inhabited rogue planet

[BwapTED]

HESSE

UWP D910544—8

Starport D: an ‘ice rink’ adjacent to a massive igloo-like structure, built over the entrance to a very deep air/raft 'elevator' shaft that connects with the main subsurface city
Size 9 14,400 km diameter
Atmosphere 1 trace
Hydrography 0 the surface is a stark desert of water ice and frozen elements of the ancient atmosphere—a liquid ocean lies eight klicks deep beneath the ice, kept from freezing by geothermal vents and radioactive elements.
Population 5 100k+ people, the vast majority huddled in a single city buried deep beneath the ice
Gov’t 4 Representative Democracy: an elected mayor and small civic council
Law 4 no assault weapons
Tech Level 8 Equivalent to early 21st Century Earth with advanced ice-drilling, aquaculture, and submersibles
Old library tapes contain more advanced knowledge but a small population and limited resources sharply limit manufacturing capabilities and scientific expertise.

Notes for Travellers:
1. Hesse is a rogue planet—no star! (DM-2 to chart a course hither)
2. All dead humans and animals must be turned over to the city recycling and food production center, but one can pay a high fee in trade goods to move a corpse off world
3. Hessians pay very well for imported spices and food—their usual diet consists of nothing but fungal paste and pate of shellfish ( rich in vitamin D).
4. If for some reason you are strolling (in a well-insulated vacc suit, unless you want to die) on the surface near the starport, watch out for poorly-marked dumpsites containing fission reactor waste.
5. Local are pallid and sensitive to UV light.

--------------------------------------

This is one I tossed together for the Phlange Sector project, which I am finally back to working on with GChuck after a long hiatus for real-world reasons.

It's based on the abstract of a paper about 'Steppenwolf' planets and on various nature shows about the black smokers of the Marianas Trench and the strange creatures that live down there in the dark.





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EDIT
Eliminated sperm/egg bounty after considering feedback from others.
Vitamin D note added to existing shellfish and shrooms diet.
Clarified role of air/rafts (TL 8 ) in moving stuff up and down the big shaft.
Paleness, UV sensitivity noted.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

Don't step in the puddles with an uninsulated suit...Infact, dont touch the floor in an uninsulated suit - or anything else.

 

[BwapTED]

Don't step in the puddles with an uninsulated suit...Infact, dont touch the floor in an uninsulated suit - or anything else.

Yup!

The city itself is insulated and heated (the walls and streets are not ice) but other areas are definitely not safe for an unprotected person.

 

[whulorigan]

Don't step in the puddles with an uninsulated suit...Infact, dont touch the floor in an uninsulated suit - or anything else.

Yup!

The city itself is insulated and heated (the walls and streets are not ice) but other areas are definitely not safe for an unprotected person.

Just to be clear, I think what BackworldTraveller is referring to is that if this rogue planet has been travelling through the interstellar void, its surface temperature will likely only be a few Kelvins, which means that anything even remotely close to room temperature is going to have a massive and very rapid temperature change if they come in contact. And something the size of an entire planet at that temperature will be a massive heat-sink that will cool down everything that touches it and effectively NOT raise the temperature of the planet as the contacting object cools down.

 

[BwapTED]

Just to be clear, I think what BackworldTraveller is referring to is that if this rogue planet has been travelling through the interstellar void, its surface temperature will likely only be a few Kelvins, which means that anything even remotely close to room temperature is going to have a massive and very rapid temperature change if they come in contact. And something the size of an entire planet at that temperature will be a massive heat-sink that will cool down everything that touches it and effectively NOT raise the temperature of the planet as the contacting object cools down.

It's not that cold inside, as it retains a liquid ocean under the ice. As per the Steppenwolf paper, the interior is armed by geothermal activity and radioactive elements.

But, yes, the surface is extremely cold and air/rafts (which appear at TL 8), vacuum shafts, and ultratech insulation are all necessary for working in the ice and above the surface. This is why I set the TL as 8. Any lower and I doubt anybody could live on(in) this world.

Here's a Nat Geo link to explain the basic idea:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...ike,insulating layer of water ice and carbon

The paper abstract

https://arxiv.org/abs/1102.1108

I'm going with the smaller option , with a much higher relative (to Earth) water mass.

That does raise a question about UWP. I plugged in zero because there's no liquid water on the frozen surface. But the world has a lot of liquid water below the ice and frozen former atmosphere.
So should this be 0 for hydrography or something unusual rating about A?

And boost size to A or leave it at 9?

Thoughts?

