What if Alpha Centauri has no planets?

[Magma_Dragoon]

NASA has plans for a pair of space observatories know as TPF (terrestrial planet finders) with an estimated launch date around 2015. This suite of orbital satilites will use multiple individual telescopes to cancel out the glare of the parent stars to make the planets orbiting them visible. It will also be able to determine the density, temperature, and composition of a planet's atmosphere using a spectrometer.
This game has long held the assumption that there is an Earth-like planet in the AC system. What will happen to future incarnations of Civ (and SMAC is right out the window) if TPF finds no such planet? Perhaps send our ship to Beta Hydri or Sigma Draconis or some other star similar to the Sun?
And what if there IS a planet orbiting the binary star system AC? How weird would that be? (Is Sid from the future or something?)

Here's a link to the TPF site if anyone is interested (its interesting!) http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_index.cfm

 

[Kesshi]

This game has long held the assumption that there is an Earth-like planet in the AC system. What will happen to future incarnations of Civ (and SMAC is right out the window) if TPF finds no such planet? Perhaps send our ship to Beta Hydri or Delta Draconis or some other star similar to the Sun?

Magma_Dragoon,

Any trip to Alpha Centauri would take hundreds of years with current technology. I don't think we'll be as worried about what we'll happen to Civ when this time comes.

 

[Dryhad]

Magma_Dragoon,

Any trip to Alpha Centauri would take hundreds of years with current technology. I don't think we'll be as worried about what we'll happen to Civ when this time comes.

It's not a trip to Alpha Centauri, it's an advanced telescope specifically designed to be able to see planets.

I foresee no great inconvenience to Civ7 or whatever number we're up to by the time this gets up in the sky. While the "colonise Alpha Centauri" thing is something of a iconic part of the game, it would be easy to simply state that it's a different star they're colonising; or simply not name the star or planet at all.

 

[Iranon]

Simple. We change the spaceship to the Death Star and blow up earth.

 

[Charlie_B]

Hopefully everyone will become disillusioned with space and stop spending such obscene amounts of money on "my spaceship is bigger than yours" missions to flex their national egos.

And as for Civ, would it really matter?

 

[GeoModder]

Hopefully everyone will become disillusioned with space and stop spending such obscene amounts of money on "my spaceship is bigger than yours" missions to flex their national egos.

From the look of it you're only too glad to use the fruits of space missions. How do you think your last post is brought to other continents of this world?

 

[Napalm102]

They will pick the next closest star system to sol and make a mission to go there. Or maybe you will have to have a two phase space race, the first SS gets to alpha centari, finds out that there are no habitable planets and then you have to build a new SS to go somewhere else

 

[Negator_UK]

I have a more important question than this threads title..

What if you got to Alpha Centuri and your life support pod dropped you 15 feet out onto a cold hard floor, then you cracked your skull and died having travelled all that way for nothing

 

[Kesshi]

I have a more important question than this threads title..

What if you got to Alpha Centuri and your life support pod dropped you 15 feet out onto a cold hard floor, then you cracked your skull and died having travelled all that way for nothing

Negator_UK,

Believe it or not, this is something that has happened more than once in human history. Humans have always been fascinated with the unknown, and have gone through great peril to travel somewhere new. Often times ending up worse off than they were, or possibly dead. One excellent example that most of us computer gamers know about is The Oregon Trail. It was a very fun game where you had to manage a family trying to immigrate to Oregon via wagon and all the hardships that came along with it. It became sort of an internet meme not too far back, and spawned this shirt:

As funny as it is, it is also true to life. Many people travelling along the Oregon Trail died.

Also Magellan was given credit for the first single voyage circumnavigation of the globe (they named the small body of water where South America and Antartica are the closest the Straights of Magellan.) However did you know that while his ship circumnavigated the globe, he did not? Magellan died before the trip was complete, but his crew sailed on.

So while you are trying to invoke some humour into the situation, your kinda stumbled into an excellent point. Often times humans spend enormious amounts of money, and sometimes their lives, for something that doesn't exst or something futile.

Another great example is Mars. We've all been speculating that there might be life on mars. Well we sent many devices up there only to find out that there is no life. How? Many of these devices had/have some sort of scanning device that can scan for life in one way or another. We came up empty. Our desire to not be alone in the immediate universe caused us to waste tons of money on a device to search for life where there is none. And don't think we won't do it again! Titan, Jupiter's largest moon, is next. Now that the whole "Mars has life!" fiasco is dead (sorry for the bad pun ) people have moved onto "Titan has life!"

My point is, humans waste a lot of resources, including our own lives, on silly things. But that's our nature; to seek out and explore that which we don't know. Often times that means doing something wrong 100 times so we can discover 100 ways to not do something.

 

[r_rolo1]

Technically Magalhães ( Why do people insist in the Castillian form? He was Portuguese after all .... ) did make a world round trip: he had been in Molucas and Phillipines before coming from the other side of the world

On topic: First I would be surprised if a 3 star system could have a planet, even more a Earth like one.... Second, it would only need to change the name of the destiny in the game... haven't you noticed that in Civ IV the SS destination is almost not spoken about?

