Shared space setting

[Flaco76]

Originally Posted by Frost

Today's questions:

22) Where are our colonies? For ease of counting I am tempted to assume that the major colony systems orbit sun like stars so to simplify my work please pick up to five from the first list here.

23) When did interstellar exploration and colonisation get underway?

A) 2075-2100
B) 2101-2125
C) 2126-2150
D) 2151-2175

22) Vote: I agree with Frost and suggested the first five nearest Sol type stars.

23) Vote: C. Before the first Gates and exploration vessels there needs to be an infrastructure to support it. I figure numerous colonies/settlements of various countries, corporations and groups were established on Mercury, Mars, Luna, Lagrange, the Belt, Ganymede, Titan.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Frost

Today's questions:

22) Where are our colonies? For ease of counting I am tempted to assume that the major colony systems orbit sun like stars so to simplify my work please pick up to five from the first list here.

Vote: keeping it to sun like stars for now, to make sure that we have stars with interesting stuff without having to deal with massively low illumination or low orbits around a very active star. For convenience I would pick the nearest five.
23) When did interstellar exploration and colonisation get underway?

A) 2075-2100
B) 2101-2125
C) 2126-2150
D) 2151-2175

Vote: a, our present is only the back end of the 23rd century if we want time for things to develop we don't want to leave it too late.

More to follow.

Votes close after 03:00pm tomorrow.

22. Currently I don't think I can make a vote for this point.

23. The option I would want is unavailable: lunar in 1970s, interplanetary in the 1980s, interstellar in the late 1990s.

[TGLS]

22) I like Daigoro's answer.

23A) though I would like to see the first FTL flight happening on the Apollo 11 centennial.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

22) I like Daigoro's answer.

I was also going to slip this one in for a circumstellar planet in a binary system, but we can leave that open.

23A) though I would like to see the first FTL flight happening on the Apollo 11 centennial.

If it's not US scientists who traverse the first wormhole, it might be another significant centenary.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

If it's not US scientists who traverse the first wormhole, it might be another significant centenary.

Well even if they aren't American, it could still be done to squash the lunar landing significance wise. The other thing is that I wanted an important aerospace day, and it hard to find another centennial that would work (Gagarin is a decade too early, everyone else is too late, etc.)

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Frost

Today's questions:

22) Where are our colonies? For ease of counting I am tempted to assume that the major colony systems orbit sun like stars so to simplify my work please pick up to five from the first list here.

There's no real objective way to pick one as opposed to any other, so I'll just go with the ones that have the coolest names:

-Tau Ceti: Potentially two planets in the life zone, but a lot more dust and asteroids than the Sol system, which means more meteors and even asteroid strikes. My suggestion for the name of the planet: Lakshmi, after the Hindu auspicious goddess of wealth and good fortune. However, the nickname the colonists gave it: Hard Rain.

-82 Eridani: Not too much known about the planetary system, and any planet in the habitable zone hasn't been discovered, yet. However, as a star visible in the southern hemisphere, it was first catalogued in Uranometria Argentina. So, my suggestion for the name of the colony planet: Eva. The nickname: Sunburn.

-Delta Pavonis: On the verge of becoming a red giant, with a high metallic content (especially iron). No planets discovered yet, which gives us a lot of freedom, and I'm gonna go with a warrior-woman theme for my suggested name: Mulan. Nickname: Metalfume.

-72 Herculis: Again, no planets spotted, yet, but it seems to have two distant companion stars. Suggested colony planet name: Trinity. Suggested nickname: Talon.

-Nu2 Lupi: Three hot inner planets discovered, so far, but no indication of anything in the life zone, so we can define it however we like. Since I've gone with an Indian name, a Chinese name, a Spanish name, and one in English, I will suggest one from Slavic folklore: Baba Yaga. Nickname: Suka (Russian for "b***h").

Anyway, those stars are my votes. The names of the planets we can all vote on, later; those are just some ideas, and I'm not wedded to them. I did, however, like the notion of having a formal name that reflects the marketing hype/hope for the future, and then a nickname that reflects the challenges the initial colonists actually faced. :)

As for the names of the colonies on each planet, and who sponsored them, that should be a fun discussion.

Originally Posted by Frost

23) When did interstellar exploration and colonisation get underway?

I'll go with 23c. That gives us time to get expertise with successful colonies on Luna and Mars, and a number of habitats built in the belt. That preps us, nicely, for the discovery of FTL, and it's not so distant in the future that it would render Earth polities unrecognizable.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Frost

22) Where are our colonies? For ease of counting I am tempted to assume that the major colony systems orbit sun like stars so to simplify my work please pick up to five from the first list here.

22) Tau Ceti, 82 Eridani, Delta Pavonis, Sigma Draconis, and V538 Aurigae

Originally Posted by Frost

23) When did interstellar exploration and colonisation get underway?

A) 2075-2100
B) 2101-2125
C) 2126-2150
D) 2151-2175

23) A

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

22) Tau Ceti, 82 Eridani, Delta Pavonis, Sigma Draconis, and V538 Aurigae

So that looks like the first 4 off the first list, but then with Sigma Draconis added in. Could you tell us about why S. Draconis would be good?

[TGLS]

My guess is that it is good because the unconfirmed gas giant is close enough to the star to have a blackbody temperature of 249K (by GURPS Space rules), which is warm enough for a garden world, albeit a little chilly.

[dataweaver]

Although the vote was against aliens, you should still have alien life, or else you won't have habitable worlds beyond Earth: terraforming takes to long given the setting assumptions, so colony worlds need to come pre-terraformed (that is, with native life that's built up a significant oxygen content in the atmosphere).