Where does Firefly Traveller take place (continued)?

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 4:00 AM

I thought I was ready to move on to the next stage of the project, but I realized that there were still some things rattling around that need to be tied down before I did.

So, we have travel times and distances and we have a star catalog to work with. Now we have to set up the actual planets. Firefly has a distinct Core-Periphery geography. The star catalog gives us a range of possible sizes for the core between 20 and 30 light years in diameter from Earth-that-was. Outside this close cluster of stars are the ‘rim’. Firefly doesn’t refer to any star names that we are familiar with, but they don’t really mention any star names at all, they refer to planets. So, there’s no contradiction in saying that Firefly takes place in near Earth space (of course there is no proof it does, at least not yet).

We have the star locations, and if you have an old Universe or Traveller 2300/2300 AD map, you even can see it graphically. What we don’t have are planets and moons around these stars. This is where the Traveller part of the project makes things really easy. Traveller has all kinds of rules for populating star systems. In fact, you don’t even need to roll the dice yourself any more. This site: http://www.downport.com/wbd/HEAVEN_&_EARTH.htm has the whole thing automated and it’s freeware! You can generate individual worlds or entire star systems in just a couple of minutes.

Now we can begin exploring… But what exactly is humanity looking for? At this point we have to make some assumptions about technology and terraforming to figure out what a really good star system looks like.

The first assumption is that you can terraform. That’s important because it means you don’t need to find earth like planets, but something that can be turned into earth like planets. Traveller doesn’t have artificial gravity at the planetary level, but Firefly does (Serenity), so that means size isn’t that important issue as long as the planet isn’t too big. Terraforming can also create an atmosphere where one doesn’t exist or is not like Earth’s (Serenity). We also know that even in 2500 terraforming is dangerous (as the teaser from Shindig makes clear). Another thing that is necessary, but not mentioned in Firefly, is a magnetic field to shield the planet from stellar radiation. So, if a planet doesn’t have a magnetic field, you have to induce one.

So, here are my assumptions about terraforming in Firefly. It involves mining deep into the planetary crust near both poles (that’s the dangerous part) to:

1) induce a magnetic field (if you don’t have one)

2) enhance gravity up to 1G (equal to Earth’s gravity).

You also need water (since it’s necessary for human life). So, what you really want is an ‘ice-ball’, that is planet with a lot of water, but in solid state (so you can mine through it at the poles and not have to worry about your projects flooding). Closer to Earth size is better (less gravity to induce). Once the magnetic field and gravity are in place, you can induce an atmosphere to warm up the planet and melt the ice into water. Seed with plants and animals, and you’ve got a livable world.

Next, we start exploring near Earth space and building the future history… (unless I see some more holes that need to be filled).

Thanks for joining me for the ride.

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