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#1 2007-10-26 14:49:28

Terraformer
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From: Ceres
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,800
Website

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

I've come up with an idea for a story in which the worlds first mars colony ship has been launched then Earth gets slammed by an asteroid, leaving the colonists all that remains of the human race.


"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony

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#2 2007-10-27 07:09:43

JoshNH4H
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From: Pullman, WA
Registered: 2007-07-15
Posts: 2,538
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Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Sounds like a great beginning.  What if they decide to go to your ceres, instead, or somewhere else?


-Josh

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#3 2007-10-27 07:18:58

Terraformer
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From: Ceres
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,800
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Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Why would they want to? Mars already has a hab for them. I suppose a few could split off and go to Ceres or a Jovian Moon.


"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony

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#4 2007-10-27 10:09:35

JoshNH4H
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From: Pullman, WA
Registered: 2007-07-15
Posts: 2,538
Website

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

maybe they decide to live on a piece of earth that was knocked off, maybe they build the hab on earth itself, as, even after being hit with a large asteroid, it would be the friendliest of all of the worlds.


-Josh

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#5 2007-10-27 13:17:20

Belinda
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From: UK
Registered: 2004-12-03
Posts: 31

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

...Earth gets slammed by an asteroid, leaving the colonists all that remains of the human race.

I once read a story along these lines, the Earth destroyed by the 3rd World War (so it would've been during the Cold War, a very long time ago) leaving colonists on Mars to make-out on their own. Probably another John Wyndham - ?

Cheers,

Belinda

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#6 2007-10-27 14:16:58

Terraformer
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From: Ceres
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,800
Website

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Of course, the moon could get slammed instead, destablising its orbit and sending it crashing into the Earth. To use K.A Applegates phrase from Remnats: The Mayflower project; It would be like whacking a sledgehammer into a melon. Bang.


"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony

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#7 2007-10-31 21:28:51

Tom Kalbfus
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Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Why would they want to? Mars already has a hab for them. I suppose a few could split off and go to Ceres or a Jovian Moon.

The Hab, like all things mechanical has a limited design life, eventually it was expected to be replaced with another Hab and the current one abandoned, but with Earth reset, this is not going to happen, so they figure they'd better use their Earth Return Vehicles while they still function.

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#8 2007-10-31 21:33:47

Tom Kalbfus
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Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Another version of thie story is from the point of view of Earth, in this case Mars, from their point of view gets replaced. The new one is a terraformed Mars that was terraformed by a much older Earth that they replaced, the Mars here got left behind. This Marshas had 5,000 years of human occupancy. In the course of human events, the Earth of this frame advanced to a new level while the 21st century Earth replaces it. Mars meanwhile has regressed, its society has gone backwards to some extend, although the effects of the terraforming remain in place, the planet is littered with artifacts, and dotted with cities along the shoreline of a new ocean.

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#9 2007-11-01 07:37:44

Terraformer
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From: Ceres
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,800
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Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Er... Tom, are you on about your book idea?


"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony

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#10 2007-11-02 08:21:53

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Asteroid, Earth, Colony; ingredients for a book?

Er... Tom, are you on about your book idea?

I have a premise, basically that the world we see around us is a simulated reality, the Universe is basically a vast computer running multiple programs at once, it is the result of a very ancient civilization, that civilization felt that as it spread through the Universe, its presence its presence was distrupting the evolution and development of other races younger than itself, so as it colonized and appropriated the resources of each star system by dismembering planets and building Dyson shells around each star to obtain energy, it created simulated reality programs of each star system in its natural state, and it isolated each star system from the others so the more advanced civilizations wouldn't interfere with the less developed ones. In this way, from the aliens benevelent point of view, it is protecting each species development by letting them evolve under simulation programs without interference by the rest of the Universe. These aliens have spread through many galaxies and have long since discarded the organic real bodies for simulated ones and robots when they want to interact with the real world. The Earth astronomers therefore look to the heavens and find no signs of extraterrestrial civilizations. And I'm trying to decide which plotline would make for a more interesting story. Since this is New Mars, perhaps they'd like to see the situation from the Earth's point of view where a younger Mars gets replaced with an older Mars, or perhaps they'd like the point of view of the 20 Martian colonists that get left behind.

A third plot point has nothing to do with Mars. In another simulation there is another Earth, but this one orbits one of the Suns of the Alpha Centauri System, that is why I made up an Alpha Centauri Calendar. Because Alpha Centauri A is brighter, this other Earth orbits farther away and that makes its year 489 days long, this adds a week to each month. When I get around to it, I'm going to try to make up a history for this alternate Earth, an Earth that evolved under two suns. Under broad categories, this Earth had a similar history to our own, there was a time when dinosaurs walked Earth, those dinosaurs became extinct etc. That history may or may not have actually occured, it could be simply that one Earth was an echo of the other, but the Human race evolved on this other planet, developed its first civilizations and its own history that is unique and seperate from the Earth in the Solar System.

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