Poke!
How long is it taking for each "turn" now? I'm sure it must be getting harder to keep track!
Quote from: "Kurt"Here's some info on that particular subject, if you're interested., most specifically:Quote from: "TrueZuluwiz"How would you go about making sure that a large population was not established in such a system? You could build just enough infrastructure for the numbers you need to harvest the minerals and no more. Make sure the living quarters are cramped and uncomfortable. The food is not very good and there's only just enough. No families, the miners are very well paid, but are rotated in and out frequently. The miners' families are in a system one jump away and are not allowed to visit the miners, the miners have to go visit them. Obviously, the minerals recovered from this system are going to cost more than those mined from another, less dangerous system, but safety is much more important than productivity to any mining company, right? Right?
You've hit the nail on the head. While the Empire may only intend to establish a "Short-term" colony, the colonists will inevitably put down roots and then there will be at least some that will resist any attempts to remove the colony.
The way I look at it, all of this will merely stimulate the Empire's scientific establishment to find some way to deal with the serious problem of the short lifetime of certain stars.
KurtQuoteStellar Husbandry - Text by Dave Criswell, in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
A type of stellar engineering which involves controlling the evolution and properties of stars, especially to stabilize them, prolong their lifetimes, manipulate the stellar wind, lift off useful material or create new stars. Typical methods include star lifting or mixing the stellar core with envelope material to make hydrogen burning last longer.
Considering the speeds at which the Empire's technological level is increasing, I think they'd be able to do this kind of thing by the time Altair's lifespan becomes a serious issue.
Here's some info on that particular subject, if you're interested., most specifically:Quote from: "TrueZuluwiz"How would you go about making sure that a large population was not established in such a system? You could build just enough infrastructure for the numbers you need to harvest the minerals and no more. Make sure the living quarters are cramped and uncomfortable. The food is not very good and there's only just enough. No families, the miners are very well paid, but are rotated in and out frequently. The miners' families are in a system one jump away and are not allowed to visit the miners, the miners have to go visit them. Obviously, the minerals recovered from this system are going to cost more than those mined from another, less dangerous system, but safety is much more important than productivity to any mining company, right? Right?
You've hit the nail on the head. While the Empire may only intend to establish a "Short-term" colony, the colonists will inevitably put down roots and then there will be at least some that will resist any attempts to remove the colony.
The way I look at it, all of this will merely stimulate the Empire's scientific establishment to find some way to deal with the serious problem of the short lifetime of certain stars.
Kurt
Stellar Husbandry - Text by Dave Criswell, in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
A type of stellar engineering which involves controlling the evolution and properties of stars, especially to stabilize them, prolong their lifetimes, manipulate the stellar wind, lift off useful material or create new stars. Typical methods include star lifting or mixing the stellar core with envelope material to make hydrogen burning last longer.
How would you go about making sure that a large population was not established in such a system? You could build just enough infrastructure for the numbers you need to harvest the minerals and no more. Make sure the living quarters are cramped and uncomfortable. The food is not very good and there's only just enough. No families, the miners are very well paid, but are rotated in and out frequently. The miners' families are in a system one jump away and are not allowed to visit the miners, the miners have to go visit them. Obviously, the minerals recovered from this system are going to cost more than those mined from another, less dangerous system, but safety is much more important than productivity to any mining company, right? Right?
How would you go about making sure that a large population was not established in such a system? You could build just enough infrastructure for the numbers you need to harvest the minerals and no more. Make sure the living quarters are cramped and uncomfortable. The food is not very good and there's only just enough. No families, the miners are very well paid, but are rotated in and out frequently. The miners' families are in a system one jump away and are not allowed to visit the miners, the miners have to go visit them. Obviously, the minerals recovered from this system are going to cost more than those mined from another, less dangerous system, but safety is much more important than productivity to any mining company, right? Right?And of course, the civillian shipping companies totally won't move in an enormous amount of infrastructure and dump eager colonists there.
Just thought I would drop my two cents in the bucket, as this is a fairly interesting topic (and story).
As for 'terrestrial' type planets, the odds are that Formalhaut has them.
With the location of its 'debris' disk, and the known location and approx mass of Formalhaut b being misaligned with the configuration of the disk, it is almost a certainty that smaller terrestrial type planets inside of Formalhaut b's orbit are responsible for the disk's current configuration.
If some of those planets originated outside of F-b's orbit and migrated in as F-b migrated outward from the primary, they would likely be sufficiently cooled for human exploitation. If the albedo was low enough (read the high ice content he positied on his N/CO2 planet), it would likely have a tolerable temp as well.
Doubt I'd want to move there, but if you didn't have any other options, or it was worth a lot of money to visit/exploit, I'm sure folks would start wandering that direction)
Tens of millions of years? That would sound good to any resident of Los Angeles
)Another great writeup! I enjoyed the planetary descriptions in the update. Gives a good feel for the layout of the Empire and how it is growing over time.
Steve
[spoiler:pa2eoscy]You could change big stars to have a lower chance of habitable planets, and a little into a hybrid of regular stars and nebulas for those systems, so, good for mining, lot's of jump points, but unlikely to have a breathable atmosphere (an oxygen (O2) atmosphere is extremely unlikely anyways without lifeforms on the planet, and those are even less likely to happen near such a star).Big stars already have a lower chance of habitable planets and a higher chance of minerals due to the way system generation works. They still have some chance though rather than no chance. Mineral chance is based on system age, with younger stars havng a higher chance.
Aggressive Tectonics could slowly damage infrastructure.[/spoiler:pa2eoscy]
Derp, I made a suggestion again.
