This is my entry to the 2nd Exode Planetary Challenge.
Well this challenge certainly got me thinking, day and night as it turns out, about how to keep 8 crew members alive for 90 days in a remote solar system with only 4 cargo slots on the Baldie Shuttle, an empty fuel tank and potential attacks by alien hostiles.
It is not an easy task.
Planet, Moon or Asteroid ?
There were 3 options of where to land:
- an ocean planet with some tiny islands,
- a barren moon orbiting the planet or
- an asteroid orbiting at the L3 lagrange point of the planet (opposite side of orbit).
Some of my crew have said that such an orbit seems a bit too perfect to be natural, but my knowledge of orbital mechanics tells me that it is perfectly natural for objects to accumulate at lagrange points, precisely because they are stable orbits.
Given the very limited cargo slots on a Baldie Shuttle and the fact that the fuel tank will be dry upon landing, getting sufficient food, water, energy and air/life support to support 8 crew members for 90 days seems like an impossible task unless you can, in the worlds of my friend Dr Robert Zubrin (founder of the Mars Society)
Live off the land.
As the resources of the moon and asteroid are unknown but don't appear to include air, water or food I'm opting for the planet.
DANGER Will Robinson!
But there are some obvious dangers (and probably some not so obvious ones).
Tiny, low-lying islands on an ocean planet with a sizeable moon is a recipe for flooding - perhaps not massive tidal waves like on the movie Interstellar - the planet in this film was orbiting a black hole so tidal forces enormous - but enough to cause a problem if not dealt with.
Secondly, 90 days exposed on a tiny island without anywhere to run or hide if the nasty aliens attack again. Not my idea of a tropical holiday.
My solution Part 1 - Underground construction
Underground construction solves both problems with one common card.
Given that the Baldie Shuttle is scrappable and is obviously itself pressurised (as its a space vehicle) the combination of Underground Construction and the Baldie Shuttle should be able to provide a safe, stealthy, pressurised, waterproof underground space for us to live for the 90 days.
I have a detailed plan on how to proceed.
My Initial Plan
Before landing we will survey the planet from low (fast) orbit by Mark One Eyeball and the Baldie's limited scanners. The purpose of this scan to to identify the most suitable island (biggest, highest) and, most importantly, determine the tidal frequency and the extent of tidal flooding of islands.
We will plan our landing to give us the maximum possible time before any tidal flooding to install the Underground Construction and get the Baldie safely inside it.
Our underground base will have multiple discreet snorkels which will protrude higher than any wave or tide to enable us to use the planet's nitrogen & oxygen atmosphere for our life support air, even if our island is completely submerged.
Managing Resources
This is my full cargo manifest.
The Foodie Moodie will provide 90 x 3 = 270 food portions and 90 x 1 Happy Soda (water) portions.
Combined with the Soup and Cook that gives me 470 food portions and 190 water portions.
That's still not enough to support 8 humans for 9 days, but fortunately three of my crew are not human.
My solution Part 2 - Robots
Meet my friendly (and not so friendly) Robots.
... and my mysterious non-human passenger. I don't know anything about it, apart from the crucial fact that it doesn't need food, water or air and is autonomous in its energy requirements.
This brings me down to just 5 mouths to feed, which is just within in food capacity. 5 x 90 = 450 food portions at survival level.
Given I am surrounded by water and the Baldie has life support systems which must re-process liquids it shouldn't be a problem to rig up the Baldie's systems to turn the ocean water into fresh water.
Supplementing the food ration
So far I've described bare survival on minimum rations in a hole in the ground, but I do have hopes to improve things, perhaps turn it into a true island holiday.
Firstly, I've brought along a Rare Plants Collection.
I'm hoping that there is a place on the island with decent soil and above the flood line where I can plant them and create a beautiful, and hopefully edible, garden. I'm also hoping there might be some edible native plants growing on the island - alien coconuts anyone?
The Rare Plants garden will also serve as a subtle marker of our presence for when our rescue party arrives in 90 days in case our communications have broken down and my Tech Expert can't fix them. Hopefully nasty aliens won't know they are not native to the planet but our friends will.
If this is not possible, I'll plant them underground and use artificial light.
I'm also hoping that my crew can learn to fish and that what comes in on the line is edible and not too dangerous.
My officers are a heavily armed and armoured bunch with heaps of combat experience. I think they, with the assistance of Kilbot, should be able to handle a big fish or sea monster and prepare it for a nice BBQ. Shen can patch up anyone who gets injured.
The unhappiness from living underground will be more than offset by our happy food and soda.
So at worst my crew will survive and at best they will have a lovely Island Holiday.
You can see my full deck here
Nice, I thought about the underground construction as well but in the end opted for the happy five and lots of guns. Maybe it’ll float ;)
I think the Underground construction is an immense idea!
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