Terraforming Cordillon

[paltrysum]

One of the canonical Sindal Subsector subplots is the terraforming and colonization of Cordillon with colonists from the overpopulated world of Albe. I have never incorporated terraforming in anything but the most "hand wavy" terms in Traveller, and I'd like to do something more in-depth with this system. The implication is that colonists will be emigrating sooner rather than later, so I don't envision them doing a few centuries of preparation (e.g. tossing captured comets at the planet and waiting a hundred years for things to settle).

Here are Cordillon's stats: C431210-C Po Ni Lo Ht. It has a K1 V star, so it's main sequence, a bit less luminous than Sol. The planet is fairly similar to Mars in some ways, starting with its size. It has more atmosphere to work with and a small hydrographic percentage. What would you imagine the first terraforming steps to be in this environment?

• Detoxification of the soil?
• Importing nitrogen (or other gases) in liquid form to enhance the planet's habitability?
• Geological exploration for hidden aquifers?
• Excavation of natural gases?

I have a few sci-fi novels in mind for inspiration (Red Mars, Seveneves) but would like to get some ideas from our little community as well. What are the first things one might do to start terraforming this rather inhospitable world? I would imagine these would be the first industries colonists would be engaged in. Got to keep them busy doing something to manufacture their own little paradise.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Depends on your tech level. Tl 10 Drones designed for fuel refinery work could skim the gas giants for raw material. Converting the material to hydrogen gets your halfway to water. Other drones for asteroid mining could haul in ice and other raw materials.

A source of oxygen combined with the hydrogen from the fuel refineries gives more water to increase the water content of the planet.

there are several other planets in the system, as well as possible moons that could provide a Europan amount of water. Drones could be shuttling it to Cordillon every day.

Pop over to Browne to get advance arcology design and water reclamation tech for the still dry planet. It could help a lot.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I've only used terraforming as a very high tech thing. Part of a planet's background story is all. The characters don't even think about what the planet may have used to be, because ancient history and all. The story behind the terraforming may come into play, but only for plot purposes.

If a place is being terraformed while the characters are nearby, it's treated just as a on-going shipping/receiving operation that no one will see any change in during their tour there. Again, just background story of what's going on, while characters are doing other things.

 

[PsiTraveller]

well it could be an adventure to go out and find an ice ball and arc it carefully into the atmosphere to add more water to the planet. Or stop the malfunctioning drone that is bringing in the ice chunk in a flat trajectory, aimed at the capital city. etc.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I have used the UWP as my terraforming base.

Each 100 years times the world SIZE divided by TL move the ATM, HYD, or TEMP by one unit (up or down Designers choice). At TL10, it takes several centuries to terraform a moderate world. Cost is 1 TRILLION credits per World SIZE point. The bigger the world, the harder it is to terraform...

All the details about adding nitrogen, etc. are part of the UWP move.

One thing of note - worlds want to return to their original condition, so it takes MONEY and equipment (investment) to maintain a world at some new UWP. Think weather satellites, the occasional icy asteroid impact to keep the HYD level up, or even massive atmosphere converters that have to keep running. After a few thousand years, the world will likely be able to balance itself in the new UWP configuration.

It makes it expensive and a long-term project, but in certain situations it might be worth it. In most Traveller settings, by TL12 or so, they don't bother to terraform since so many other habitable worlds are available. SO, you might have a cluster of previously terraformed worlds around a race's homeworld, but farther away, not so much.

 

[h1ro]

I have used the UWP as my terraforming base.

Each 100 years times the world SIZE divided by TL move the ATM, HYD, or TEMP by one unit (up or down Designers choice). At TL10, it takes several centuries to terraform a moderate world. Cost is 1 TRILLION credits per World SIZE point. The bigger the world, the harder it is to terraform...

All the details about adding nitrogen, etc. are part of the UWP move.

One thing of note - worlds want to return to their original condition, so it takes MONEY and equipment (investment) to maintain a world at some new UWP. Think weather satellites, the occasional icy asteroid impact to keep the HYD level up, or even massive atmosphere converters that have to keep running. After a few thousand years, the world will likely be able to balance itself in the new UWP configuration.

It makes it expensive and a long-term project, but in certain situations it might be worth it. In most Traveller settings, by TL12 or so, they don't bother to terraform since so many other habitable worlds are available. SO, you might have a cluster of previously terraformed worlds around a race's homeworld, but farther away, not so much.

Are you using prerequisites for candidate planets? For example, does a planet need to be in the habitable zone?

 

[paltrysum]

Pop over to Browne to get advance arcology design and water reclamation tech for the still dry planet. It could help a lot.

Great idea! I would love the chance to get the campaign to go into the rift. Now if I can just time it to when the Great Rift package from the Kickstarter becomes available.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I have used the UWP as my terraforming base.