 

[BwapTED]

TANGENT ALERT:

I do wonder about the problems of starships and heat...
But that's a whole can of worms the game generally ignores. I think TNE did pay some attention to the relevant thermodymanics, yes?
I tend to handwave it with a vague reference to 'fuel' including heat sinks and M drives ejecting hot plumes.


BACK ON TOPIC:

I suppose a rogue planet might be settled by people on their way someplace else.
Maybe a premature drop from jump precipitated by passing too near its equivalent space?
"Hey, there's a planet here not recorded on the tape!"

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

minor point, but 100,000+ pop is more than enough to sustain sufficient genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding, so their isn't really a need for sperm bounties purely to combat inbreeding (apparently, you only need about 150-200 distinct seed people to maintain a healthy gene pool for upwards of 10 generations (ie hundreds of years))

however, they may still offer sperm bounties for some other reason. Given the lack of UV lighting (unless deliberately introduced by the government), the locals are going to be naturally quite pale, bordering on Albino, with a tendency to burn easily if exposed to real sunlight and a requirement for vitamin D supplements and a cooking tradition that adds certain vit D high foodstuffs in the mix ( fish are a good source, and so are some mushrooms).

Maybe the sperm bounties are a way to reduce the severity of this in the population?

 

[BwapTED]

minor point, but 100,000+ pop is more than enough to sustain sufficient genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding, so their isn't really a need for sperm bounties purely to combat inbreeding (apparently, you only need about 150-200 distinct seed people to maintain a healthy gene pool for upwards of 10 generations (ie hundreds of years))

however, they may still offer sperm bounties for some other reason. Given the lack of UV lighting (unless deliberately introduced by the government), the locals are going to be naturally quite pale, bordering on Albino, with a tendency to burn easily if exposed to real sunlight and a requirement for vitamin D supplements and a cooking tradition that adds certain vit D high foodstuffs in the mix ( fish are a good source, and so are some mushrooms).

Maybe the sperm bounties are a way to reduce the severity of this in the population?

I like all that.

:coffeegulp::coffeesip::coffeecup:

I might just nix the sperm donor stuff, as a very pale population is fun.

Mushrooms and shellfish are standard foodstuffs here, as noted above, which fits the Vitamin D stuff. Wouldn't do to all suffer rickets.

EDIT I have updated the first entry with minor tweaks and additions based on your feedback and that of others. Thanks!

 

[Madmax]

I am reminded of the famous book/movie "When Worlds Collide". In the book sequel, "After Worlds Collide", which was never made into a movie, the survivors from Earth land on the planet Zyra, which has been drifting through interstellar space for perhaps millions of years. There they discover a vast advanced civilization (maybe tech 13+?) thawing out after its endless freeze. Remarkably the machinery still works, as it sets about repairing itself. They do not find any signs of the original inhabitants, but have their hands full dealing with other problems. No more spoilers, read the book. Even though it was written in 1934 it still stands up relatively well to all the advances we have made since then.
Anyway, my point is, if you haven't already decided exactly how your rogue planet came to be occupied, perhaps you might consider it having been ejected from its original system and the inhabitants retreated underground to survive? It is pretty certain that such ejections, though astronomically rare, do happen.

 

[BwapTED]

I am reminded of the famous book/movie "When Worlds Collide". In the book sequel, "After Worlds Collide", which was never made into a movie, the survivors from Earth land on the planet Zyra, which has been drifting through interstellar space for perhaps millions of years. There they discover a vast advanced civilization (maybe tech 13+?) thawing out after its endless freeze. Remarkably the machinery still works, as it sets about repairing itself. They do not find any signs of the original inhabitants, but have their hands full dealing with other problems. No more spoilers, read the book. Even though it was written in 1934 it still stands up relatively well to all the advances we have made since then.
Anyway, my point is, if you haven't already decided exactly how your rogue planet came to be occupied, perhaps you might consider it having been ejected from its original system and the inhabitants retreated underground to survive? It is pretty certain that such ejections, though astronomically rare, do happen.

I am a big fan of the movie. It's right up there with Forbidden Planet.
I never did read the book.

Ejection with people on it might work, sure.


Have you read A Pail of Air? It's a short story by Fritz Leiber.

 

[Madmax]

I am a big fan of the movie. It's right up there with Forbidden Planet.
I never did read the book.

Ejection with people on it might work, sure.


Have you read A Pail of Air? It's a short story by Fritz Leiber.

No, but I did read an article by (IIRC) Marc Miller in The Space Gamer in which he used "A Pail of Air" as the basis for improvising a Traveller adventure. That was probably around 1982, so I think I have at least some familiarity with the story, assuming Marc didn't twist things too much. I've always wished I could improvise that well.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

It is pretty certain that such ejections, though astronomically rare, do happen.

