For school, I was to create a fantastical still life rendering. I chose a sci-fi planet theme that is a continuation of a painting I did a few years back, and got cracking. I finished the planets relatively quickly. Most textures were either made by me or modified from existing free ones. I still had a week left on it and decided to really push this. I spent the next 10 or 12 hours total modelling a space station from scratch. And to top it off, I added a very complex back-story that I spent hours researching, that you can read below. I'm sorry if the story isn't terribly original, but I put a lot of work into it. There may be something that scientifically makes no sense, and I humbly ask that you excuse it.
[T]http://i43.tinypic.com/2mgs4xu.jpg[/T]
STORY:
•November of 2173. For the last 20 years, humanity has been desperately seeking another planet to harvest resources, and possibly even colonize...our search may be over.
In the late 21st century, Earth's 9.5 billion and growing population began to take an enormous toll on the planet's ability to provide. Hunger, poverty, severe shortage of resources, and many other augmenting issues began causing widespread fear and unrest. Rising temperatures have shortened the growing season in the tropics and subtropics, causing crippling droughts, and forcing many to look to alternative sources for food. Soil fertility is on the decline. Excessive consumption of organic life forms began rendering some species nearly extinct. Earth is simply losing its ability to sustain life....however, as problems arose, so did solutions.
In 2104, to curtail growth rates, many countries around the world have implemented a two-child only policy. Some countries such as The Democratic People's Republic of China even proposed mandatory sterilization after two children--a cruel but necessary condition.
By 2119, over 1.2 billion residents lived on Mars, taking some of the weight off of Earth—all thanks to the research efforts of MIT, NASA and numerous other organizations in 2027, which concluded that longterm exposure to Martian gravity wouldn’t have adverse effects on humans living there. In 2042, The United States sent a large group of astronauts and paid volunteers to live for 8 months on Mars. Before returning to Earth, participants were required to wear lead suits for at least two hours a day to simulate Earth gravity, and therefore re-acclimate their bodies. No major health risks were reported. Any one wanting to travel to Earth is therefore always urged to re-acclimate their bodies to avoid any health risks.
In 2041, fossil fuels were becoming scarce. In response to this shortage, The United Nations erected a treaty that restricted use of crude oil to research purposes only. As a result, wind, solar and other renewable energies have become the primary source of power. This effectively eliminated issues with air pollution, and to an extent, curbed rising temperatures.
However, all of these solutions were only temporary—resources were still dwindling. Humanity needed a bigger solution...
Thanks to extensive research, the discovery and implementation of superluminal speeds in 2145 has finally allowed the possibility of traveling vast distances in more-than-reasonable amounts of time. By 2153, more than 20 research starships have dispersed to nearby systems, to study known planets in orbital sweet-spots or find others. Xen, (seen pictured above) is one of those planets, discovered in 2170 in an uncharted system of constellation Lyra--a very manageable 51 light years from Earth.
Xen is the closest of eight natural satellites orbiting their primary Kerros, a hydrogen helium gas giant. Its physiology yields that it is a garden world, riddled with vast oceans, and large continents containing dense forests of bioluminescent fungi that can be seen on the dark side of the planet. It is an almost perfect vector for human habitation. Temperatures average at a comfortable 21 degrees Celcius. Xen's diameter is 11,117 km (roughly 0.87 times that of Earth). The atmosphere is similar to our planet in that Nitrogen makes up most of the composition (about 70%). Xen's atmospheric pressure at sea level is 0.97 atm, negligibly lesser than Earth.
Unfortunately, there are issues as well. 23% of the atmosphere is krypton, a noble gas that gives the planet's atmosphere its distinctive yellow-green color. The remaining 7% is a combination of oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon and other inert gases. Therefore, short term exposure in the biosphere without protection should be harmless, but the lack of sufficient oxygen will eventually lead to asphyxiation. So, in its current state, habitability without a controlled indoor environment or a breathing mask is impossible--though only a minor issue at the degree of desperation humanity is in. Another issue is gravity. Due to a greater density than Earth, gravity is 1.3 times that of Earth's. This higher amount of gravity would take some getting used to. Individuals with health problems--weight issues, weak or brittle bones (such as the elderly or infants), etc. may have trouble adapting. Xen also has a rotation period of 2.1 days; meaning humans would also have to adapt their internal clocks to days roughly twice as long as that of Earth's.
Still, not only is Xen more than capable of sustaining human life, but the possibility of terra-forming is not out of reach. That's where the ORPs (Orbital Research Platforms) come in. Pictured above is ORP 7 "Icarus". Icarus is one of three ORPs orbiting Xen (total of ten in the system), built by astronauts from the Transnational Space Research Administration in 2170 shortly after the planet's discovery. Since Xen's atmosphere has a similar nitrogen composition to Earth, it may be possible to slowly adapt the local flora to a more oxygen rich environment. Numerous theories on how to terra-form the environment have sprung up. Some have proposed constructing massive biosphere filtration towers. These towers would penetrate the atmosphere from sea level, and use a series of enormous turbines connected to a giant tube 30 km in diameter to essentially flush the krypton out of the inner biosphere and into space, and filtering the environment with oxygen. This would of course be a laborious undertaking. Construction of even one of these towers could take years of planning and the power consumption would be enormous. Once completed, the terra-forming process could take years to complete, depending on how many towers are built, and the total output of the towers. Indeed a massive, resource intensive and expensive endeavor...but not impossible.
Sadly, this idea, as well any other proposal was scrapped. That's because there is one more problem in the mix. Xen is home to a small handful of non-sentient multi-cellular organisms. While plant and other single-celled life forms could be adapted to a more oxygen rich environment, these indigenous species will perish while their newly modified biosphere takes shape. While there is a very small amount of these creatures on Xen, the populace is large enough to be a question of ethics. Both NASA and the TSRA have received major opposition from various animal rights groups from across the globe--some of which have gone as far as making terroristic threats. The TSRA have tried to assure these groups that the survival of the human race is at stake and that the "unfortunate extinction of these incognizant organisms is a necessary evil." This wasn't acceptable. Many said that by extinguishing these life forms, we are preventing Xen's natural evolutionary process from taking place--we could hinder an entire future civilization from flourishing. That we are, in essence, performing "abortion on a planetary scale. " Thus, terra-forming is simply not an option. We needed to compromise, both for civil placidity, and preservation of Xen's early "embryonic" lifeforms.
The solution is simple: do not alter Xen's atmospheric composition, just contain ourselves within it. With controlled indoor environments, humans can establish small colonies and build larger ones from there. Subterranean facilities and living quarters can also be established relatively easily and in shorter time it would take to construct superterranean structures. Orbital scans show that Xen's air contains no toxic spores of any kind. This means that humans can literally go outside with a flip-flops, a t-shirt and shorts (at their own risk) provided they are wearing proper breathing equipment (much like Pandora in the Avatar universe). ORP 3 "Mizuchi" in charge of studying the oceans of Xen, have determined that the any toxins can be easily processed and filtered out through a complex filtration system for human use. Geodesic greenhouses can be used to grow Earth vegetables/crops, and even raise livestock.
In November of 2173, the TSRA announced they have began construction of minor facilities, and plan to start allowing civilian residence by 2190.
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