mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The research project to study their survival in space was nicknamed Tardis.
Unobtanium in Traveller
- Thread starter ravells
- Start date
There's the rest of the creds!
The "TARDIS" (Tardigrades In Space) project - demonstrated Tardigrades could naturally survive space vacuum and cosmic radiation (first, IIRC), even a good degree of solar UV radiation. (NOTE: I believe they go dormant, i.e. some cryptobiosis state.)
They're pretty hardy critters... interesting looking to.
[The TARDIS project and others (like the longer term ISS EXPOSE platform) could indicate the likelihood of life originating from or transferring through space (Panspermia).]
The "TARDIS" (Tardigrades In Space) project - demonstrated Tardigrades could naturally survive space vacuum and cosmic radiation (first, IIRC), even a good degree of solar UV radiation. (NOTE: I believe they go dormant, i.e. some cryptobiosis state.)
They're pretty hardy critters... interesting looking to.
[The TARDIS project and others (like the longer term ISS EXPOSE platform) could indicate the likelihood of life originating from or transferring through space (Panspermia).]
Only one thing to say....ROFLMAO! It implies life will survive, NO MATTER WHERE IT ORIGINATES!
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Does it have to be a mineral resource? Otherwise, you have tea, coffee, chocolate, indigo, and a bit further out, ambergris, musk (from musk deer), and silk from silk worms are vegetable and animal product that at valuable in either small quantities (ambergris and musk, lesser degree silk), or in bulk such as coffee, tea, chocolate, indigo, or all of your various alcoholic beverages. With those as examples, you have a lively trade in consumables, for the beverage products. Just think of how the soil the coffee trees are grown and climate influence the flavor, such as Kona from Hawaii, and Blue Mountain from Jamaica.
Sorry - no.
There are still lots of environs that are not immediately implied to be survivable from just these experiments. A lot more experiments would need to be conducted to make those assumptions implied.
Consider: most of the atmospheres in our own solar system, by volume, are not equivalent to earth's nor near space. Even when one discounts the Sun's.
And these are not deep space experiments - which is the bulk of the observed universe.
I think I've got the answer I need for scenario purposes. I'd prefer to go with something fictional, so I can spin any old story around why it's rare etc without having to know too much chemistry / geology. Zuchai crystal it is! +
The thread is fascinating though and the waterbear idea (thanks BytePro!) is a great one.
Cryton: it does have to be a mineral resource, it also has to be something which is valuable not just on the planet it's on but more widely. So a chicken on a chickenless planet wouldn't cut the mustard (if chickens can cut mustard).
The thread is fascinating though and the waterbear idea (thanks BytePro!) is a great one.
Cryton: it does have to be a mineral resource, it also has to be something which is valuable not just on the planet it's on but more widely. So a chicken on a chickenless planet wouldn't cut the mustard (if chickens can cut mustard).
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While zuchai crystals were an excellent suggestion and are an excellent choice, I would just like to point out that you can have substances which are both biological in origin and extracted like minerals. Amber is one example of this. It is tree resin which has been fossilized.
And speaking of amber, allow me to introduce the Amber Room to some of you. Any GM who can't spin a campaign out of that should have his Cheetos taken away.
Piper invented another valuable "biological mineral" for his Fuzzy novels; sunstones. They're the fossilized remains of jellyfish and a very few exhibit a thermoluminescent property. Prospectors for sunstones shatter tons of limestone in order to find one gem-quality piece.
Thanks Whipsnade; the scenario I'm writing is for next year's BITS convention and I know that a few of the participants are regular members on this board so I don't want to go into too much detail lest any of them reading this ends up in my group and what I say here spoils the experience.
No worries, I completely understand why you want to play your cards close to your chest. I also happen to understand and agree with your selection zuchai crystals.
I was just throwing out more ideas in the hopes that someone else might find a useful nugget or three in.
Good luck with your project and I hope it's a smash at the convention.
DangerousThing
SOC-13
There is at least one type of planet where your assumption is false. This idea comes from a Pohl Anderson story but I forgot the title.
Imagine a star that goes supernova. All sorts of materials are created, including metals in the stable island (trans-uranic elements that are not radioactive). If this star had some planets far enough away so that they weren't destroyed, they might stop a small fraction of these elements. And these planets would probably be old enough that many of the common radio actives would have decayed, hopefully.
In the story and MTU these elements have useful properties.
While they could probably be synthesized in small amounts, it might be cheaper to mine them.
The story was one of the last of the Nick van Rinj stories.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
You could conceivably have an element much heavier than those currently known in one of the predicted "islands of stability" well above any on the periodic table we know.
Let's assume that this element has some useful properties and can be found somewhere in a Traveller universe in useful quantities.
The properties I would propose are:
It is incredibly dense making it very useful as kinetic penetrator against high tech armor systems.
In larger (say several kilos mass or the equivalent in cubic centimeters) quantities it undergoes spontantious fission above a certain temperature that can be reached when penetrating armor.
This means you can have a non-radioactive, stable, kinetic penetrator that acts as a nuclear explosive on impact.
It can also be mixed with other elements to form molecules and metal alloys that are very useful for "stuff."
The problem is it is generally only found at the core of supernova reminants, neutron stars, and black holes...
Let's assume that this element has some useful properties and can be found somewhere in a Traveller universe in useful quantities.
The properties I would propose are:
It is incredibly dense making it very useful as kinetic penetrator against high tech armor systems.
In larger (say several kilos mass or the equivalent in cubic centimeters) quantities it undergoes spontantious fission above a certain temperature that can be reached when penetrating armor.
This means you can have a non-radioactive, stable, kinetic penetrator that acts as a nuclear explosive on impact.
It can also be mixed with other elements to form molecules and metal alloys that are very useful for "stuff."
The problem is it is generally only found at the core of supernova reminants, neutron stars, and black holes...
SpaceBadger
SOC-14 1K
LOL! Dehydated water! We used to send new Tenderfeet to fetch some at Boy Scout camp. (Also skyhooks and left-handed tentpegs; although I guess in Traveller gravs provide the skyhooks.)
The is a small writeup on Onnesium in Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars (FASA, CT). It is described as an eka matal with an atomic number of 118 and a room temperature super conductor, in the first island of stability above the actinides on the periodic table. Indicated to be formed in very small quantities in the heart of a supernova[FONT=arial,helvetica]. Also mentioned, as noted by Lycanorukke in Knightfall and the proposed three adventure campaign from DGP called the Onnesium Quest. Further comment about the usefullness of Onnesium is made in a story in [/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica][FONT=arial,helvetica]DIS Newsbriefs in MT Journal 4, refering to it as a metaconductor.
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GamingGlen
SOC-9
I've wondered over the many years: How do you pronounce "Zuchai"?
Is it -
zu-kay
zuk-ay
zu-chay
zuch-ay
zu-kI
zuk-I
zu-chI
zuch-I
or something else entirely, like "fred"?
Didn't the writer for "Avatar" use unobtanium in the story not knowing that pretty much every sci-fi geek knows it's a tongue in cheek term for a material/element/heavy-metal that doesn't exist?
Frankymole
SOC-12
That's also how we pronounce it in the UK, as far as I know!
Frankymole
SOC-12
I hope you also sent them to the quartermaster to ask for a Long Weight.
Or an automatic hammer.
Bucket of steam!
