Asperion Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Humanity is exploring the outer planets in this system and discovers that there is intelligent life on the planet Pluto. Since Pluto recieves extremely little solar energy I realize that this life would have to be extremely resistant to temps that humans concider freezing while having a hard time with human comfort temps. The thing that I am wondering about is what they would look like, any abilities that they might possess, any problems that might arise from that low-grav planet, etc. I greatly appreciat any and all advice that you great ones would offer to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroooo Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Are we talking about a game, or real world theory? In game, I'd go with some sort of crystalin based hive mind sort of thing. Each individual part is a small living chunk of crystal, but you put them all together and you get sentience. Enough of the parts together can generate enough 'attraction' to actually make a form - i.e. a humanoid crystal shape to mimic Pluto's visitors. Communication would have to be all telepathy based. Give me more time and i could actually write something up... Aroooo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakkenkin Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 First, is the life native to Pluto, or did they come from another cold world planet in another system? Do they have good tech lvl? Do you have any thoughts on it your self? If they are not native, I would have them be an other civilizations failed try at FTL or Hyperspace and they just ended up getting stuck on Pluto many ages ago. They may have even known that earth had life but was never able to communicate with them because of the difference in tech ( their communications always got confused with static background noise to or sensors), or they didn't want to contact us because they see us as war like and didn't want to become slaves, they are war like and were trying real hard to communicate with the home world to get aid to take over Earth, they are a noble race and wanted to let us progress on our natural path with out their intervention, or what not. I think I would have them live in caves/tunnel systems that they make. This might help them protect them selves from what solar radiation that would be around out there. On the other hand they may have adapted, and their bodies may be efficient at collecting solar/cosmic radiation to help their bodies process their food, and to keep them going. Kind of like a lizard sunning its self. As far as what you could have them look like I have no clue ... you could say that they are real big to collect solar/cosmic radiation ( though they need not be), but Pluto is not that big. I would stay away from the normal SiFi, human in a jumpers, look. They would have some type of adaptation for ice because that may be the main think that they walk on (maybe hard shell like pads on the bottom of their feet/foot that shaped like a cheese grater...keep them from slipping?) heck, they could melt in earth type temps. (Disad-Susceptibility: Temps in range X up ) .... I just read your post again, I think I went a bit off topic from what you were asking for... sorry . I'll think about it and if I come up with something I'll repost. Did you want game mech. as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost who Walks Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 I once did a scenario where I put an alien colony ship out at Pluto. Earth Astronomers called it Charon . They had been visiting earth for decades, in their flying saucers. A race which spreads itself through space, without ships, might be interesting. The life does not necessarily have to be sentient, btw. Alternatively, you could stick a "lost civilization" on Pluto. What they are doing out there is open to question. Possible reasons: 1) Alien refugees/criminals, hiding from authority 2) Space pirates, their piracy gets blamed on the people of earth 3) Crashed spaceship 4) Go the Cthulthu route, and put the Mi-Go there. 5) Hideout for some Earth criminal, combine with option above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Star Hero might help you. It specified other possible chemistry that might be present in other life forms, as opposed to our hydrocarbon base. Several of them might be of help, Such as Liquid Helium. *Thinks* Actually, I'm not sure if pluto is cold enough for liquid helium. I'll have to check. It also mentioned liquid methane base, and an ammonia base. I think. Star hero is at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 In a real life sence, we'd be like Blazing suns to them, we give of so much radition that we'd probably be leathal. That's if they were native to the cold enviroment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakkenkin Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by Sociotard Star Hero might help you. It specified other possible chemistry that might be present in other life forms, as opposed to our hydrocarbon base. Several of them might be of help, Such as Liquid Helium. *Thinks* Actually, I'm not sure if Pluto is cold enough for liquid helium. I'll have to check. It also mentioned liquid methane base, and an ammonia base. I think. Star hero is at home. Well I took Sociotards idea and I'm running with it! I looked up if you could have a liquid helium race... Though I would never say you can't, Pluto would have to have a temp of -270c. In the Star Hero book there is no temp listed for Pluto but it states it has no real atmosphere to speak of. Though it is said that Pluto has a trace amount of nitrogen in what atmosphere it has with tiny amounts of methane. So I went to look for info. on the temp of Pluto just in case it was cold enough for a liquid-helium race. This is one of the tings I found: G - Surface of Pluto We're not exactly sure what the surface temperature is on Pluto but most scientists agree the number must be somewhere near -378 to -396 F (-228 to -238 C, 35 to 45 K). Some theories suggest that the atmosphere of Pluto must distribute the surface heat around such that all areas are the same temperature. Other theories would allow darker regions that did not have any nitrogen or methane frost to be warmer than the surrounding regions. ... So cold that water ice would act like rock and most gases have condensed out on the surface. -On this same site it stated that Nitrogen becomes a liquid at about -196c. -As the temp for Pluto is listed, it would have no gas (just liquid or Ice) it also states that it is possible to have areas that are a tad warmer (this may also depend on its currant distance to the sun.) In turn allowing for gas. This would most likely create a air supply thats made mostly of Nitrogen... if my source have the right... -in my thought process I was trying to avoid a life form that needed chemical reactions, but because the only life I know about needs chemical reactions I ended up just giving my self a head ache. .... but how do they...ack! So, my latest ideas based on how they breath are: - more solid life form: = The life that formed on Pluto could breath gas. It has a multi-lung system that allows for multi-processing of the 'air' that it takes in, and also allow it to take in more 'air' as the last breath is still being processed.