I'd have thought ejections of planets (particularly small ones) are relatively common, astronomically, while the ejection of planets that are big enough and have lasted long enough to have intelligent life would be a really, really tiny proportion.

 

[Madmax]

I'd have thought ejections of planets (particularly small ones) are relatively common, astronomically, while the ejection of planets that are big enough and have lasted long enough to have intelligent life would be a really, really tiny proportion.

I don't think enough is known, yet, about how all that works for scientists to be able to do more than make educated guesses about how often it happens.

 

[aramis]

I don't think enough is known, yet, about how all that works for scientists to be able to do more than make educated guesses about how often it happens.

Enough is known that it's safe to say, Ejections should happen quite a lot.

It's also fair to say that the ejection does not need to occur after life evolves; the requisite is having enough water.

There are a number of detected class L and T objects that are not close to (proper) stars, and an expectation to find some class Y objects.

L class, L0 to L9, overlaps/replaces M10-M19, T are the next cooler, and Y are presumed to be large hot non-stars in the 5-15 M_jupiter range.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Further thoughts on this planet:

1) Given the speed and coruse of the planet, it is highly likely (~90%) that the planet was ejected from a nearby solar system, approximately 300,000 years ago, roughly at the time of the disappearance of the Ancients. what part they played in the events are not known, but the given the timing it is assumed the two events are linked.

2) the planet supported a conventional aquatic ecosystem before the ejection, but that collapsed as the planet moved away form the sun and the free energy it provided. A limited eco-system based around energy extracted from the hydro-thermal vents in the depths of the ocean survived, however, and it is this that the colonists used as the basis of their own food chain, with Chemosynthetic bacteria feeding off the vents, which feed algae, which feed fish and other higher forms of life. most local fish are blind, given the lack of light in the depths, and tend to rely on smell, eco-location, electroreception, and other non-visual methods of "seeing". their is a persistent rumour that some fish appear to use full on Psionic abilites to "see", but no real proof has ever been produced.

3) exports are somewhat limited, given the remote location and the low population and infrastructure. The frozen gases on the surface is mined mostly for domestic use, but turns a small profit selling excess to traders. However, the major income is in fast the local fauna, which, by necessity, form one of the few properly documented sun-independent eco-systems in Known Space, and their is a steady trade in fish form the planet as exotic curios thoughout the subsector and beyond. Being blind, the fish are not bothered by sudden changes in lighting levels, or constant bright lights that might affect the sleeping patterns of normal fish, and as such are popular as pets in certain environments that experience constant light. this curio trade takes second place, however, to a organ harvested form a local fish, which naturally creates a chemical vital in the production of anti-aging treatments, and does so cheaper than could be done by conventional technology. It is this low volume, high value trade good that lets the planetary economy function at all. bringing in the money to pay off the costs of trying to live in such a place.

4) their is a small research station on the planet, funded by local universities and several corporations, which studies the wildlife in detail for posterity and profit. it was these researchers that discovered the anti-aging properties of the fish, and hope to find other equally profitable discoveries in the depths. the grants and money this station brings into the community form a significant part of the planetary budget, and the regular supply runs to the station have brought a stability to the visiting trader volume that has significantly improved the local economy by stabilising the price and turn-around times of imported goods.

 

[Vargr Breath]

Hi
With all this talk of rogue planets, no one has brought up Mongo yet?

 

[boomslang]

I'm going with the smaller option, with a much higher relative (to Earth) water mass.

That does raise a question about UWP. I plugged in zero because there's no liquid water on the frozen surface. But the world has a lot of liquid water below the ice and frozen former atmosphere.
So should this be 0 for hydrography or something unusual rating about A?

And boost size to A or leave it at 9?

Thoughts?

Bigger is probably better. The overall density will determine local gravity; to me the question of interest is the depth of the subsurface ocean -- too deep and the pressures (and exotic ices and such) may make seafloor mineral extraction too mechanically difficult.

Definitely Hydro-A, though. Depending on your chosen rules version, it can be nearly impossible to roll it up that way, but it is logical and consistent with modern planetology models, and -- in the Terra system at least -- the general prevalence of water.

 

[coliver988]

here is a link from Daily Galaxy about island worlds, aka rogue planets

 

[Vargr Breath]

Hi
How about making the planet a moon of a Brown Dwarf ? You could use the heat from the Dwarf and tidal forces to heat it up some more.

 

[BwapTED]

Hi
How about making the planet a moon of a Brown Dwarf ? You could use the heat from the Dwarf and tidal forces to heat it up some more.

I will definitely use that idea, but for another world.

Dwarf stars are fun.