P.S On mars: I would not be surprised to find Earth like microorganisms in Mars: all the interior solar system planet exchange material ( due to meteor colisions ) and it is proved that earth bacteria can hold in space conditions ( for how long no one knows, but surely more than a dozen years with some luck ). A lucky bacteria that landed in Mars would call it heaven....

 

[GeoModder]

Titan, Jupiter's largest moon, is next.

Actually, Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon. Titan is Saturn's largest moon.

 

[GeoModder]

P.S On mars: I would not be surprised to find Earth like microorganisms in Mars: all the interior solar system planet exchange material ( due to meteor colisions ) and it is proved that earth bacteria can hold in space conditions ( for how long no one knows, but surely more than a dozen years with some luck ). A lucky bacteria that landed in Mars would call it heaven....

There's more chance earth bacteria will/have travel(ed) to Mars by way of the probes then by space on their own. Gravity works again the latter method.

 

[Negator_UK]

So while you are trying to invoke some humour into the situation

Not me, Firaxis - have you seen how far the guy in the space victory video falls ??

Damned unsafe spaceship design if you ask me... Magellan caught the pox like a lot of his men, a sane and noble risk by comparison .

 

[Kesshi]

Actually, Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon. Titan is Saturn's largest moon.

GeoModder,

Oops. You're right. Thanks for catching that!

 

[r_rolo1]

There's more chance earth bacteria will/have travel(ed) to Mars by way of the probes then by space on their own. Gravity works again the latter method.

True, but :
1) we have found atleast 12 martian origin meteors in Earth

2) We have only sent probes to Mars in the last 60 years. Mars and Earth are probably exchanging material from some thousand of millions of years. No way you can compare both..... you would only need one lucky strike anyway.

 

[Kesshi]

r_rolo1,

Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a only proving me point that we humans are SO wanting to not be alone in our immediate space that we fathom all sorts of strange ideas to believe that there is life nearby. The fact is, Earth is anomaly. Comparing other star systems and planets (or moons) to our star system or Earth isn't useful because of how different Earth is. Just like trying to study space from inside our solar system isn't useful, because solar systems are atypcial space. Typical space is...well, imagine all the molecules in a sugar cube. Now expand them to the point where they fill an object the size of Jupiter. That's typical space.

We are just anomolies.

 

[r_rolo1]

Read my words carefully, Kesshi...

I would not be surprised to find Earth like microorganisms in Mars

No implying of life really being there, just stating that i would not be surprised if we found it ( again I would not be surprised if no Martian life were ever found )

 

[kazapp]

Hopefully everyone will become disillusioned with space and stop spending such obscene amounts of money on "my spaceship is bigger than yours" missions to flex their national egos.

Hopefully we get nearly hit by an asteroid, and people wake up the fact we're spending such pitiful amounts of money on space colonization.

I would be surprised if space tech gets even 0.1% of current world-wide warfare expenditures, so there certainly is room for improvement.

Put a man (or woman) on Mars now!

 

[Charlie_B]

From the look of it you're only too glad to use the fruits of space missions. How do you think your last post is brought to other continents of this world?

Of course, space missions have their positive sides and lots of good has come from them. However, I feel that space gets a disproportionate amount of the budget for scientific research because it's shiny and glamorous, and that lots of extremely expensive missions have failed to produce enough return, comparatively speaking. I'd much rather see that cash invested in more reliable and higher yielding projects.

Hopefully we get nearly hit by an asteroid, and people wake up the fact we're spending such pitiful amounts of money on space colonization.

I would be surprised if space tech gets even 0.1% of current world-wide warfare expenditures, so there certainly is room for improvement.

Put a man (or woman) on Mars now!

In the highly unlikely event of an Earth-ending catastrophe then possibly the trillions of dollars spent in the vague hope of perhaps finding an inhabitable planet AND developing sustainable accommodation for millions of people AND researching, developing and mass producing the transport to get them there would be worthwhile.

Or that money could be invested in the CERTAIN FACT that millions of people starve to death and die of horrible diseases RIGHT NOW, here on Earth. We shouldn't run before we can walk.

Incidentally, I agree that warfare is a horrible waste of resources, but that doesn't legitimise the amount of spending on space. Furthermore, spending on space equals ~2.5% of the world's military budget, 25 times your estimate.

 

[Negator_UK]

r_rolo1,
We are just anomolies.

Actually you make a very good point.

There seems to be an almost religious belief in western culture that there must be life out there - but there is no proof, not even theories, just speculation.

I remember reading in a Richard Dawkins book (can't remember which, maybe The Extended Phenotype) in a reference to a chap researching how DNA came about - he was looking into it forming within crystal structures of some sort.

If biologists haven't yet figured out how DNA is formed, then nobody knows and if nobody knows then they don't know the odds of it forming on other planets either - they assume it must be greater than one given the number of planets in the universe (but they can't quantify that either).

We could be the only life in the universe- think about that next time you want some rare wildlife trashed to make another road or shopping centre.