Solar System Vs. Galaxy
POSTED BY: MadJack
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 17:41
VIEWED: 40136
PAGE 10 of 14
While I find the idea of our solar system being the one in Firefly attractive, and I like the idea of one solar system even better, I can't ignore the existence of the leaked map from the movie. Lest we think the artist who drew it wasn't the one chosen by Joss, two facts:
1) His money was clearly chosen (see the image of prop money from the movie - it's the same as the one in the leaked map image).
2) He's the author of a rather realistic Star Trek charts book. The style is the same on the Firefly map - and as a maker of realistic star charts, he's an obvious choice for Joss.
That's why I've reluctantly modified my belief in one solar system and gone to the four systems shown in his map. If we assume his map was to scale - even including the planets (and that they weren't just expanded views overlaid on the stars) - then you get something like what I put together in the Blue Sun Room image. And FTL isn't necessary! A subluminal colony ship would have made the exodus there over the course of a long time (hundred years?), and then people settled it.
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Version 2 of my speculative system map has been posted in the Blue Sun Room at:
www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=1737#7166
I've been working on this for a while, put it away, then saw some of the recent promotional material for Serenity that (too my mind at least) reinfoces the single system theory.
Planets are not shown to scale. Only planets are shown, but we can assume each planet has a large system of moons. The names of named planets (in bold) and moons (regular text) are shown. I did not include any scales or distances, since we have so little information on that it's hard to be accurate. If we assume the sun is a Blue Sun (which would make for the largest life zones possible) than maybe the outermost orbit shown is 10 AUs or more out.
I am assuming there are other orbits beyond the ones shown in the uninhabitable zone.
As to the question of why the outer planets, furthest from the sun, seem hot and desertlike - a heavy greenhouse effect, which as part of terraforming is needed to keep the outer planets at a stable temperature.
This was done in Poser and Photoshop.
Enjoy!
Hans
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http://chud.com/interviews/980
_________________________________________________
Q: Does Serenity go faster than light?
Joss: I don't think so.
Q: Are the planets really close together?
Joss: They’re really close together. You’ve never seen a planet cluster like this one. It’s a little planet village. If you start asking me science questions I’m going to cry.
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No wonder there is so much confusion about this. Joss doesn't even know for sure...
Oh, and play Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. http://digital-eel.com/sais
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Me, a long time ago: "am I the only one campaigning for single system, no FTL?"
Win! 
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Thank you thank you thank you Shiny (and Joss) for answering this one! I know, it's vague. But it's pretty gorram clear Joss WISHES it could be non-FTL, even if the science doesn't QUITE add up.
I'm sticking with my own close-star-cluster approach to my Firefly campaign now :)
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I don't know if anyone has read Kim Stanley Robinson's "(Red, Green, Blue) Mars" books but by the end he has folks terraforming Pluto! I think any society that manipulates gravity as easily as is done in firefly could move a whole lot of energy out of the "temperate zone" of a solar system using gravitational lensing. You might even be able to 'densen' (sorry for making up words here but my major was politics not Physics or English) a gas giant enough to make yourself a small star. If you have the gravity technology you can move mountains or steady orbits. On the fringes though, politically speaking, planets will have less access to the resources of society. So gravity tech might be sparse on Whitefall or othersuch places.
Zoe told us (which episode?) that when teraforming folks made planets as much like earth that was as could be; atmo, bio, gravity. She specifically mentioned gravity so a place like our moon might be made just a little denser so it could hold atmo (and settlers) down.
I think this helps the single system theory a great deal. You can teraform all the way to Oort if you want to with grave tech and fusion.
Of course any culture with grav tech and fusion is probably right on the cusp (at least) of FTL. Infinite energy and the ability to manipulate space-time? That'll get you past PGF pretty gorramn fast, won't it?
I also like Single system better in the Civil War metaphor. I want Unification to be a war of brother vs brother. A fight between neighbors. Not "Starship Troopers" or "Forever War" but rather "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
And for all you folks who say we're missing the point, and "It's about the characters." Well, duh. But it's Hard to run a D20 Future firefly campaign without knowing where stuff is. You know my players are gonna ask!
Furthermore, Serenity is my favorite character and I wanna know how gorramn fast she goes!
Well, that's my two cents, argue on, 
"Though I may be crucified one thousand times over, I will never serve another master"
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Quote:
Originally posted by xenocide:
Of course any culture with grav tech and fusion is probably right on the cusp (at least) of FTL.
That's assuming faster-than-light travel is even possible. I for one really doubt that it is.
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True about FTL being unlikely, but grav tech is also rather improbable. Not to say impossible! Just as unlikely as FTL. And I always do wonder why somehow, as the atmo goes on in the airlock in the pilot episode, the grav does too...that's some heavy air :)
And yes, I agree - it's about the characters and story - but as a person running an RPG, I deal with players wanting to know how long it takes to get places. I use ~ 3x Pluto distance as the absolute limit of my terraformed planets, Saint Albans being one at that distance (i.e., gorram cold).
And the grav lensing approach is more or less what I go with - I'm incorporating the idea of Blue Sun mucking with grav tech for more aggressive terraforming as the basis of my campaign (hope my players aren't reading this!).
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While watching the show, I never really thought of whether there was FTL travel or not. I always assumed they would have to go to different solar systems to be able to land on planets, which had the same light as earth, same type of plant life, and same atmosphere.
I can't imagine any of the habitable planets being moons on gas giants because of the days weeks, or even months of darkness that may occur. They would have to be planets with orbits similar to that of the earths orbit. Even a planet with the orbit of Mars, would be darker at the equator then the earth. An orbit of Mercury would be too hot to sustain life without the use of a sheltered environment. You could terraform a planet like Pluto, but still would never make it habitable for life without life support. You cannot terraform a planet to make the Sun closer, and you cannot terraform a planet to increase its mass to hold an atmosphere.
Though it is possible to have multiple planets in an earth type orbit around a sun, it is unlikely there would be multiple planets like Earth around one sun.
There would have to be FTL travel in firefly. Even in the closest star clusters the stars would be more then 1 light year apart.
JT
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