to the Oort cloud, and then back.
Has their civilization gained FTL travel while they slept, and the mission forgotten? Has their civilization collapsed, to be replaced by another one? What were they searching for out there? What did they find?
Great stuff!
I've saved my other notes for a more conventional asteroid/planetoid complex.
To what end? What are they doing when they wake up? And is the data really worth the impact on the lives of the crew in contrast to long term robotic missions? Because this crew is effectively "dead" to everyone but themselves.
(Assuming they don't go mad from isolation etc and murder each other when they wake up thousands of years later.)
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
"Heart of the Comet", by Benford and Brin, might have some useful insights. In this case, the mission was to steer the comet to a near-Earth parking orbit for exploitation. As is the way of these things, the mission changed...
The same book also briefly discusses the idea of vacc suit heraldry.
The same book also briefly discusses the idea of vacc suit heraldry.
BackworldTraveller
SOC-13
Less like Heraldry more like Gang Tags...Which I suppose is basically where Heraldry came from - those Norman gang leaders have a lot to answer for!
If you're at tech 9+ then you could install an M-Drive and maneuver the comet into a more or less circular orbit outside the snow line of a solar system (so it isn't sublimated by the star) to be used for refueling. I could imagine a whole industry of belters arising that make a living doing this in systems that do not have other easily available sources of fuel, i.e. no Gas Giants, Oceans, or advanced starports. When the comet gets close to being used up it's time to go capture another one.
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GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Spoken like a true Saxon.
The version in Heart amounts to suit art, be it Fine Art like the classics or looking like a walking flag, that was entirely up to the owner. If your crew was all suited up and one walked past you displaying the Mona Lisa, you knew that was Ensign Soandso.
All good questions and observations, with many possible answers. Installing a very large radio telescope array. Investigating a mystery only hinted at by anomalous measurements recorded from within the inner system. Doing proof-of-concept testing for a larger scale NAFAL generation ship trip to a nearby system. Maybe they're convicts, offered this as an alternative to life incarceration, "adjustment", or capital punishment. And who says they DON'T kill each other?
All of this is for the PCs to ascertain when they investigate the rogue object they find in or near the Oort cloud.
Possibly one of the Traveller-universe reasons would be to provide fuel, perhaps refined fuel, taken from cometary ice and processed on site. A ship needing to refuel and only passing through the system would not need to enter a large 100D zone of any major body. In our solar system, jupiter family comets would work fine in most cases along with Oort cloud comets. These sorts of fueling stations might be quite popular when in systems that bridge a gap between other systems. Presuming accurate and precise jumps, an arriving starship would only need to travel about 10 minutes at 1g to get from the 100D comet limit (for a 10 km diameter comet) to the surface and 7 minutes or so outgoing, compared to a 6.63 hour flight from 100D from an earth like world at 1g.
I could retool a mining colony I've worked up as a 'space truck stop' and refinery combination.
Ajami Station,
property of Cometco Ltd.
UWP B010212-A
Starport B
Size: 0 (large comet)
atmosphere: trace
hydrosphere: 0 some small, temporary, localized thaws on icy surface
population: 100+ permanent residents, sometimes much higher transient population
government: corporate
law: no poison gas, bombs, body pistols, or energy weapons.
tech level 10
a ‘Wild West’ comet colony and starport/town
primary industries: starport services, mining volatiles, fuel refining
Corporate security men wear cloth armor and carry cudgels and either snub guns or shotguns. They protect company property and personnel, but seldom do anything about minor brawls, vice, and petty crime unless such things threaten profitable operations. Officers wear titanium steel comet logos/badges.
Gambling, video games, legal booze, illegal dope, and company employed prostitutes keep the belters/refinery workers happy— or at least numb.
A fusion power plant forms the living heart of the colony, providing the power without which life would be impossible. Access is restricted, of course!
Grav plates provide 1 g in habitat areas.
Jail cells are left at microgravity, with the air pumped out and prisoners kept in bulky, obsolete surplus vacc suits.
Quick turnaround on refueling and repair work is the name of the game, here. And if your ship needs more than an hour of work, why not drop by the cantina? Or visit the girls at the Lonely Luriani?
The refinery and mining operation is slowly eating away the place, so nobody plans on staying here forever. But plans have a way of falling though, and you can hear some hard luck stories in the local taverns from unemployed spacers, startown ‘escorts’, and mercs without a ticket.
Notes:
As the poster above suggests, this place needs to be on the route between two other systems, so it gets enough traffic to justify its existence, economically.
Cookie for anybody who knows where I got those jail cells.
naval and scout bases in system?
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Yes--I thought of this, as well as being inspired by Asimov's "The Martian Way" (November 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction), where Martian colonists go to Saturn's rings for a mountain-size chunk of ice. Better observation says ring material won't work--too small--but why not a comet?
It might also help to enclose the iceball in an insulated blanket and frame to keep the local sun from evaporating it away, as well as keeping it from moving on its own . . .
I was imagining a department of the IISS, but a local government or corporation, or even a band of belters is probably more likely. And the ensuing fuel (and organics?) monopoly could be interesting <adventure hooks>.
Some good ideas.The insulating blanket could also be used as a solar sail, albeit a very inefficient one. It may be enough to help shape the orbit a bit.
Or rather than a blanket - a solar shield. Sort of like the Star Trek observation station in the 1st movie, a very small manned area with a huge array to block out the sun. And I need to find it, but one of my Traveller magazines had an interdiction satellite with a small manned area - that would also work I think as most of this array would probably be remotely managed. Until something happens and you have to make an emergency trip. Another <adventure hook>
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Then they discover oil.
