APPENDIX 1

GALAPEDIA

The Free Encyclopedia

Terraforming

From the Galapedia, the free encyclopedia for all sentient species in the Solar Neighbourhood and beyond.

Terraforming (“Earth-shaping”, from the Latin terra + form) of a planet, moon or other body is the process of making it inhabitable for human beings by altering its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth. The word itself was invented by science fiction writer Jack Nicolson in his 1942 story “Collision Orbit” and later in a series of stories published as Seette Ship in 1951. SF author Roger Zelazny pioneered the use of the word “worldscaping,” though it never caught on; and some scientists prefer to refer to the process as geoengineering or ecopoiesis (the creation of an ecology that did not previously exist, but not necessarily resembling that of Earth).

The terraforming of the Earth Solar System was a slow process, costly in human lives. It took a century to terraform Mars and 150 years to terraform Venus. However, the development of nano-technology and the development of the Bostock battery has made it possible to terraform a planet in less than 20 years.

The standard terraforming technique, known as TFX, involves the use of four terraforming satellites in orbit around the target planet. (These are sometimes colloquially referred to as Horsemen — Horseman 1, Horseman 2, Horseman 3, Horseman 4 — for reasons lost in the mists of time.) Each TFS (Terraforming Satellite) will drop Nanonets over every part of the globe which then begin the process of transforming the planet’s atmosphere into an 80 per cent nitrogen/20 per cent oxygen blend. The nets are designed to self-replicate, releasing billions of micro-organisms which are bio-engineered to absorb almost any gas and turn it into an Earth atmosphere blend at a prodigious rate until a breathable atmosphere is achieved; at which point a negative feedback loop will deftly kill all these engineered micro-organisms.

As part of this process, each Horseman will rain down upon the target planet poisons and non-radioactive fusion missiles in order to purge the target planet of all indigenous life-forms, even extremophile bacteria. This is in adherence to CSO’s Guidelines 40 a (i), which states that human settlers should never have to face the threat of being attacked by alien life on a terraformed planet, as occurred on Meconium.

In the case of planets that are too hot or too cold or have other geographical defects (such as an excessive tendency towards vulcanism, earthquakes, tidal waves or comet strikes) or that rotate too fast or rotate too slowly, or have too many suns or have annoyingly small suns or outrageously over-active suns, then more radical techniques of planetary and astrophysical engineering will be required. These include:

• Solar Acceleration: throwing fusion bombs into a sun to make it burn more brightly.
• Orbital Adjustment: hurling huge great missiles at a planet in order to change its orbit by small increments, or by a lot. It is generally considered wise not to inhabit a planet that is being orbitally adjusted.
• “Tidying up the backyard”: hurling missiles and bombs and antimatter bombs at moons and asteroids and planetary rings that may be creating undesired tidal forces or which make the region of space around the planet look messy.

In the case of planets that already have a breathable atmosphere, the terraforming process is much simpler, and consists simply of the extermination, extinction and annihilation of all indigenous life, sentient and non-sentient, using all the techniques of planetary genocide available to the Horsemen.

Strict protocols exist (see CSO’s Guidelines 457 b (viii)) to ensure that full scientific analysis and studies are performed on any and all alien species which are to be rendered extinct. Key specimens are of course stored in embryo form or allowed to roam free in one of the many excellent Galactic Zoos.

Contents

• 1 History of scholarly study
• 2 Requirements for sustaining terrestrial life
• 3 Paraterraforming and nanoterraforming
• 4 Earth System Terraforming
  • 4.1 Mars
  • 4.2 Venus
  • 4.3 Moons of Jupiter
  • 4.4 Titan
  • 4.5 Earth’s Moon
  • 4.6 Asteroid Belt
  • 4.7 Disney Planet (aka Pluto)
• 5 Stage 1 Solar Neighbourhood Terraforming (The First Planets)
  • 5.1 Hope
  • 5.2 Kornbluth
  • 5.3 Cambria
  • 5.4 Gullyfoyle
  • 5.5 Pixar
  • 5.6 Fecunda
  • 5.7 New Earth
  • 5.8 Rebus
  • 5.9 Meconium
  • 5.10 Hecuba
  • 5.11 Heorot
  • 5.12 Niven
  • 5.13 Jarrold
  • 5.14 Newton
  • 5.15 Luce
  • 5.16 Mavis
  • 5.17 The Other New Earth
  • 5.18 Xanadu
  • 5.19 Adama
  • 5.20 Hades
  • 5.21 Asgard
  • 5.22 Shadalia
  • 5.23 Home
  • 5.24 Moist
  • 5.25 Verdant
  • 5.26 Fresh Start
  • 5.27 Journey’s End
  • 5.28 It’ll Do
  • 5.29 New Earth the Third
  • 5.30 Atlantis
  • 5.31 Marvel
  • 5.32 Stan Lee
  • 5.33 New World
  • 5.34 Serenity
  • 5.35 Kaos
  • 5.36 Thank Fuck We’re Here
  • 5.37 Olympus
  • 5.38 Rachel
  • 5.39 Clytemnestra
  • 5.40 Paxton
  • 5.41 Weisman
  • 5.42 Zeigfield
• 6 Stage 2 Solar Neighbourhood Terraforming (The Later Planets)  
  (see separate index — 10,345 entries)
• 7 Ethical issues (DELETED)
• 8 Political and economic issues
• 9 Songs about terraforming
• 10 Cool time-lapse film footage of planets being terraformed
• 11 List of exterminated alien species; see Encyclopedia of Alien Life (Extinct or in Zoos), Walkley Press, 3,340,002 volume
• 12 Arguments against Terraforming (DELETED)

[edit] History of scholarly study

It has been suggested that Planetary genocide and Mass Extinctions be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)