Creating and alien from Jupiter

[Hide]

Let's pretend life exists/is possible in Jupiter, and that said life managed to rise in the shapes we commonly find on earth.

The human-equivalent creatures from Jupiter could live in planet earth if they wanted, but they are fine in their small gas/liquid world; what would be the advantages required for said creatures, considering the following? (I am including the advantages that may solve the issue in parenthesis)

• Hydrogen and Helium atmosphere. (doesn't breathe)
• The pressure is one one-thousandth (0.001?) that found at the surface of Earth. Pressure on the troposphere (maybe 10 bar). (pressure support 3)
• Temperatures from -260°F (-160°C) to 1,340°F (725°C). (temperature tolerance 20)
• Jupiter's magnetic field is almost 20,000 times as powerful as Earth. (radiation immunity)
• Gravity of 2.528 g. (Improved G-Tolerance, 5g)

I am looking forward to your comments,
Thanks!

[Refplace]

Have you looked at GURPS Template Toolkit 2: Races?
P. 19 gives you the starting points at the least.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Have you looked at GURPS Template Toolkit 2: Races?
P. 19 gives you the starting points at the least.

Mhh.. did not know about that book, so also, I don't have it =o

[ericthered]

Where on jupiter do these critters live? that matters a lot. Is it in the atmosphere, or at the surface? (which is impossibly far down and high pressure and high temperature)

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Hide

• Hydrogen and Helium atmosphere. (doesn't breathe)
• The pressure is one one-thousandth (0.001?) that found at the surface of Earth. (pressure support 3)
• Temperatures from -260°F (-160°C) to 1,340°F (725°C). (temperature tolerance 20)
• Jupiter's magnetic field is almost 20,000 times as powerful as Earth. (radiation immunity)
• Gravity of 2.528 g. (Improved G-Tolerance, 5g)

I am perplexed by the figure you give for pressure. I think of Jupiter as an exremely dense atmosphere, not as having an extremely rarefied one. I suppose that that's entirely a matter of altitude, but where are these people living that has a trace atmosphere, and what supports them there?

[whswhs]

Most of these traits are zero point features. It doesn't cost anything to be able to survive in your native environment, any more than it costs a fish points to have Doesn't Breathe (Gills)—unless it's a lungfish than can breathe air as well as water.

What they pay for is the ability to function on Earth without dying, if that's what you mean them to have. (If they have to stay inside massive life support systems, that's Increased Life Support.)

[Varyon]

I'd expect creatures in a gas giant to have Flight of some flavor, although it's possible it won't be useful on Earth. 0.001 atmospheres is well below the maximum for Trace atmosphere, so you'll need Vacuum Support (note also this means you need some sort of Space Flight above, although making it reliant on having a trace atmosphere would be a legitimate Limitation). The creatures are probably reliant on hydrogen rather than not needing to breathe at all (see Template Toolkits 2 for the relevant traits). If the Jovian atmosphere is indeed high in ionizing radiation (Jupiter's nasty radiation belts are outside of its atmosphere, so the moons get ionized but I'm not sure the atmosphere itself does), a sufficient level of Regeneration with either Heals Radiation (if it also heals wounds) or Radiation Only (if it only heals rads) is more appropriate than Radiation Immunity (particularly as the latter still allows for damage from radiation - see GURPS Zombies - so even with it you'll likely want some means to heal accumulated rads).

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'd expect creatures in a gas giant to have Flight of some flavor, although it's possible it won't be useful on Earth. 0.001 atmospheres is well below the maximum for Trace atmosphere, so you'll need Vacuum Support (note also this means you need some sort of Space Flight above, although making it reliant on having a trace atmosphere would be a legitimate Limitation). The creatures are probably reliant on hydrogen rather than not needing to breathe at all (see Template Toolkits 2 for the relevant traits). If the Jovian atmosphere is indeed high in ionizing radiation (Jupiter's nasty radiation belts are outside of its atmosphere, so the moons get ionized but I'm not sure the atmosphere itself does), a sufficient level of Regeneration with either Heals Radiation (if it also heals wounds) or Radiation Only (if it only heals rads) is more appropriate than Radiation Immunity (particularly as the latter still allows for damage from radiation - see GURPS Zombies - so even with it you'll likely want some means to heal accumulated rads).

GURPS Zombies describes how radiation interacts with ITMH, Immunity to Radiation [5] works differently and is described in GURPS Disasters: Meltdown and Fallout.

You'll probably want some mix of:

Immunity to Radiation* [5]
Radiation Tolerance 1,000 [45]
Regeneration: Extreme (Radiation only, -60%) [60]

though you won't need the full 110 points, which would allow you ignore 100,000 rads per second! or 8,640,000,000 rads per day.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I am perplexed by the figure you give for pressure. I think of Jupiter as an exremely dense atmosphere, not as having an extremely rarefied one. I suppose that that's entirely a matter of altitude, but where are these people living that has a trace atmosphere, and what supports them there?

Yeah, now that you mention it, I realized I got carried away by the data and provided different information... it should be the troposphere, while I provided the data for the stratosphere.

I think it should be 1 bar, but I am not sure about this. I would like to believe there's some kind of liquid surface deep within the planet and very few patches of "land" in a "planetary scale".

(I am not very familiar with this part).

Originally Posted by ericthered

Where on jupiter do these critters live? that matters a lot. Is it in the atmosphere, or at the surface? (which is impossibly far down and high pressure and high temperature)

The troposphere, but the aliens should be capable of withstanding the pressure/temperature of the troposphere and the thermosphere.

Originally Posted by whswhs

Most of these traits are zero point features. It doesn't cost anything to be able to survive in your native environment, any more than it costs a fish points to have Doesn't Breathe (Gills)—unless it's a lungfish than can breathe air as well as water.

What they pay for is the ability to function on Earth without dying, if that's what you mean them to have. (If they have to stay inside massive life support systems, that's Increased Life Support.)

Oh, I understand. Since I didn't know how to start with Jupiter I presented you with a human template, modified to survive in Jupiter. But maybe the other ways is better. Thanks Bill, also nice to see you around.

Originally Posted by Varyon

(...) 0.001 atmospheres is well below the maximum for Trace atmosphere, so you'll need Vacuum Support (...) Heals Radiation (if it also heals wounds) or Radiation Only (if it only heals rads) is more appropriate than Radiation Immunity (particularly as the latter still allows for damage from radiation - see GURPS Zombies - so even with it you'll likely want some means to heal accumulated rads).

I will take this into consideration, thanks!

If my OP doesn't make sense, suggestions are OK.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Hide

I think it should be 1 bar, but I am not sure about this. I would like to believe there's some kind of liquid surface deep within the planet and very few patches of "land" in a "planetary scale".

The states of matter inside Jupiter are really weird. I recommend a look at the Wikipedia article, at least. I'm not sure it has a liquid surface; it may be simply that the atmospheric density increased with decreasing altitude until you reach a point where the "liquid" and "gas" states are no longer distinct, without a definite surface (that is, it's a supercritical fluid, as discussed in GURPS Powers: The Weird). I'm pretty sure that pressure is way above 1 bar.