Each 100 years times the world SIZE divided by TL move the ATM, HYD, or TEMP by one unit (up or down Designers choice). At TL10, it takes several centuries to terraform a moderate world. Cost is 1 TRILLION credits per World SIZE point. The bigger the world, the harder it is to terraform...

All the details about adding nitrogen, etc. are part of the UWP move.

One thing of note - worlds want to return to their original condition, so it takes MONEY and equipment (investment) to maintain a world at some new UWP. Think weather satellites, the occasional icy asteroid impact to keep the HYD level up, or even massive atmosphere converters that have to keep running. After a few thousand years, the world will likely be able to balance itself in the new UWP configuration.

It makes it expensive and a long-term project, but in certain situations it might be worth it. In most Traveller settings, by TL12 or so, they don't bother to terraform since so many other habitable worlds are available. SO, you might have a cluster of previously terraformed worlds around a race's homeworld, but farther away, not so much.

Are you using prerequisites for candidate planets? For example, does a planet need to be in the habitable zone?

Not too much is needed, since a Terraformer can change temperature as well. It is easier/cheaper to start with a world in the habitable zone (COLD, TEMPERATE, or HOT), but could be done on just about any world.

In one of my settings, Venus and Mars were Terraformed in the solar system.

 

[J. L. Brown]

I would start with robotic small craft moving rubble and water -- both of which are sourced from either asteroids or very small moons of the gas giants. The rubble can be placed in the lowest spots on Cordillon, places which will be underwater when the hydrographics percentage increases -- or at the 'sinking' end of any existing tectonic plates. Moving water to the planet is important; it will help to thicken the atmosphere, living things need water, water helps tectonic cycling, and water is a valuable resource for providing oxygen in later steps.

Second step would be scrubbing taints from air, soil, and water. This doesn't have to happen after step one, but it is a lower priority -- and who knows, maybe some of the stuff in the taint is commercially valuable. Moving population from Albe can be good to increase availability of local labor, and they can be employed in improving the planetary infrastructure.

 

[J. L. Brown]

I have used the UWP as my terraforming base.

Each 100 years times the world SIZE divided by TL move the ATM, HYD, or TEMP by one unit (up or down Designers choice). At TL10, it takes several centuries to terraform a moderate world. Cost is 1 TRILLION credits per World SIZE point. The bigger the world, the harder it is to terraform...

All the details about adding nitrogen, etc. are part of the UWP move.

One thing of note - worlds want to return to their original condition, so it takes MONEY and equipment (investment) to maintain a world at some new UWP. Think weather satellites, the occasional icy asteroid impact to keep the HYD level up, or even massive atmosphere converters that have to keep running. After a few thousand years, the world will likely be able to balance itself in the new UWP configuration.

It makes it expensive and a long-term project, but in certain situations it might be worth it. In most Traveller settings, by TL12 or so, they don't bother to terraform since so many other habitable worlds are available. SO, you might have a cluster of previously terraformed worlds around a race's homeworld, but farther away, not so much.

Generally I like your approach; but I think it is a bit too inexpensive. Just for a rough initial draft, I would go with:

(100 x World_Size / Technology_Level) x (Larger_UWP_Value / Smaller_UWP_Value {Always at least 1}) = Years to make the change

(World_Size x World_Size) x (Larger_UWP_Value / Smaller_UWP_Value {Always at least 1}) = Resource Units required each year

I would also allow modifying the planet's World_Size, although all calculations which refer to World_Size refers to the larger (starting or ending) value of the UWP -- and this is very likely to have detrimental consequences for any life (especially including POP), ATM, and HYD. (T4 Pocket Empires page 113) Roll once each for damage to ATM, INF, POP, Starport, and TL; increase Resources by 1. If ten times as long is taken, then the detrimental effects may be avoided (and Resources raised by 2); this can be combined with accelerated progress for double expense as detailed below.

Terraforming changes can be done in half the number of years ('Accelerated Progress') at twice the cost. More than one UWP value can be modified at the same time, but doing more than one at a time multiplies the cost of each modification by the number of modifications being done at the same time. Much of this cost may be paid in advance, but paying the entire amount in a single year will not complete the project -- the full time (or half the base time, if the process is accelerated by paying extra) must elapse before the change is completed. At least one RU must be paid during every year that any changes are being made; even if the full cost (or even more than the base full cost) has already been paid. If at any point the (Cost per year x number of years worked) is greater than the number of RUs expended, work stops -- work will resume when the deficit is paid. Once Accelerated Progress is paid for, the remaining project must be completed at the Accelerated Progress cost -- there is no going back to the regular schedule or cost.

A Resource Unit is labor, services, life support, goods, and equipment valued at the equivalent to 'cost of living' for 100 million people for a year; in Mongoose Traveller this is about 18 TCr. I have expressed costs in RU for backwards compatibility with T4 'Pocket Empires', but the credits per RU may need to be adjusted to fit better into the Mongoose 2e setting.