Rooms at an outpost?

[Enoki]

The huts in the Arctic used by Scott and Shackelton would clearly qualify as abandoned but where left in excellent shape for possible use later. When the US left the Solomons and other islands in the Pacific, we pulled the people out and basically left every else except usable weapons. It was too costly in terms of shipping to get everything out. When the Japanese surrendered on Bougainville and at Rabaul, the people left, every else stayed. There are still large number of caves stuffed with Japanese equipment in the Northern Solomon Islands and at Rabaul on New Britain.

It would depend entirely on how the outpost was abandoned. Were the personnel suddenly pulled out for some reason, or left suddenly when ordered? Did the civilization breakdown and the personnel slowly die off? Did a supply ship fail to get through and the personnel starve to death or suffer loss of life support? Did the outpost personnel suddenly die of a virulent disease contracted from the planet, which is not deadly to humans? Was all but one or two of the persons operating the outpost killed in a sudden disaster, and the remaining ones suicide? There are a lot of possible reasons for an outpost to be in quite good condition.

Yes, it would depend on the length of abandonment and if anyone else had been there before... Another possible twist... They're back! Certainly the planetary conditions would matter too.
But, in terms of a scenario having junk, trash, and stuff everywhere gives the players the potential for a "treasure" hunt through it.
If it's all nice and neat there is less mystery other than "How does this stuff work?"

 

[Enoki]

I guess some things (like light bulbs, if they haven't been broken) would likely still work. The generator (pretend for a moment that it is a diesel) would need a complete disassemble to sand off corrosion, clean out dust, replace rubber gasgets, etc. Any medicine or similar (complex molecules suspended in solution) will have decayed, but likley could still be identified by a lab.

After 10,000 years? Is the wiring for those lights any good or did the insulation rot, the wire corrode? Anything made of rubber or something like rubber would have likely rotted long ago in almost any conditions from sunlight on it, to moisture, to being gnawed on by animals or insects, etc.
You'd be unlikely to find much usable, if anything, after that long. It more an archeology project than a discovery of something usable.

 

[McPerth]

The aspect and layout of the outpost would also be race dependent. I guess a K'Kree outpost could well not be recognized as such by humans, being mostly in open air, just with some storage and any sensors, fortifications, landing pads. whatever they need, but no large buildings, living quarters or meeting rooms, all being done outdoors

 

[WistfulD]

After 10,000 years? Is the wiring for those lights any good or did the insulation rot, the wire corrode? Anything made of rubber or something like rubber would have likely rotted long ago in almost any conditions from sunlight on it, to moisture, to being gnawed on by animals or insects, etc.
You'd be unlikely to find much usable, if anything, after that long. It more an archeology project than a discovery of something usable.

Not the wiring, just the bulbs. Glass and tungsten. And yes, I mean the whole thing as an archeological discovery, not a Battlefield Earth finding working jetfighters or something.

 

[aramis]

Not the wiring, just the bulbs. Glass and tungsten. And yes, I mean the whole thing as an archeological discovery, not a Battlefield Earth finding working jetfighters or something.

The glass is likely to have slumped/sagged. The metal of the base is corroded, and may be absent. The filament's wiring may have corroded, rendering the vacuum filled.

That they're lightbulbs may be inobvious, even assuming they survived the vibrations of time.

 

[rnadams2]

I think living areas--quarters, common rooms, galleys--would potentially hold the most fascination as far as seeing the little things that make the buiilders' culture (and physiology) different.

 

[rancke]

The TL of the base builders will have an effect too. A TL16 base should be able to survive for as long as a TL16 ship (Shouldn't it?) which is a minimum of 2000 years. I think a TL17 base should be able to survive intact and functional for 10,000 years.


Hans

 

[WistfulD]

The glass is likely to have slumped/sagged. The metal of the base is corroded, and may be absent. The filament's wiring may have corroded, rendering the vacuum filled.

That they're lightbulbs may be inobvious, even assuming they survived the vibrations of time.

What do you mean by slumped/sagged? I'm not going to make assumptions, but this isn't part of the urban legend that glass flows over time?

As to the tungsten (for whatever reason, I've decided that we're talking about a standard 20th century lightbulb, if only for a stadard frame of reference), It is quite corrosions resistent (http://www.plansee.com/en/Materials-Tungsten-403.htm) and even if it were not, the element will mostly still line the inside of the bulb unless it has somewhere to go.

 

[aramis]

What do you mean by slumped/sagged? I'm not going to make assumptions, but this isn't part of the urban legend that glass flows over time?

As to the tungsten (for whatever reason, I've decided that we're talking about a standard 20th century lightbulb, if only for a stadard frame of reference), It is quite corrosions resistent (http://www.plansee.com/en/Materials-Tungsten-403.htm) and even if it were not, the element will mostly still line the inside of the bulb unless it has somewhere to go.

It's only a "legend" because the rate of flow is fractional millimeters per millennium at STP or even at room temp. Amorphous solids flow, at a rate highly temperature dependent. many plastics become rigid at 0°C, are flexible at 20°C, and can't support their own weight at 100°C, and only liquify around 200°C; glasses are similar, but a wider range; rigid at about 70°C, flexible at about 500°C, liquid about 1500°C...

As for the filament - the tungsten is held in place with non-tungsten conductive metal arms. The copper, nickel, or iron rods holding the fillament can and do rust out, sometimes in as little as a decade. (Says the guy who just replaced one bulb for the 4th time in 10 years, because the contacts corroded to the point where it isn't sealed, and thus failed. It's in a particularly humid location...

 

[WistfulD]

Okay. So we're on the same page about the glass. Barring significant temperature spikes, a lightbulb would not have slumped much, but would be unsealed, potentially shattered, and with some moisture-corroded tungsten lining the gravitational bottom. Clearly unusable, but potentially identifiable if (and this is a big if) we share a technological psychology with the creators. This example is a good highlight, because we likely wouldn't. Tungsten filament lightbulbs are on their way out in our society after barely a century. If the aliens did have them, the Imperium-era archeologists likely wouldn't know what they were.

 

[Patron Zero]

In regard to artifacts, relics or just 'base' materials surviving the time since use and 'abandonment', one thing to factor in would be if such were directly exposed to vacuum or other extremes of temperature in said facility.

If the outpost is open to space and receiving 'daily' heat-up and cool-downs from the local star, any areas immediate to such exposure will be damaged if not show signs of such 'weathering'.

One other inquiry was the outpost a 'duck-blind' meant to exist unobserved or an openly constructed and located installation.

The mind cannot begin to process the number of possible concealed cubby-holes that could be secreted in asteroid fields by now-defunct intelligences.

 

[WistfulD]

In regard to artifacts, relics or just 'base' materials surviving the time since use and 'abandonment', one thing to factor in would be if such were directly exposed to vacuum or other extremes of temperature in said facility.

If the outpost is open to space and receiving 'daily' heat-up and cool-downs from the local star, any areas immediate to such exposure will be damaged if not show signs of such 'weathering'.

One other inquiry was the outpost a 'duck-blind' meant to exist unobserved or an openly constructed and located installation.

The mind cannot begin to process the number of possible concealed cubby-holes that could be secreted in asteroid fields by now-defunct intelligences.

If the outpost is in vacuum, that changes the profile significantly. most liquids will have evaporated, and most other things freeze-dried. We did find out that the inhabitants died from animal attacks, which makes me think that it is planet-based.