( I'm thinking of something a kin to the cows digestive track.) The atmosphere is thin, but I now think I would not make them resistant to cosmic radiation because the sun is SO far away. They may be resistant to low pressures and combined with their breathing they may be able to survive in space for short times. Who knows. or = They could eat the ice that is around them and by way of a digestion system they could release the gas stored in ice form. This might work best with my other idea of being able to collect/ store cosmic radiation. -more liquid form: = They absorb what gas that is in the atmosphere through their 'skin'. or they secrete something that causes the ice to melt and give off the trapped gas they need for air. Here I'm thinking some thing more like a slug that could reshape it's self. You could even give it a bit of stretching. Also, it could trap gas within it. Much like a spider I saw that traps air in its web so that it can go under water for long amounts of time, or you can think of it like how humans put on fat for times of famine. Gas is filtered through its 'skin' to an inner chamber/bladder that is filled up like a balloon. This could in-turn give them a limited form of flight, and they can move by releasing what is left after their 'air' is processed. --- in any form you have them, they could have a limited ability to change the temp around them caused by letting off radiation of some form or by a chemical reaction.( but at this temp most chem reactions are very slow) This way they could melt the ice around them in their winter and still breath when normally all the nitrogen and methane would be in ice form. Drakkenkin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakkenkin Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by Rick In a real life sence, we'd be like Blazing suns to them, we give of so much radition that we'd probably be leathal. That's if they were native to the cold enviroment. I like that point Rick! heck, landing a chemical reaction ship could kill off most of the planet! If they did have space flight they would have to find a way to do it with out causing any real heat, and some of there weapons would be heat based... probably wouldn't do much to humans... They may be experts in magnetic fields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Hey it's nice to be apreciated . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 They could be the ultimate 'Cranky Old Lady Next Door'! "Keep those thrusters DOWN! We're trying to keep cool!" "But we're a full A.U. away from you!" "Why you disrespectfull . . . Fire up the Mag-Cannon!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 For a really cool description of a space ship landing on Pluto, check out Larry Niven's "World of Ptavvs". Keith "It ain't pretty" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 If you have nitrogen and methane, you have some of the building blocks of life on our warm damp rock. Oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen (water ice, Good old di-hydrogen oxide. No meaningful charge at that temp, so NOT hydrogen hydroxide, IMHO). I imagine small creatures with low metabolic rates, capable of living on very little light, raw minerals, and the weak, thin atmosphere. Lichens. They would be VERY sensitive to the electromagnetic spectrum, since they would need to milk all they could get from the distant Sol. Sol is all that makes life possible in this sytem. The energy is needed to get past the 2d law of thermodynamics, so I feel the lichen would use the suns energy. This also means that they could bloom and thrive if provided with a relatively greater source of EM energy. Nothing like coming back to your landing pod to find it crushed under a mass of quickly dying plutonian lichens. I'll call them Stygians. Maybe they aren't particularly intelligent. Like an collective INT of 1. But an EGO of 30. One power - mind control. All they want is a little EM. Like the induced current from your neuronic firings. Like the IR pouring off your bodies. Like all your tech. Call them desolid, buy all primary stats but BODY & EGO down to one. The good news all the excess energy kills 'em after a quick, huge bloom. The bad news is you can't eat 'em after they kill your ship's engines and comms. For a friendlier (maybe a little more gothic, though) version, create a slowly decaying copacetic relationship with the host. They want your induced currents, you get the counter-induction. Higher EGO, EGO defense, Telepathy, Images, nightmares, paranoia, obsessive thoughts, psychosis, seizures, amnesia, strokes, and eventually, death. Its late, and I feel a little dark about Pluto. It isn't even a nice place to visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Hey, Ghost Who Walks? Didn't I read that scenario in a book? One filled with singularly unsympathetic characters, as I recall...Charon's Ark, by Rick Gauger... In any case, for an alternate look at what life on a low-temp iceball like Pluto could be like, check out Camelot 30K by Robert L. Forward, one of the best "what would real-world life in this extreme environment be like" authors of all time. In it, the aliens are small ant-like creatures who keep warm by having a small ball of radioactive material inside themselves, staying warm by radioactive decay. That means that human temps are not nearly so much of a problem for them, because while their outer form is adapted to dealing with the extreme cold, their internal processes are much closer to OUR kind of temp than you'd expect. They weren't on Pluto, but on an object in the Oort cloud, so temp and composition would be similar to that of Pluto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Everyone knows that the natives of Pluto are fungi, and they call their home planet Yuggoth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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