Project Aphrodite

[Prospernia]

I also recall they somehow sped up Venus' spin which is basically impossible unless you happen to be somewhere pretty high up on the Kardashev scale, and this was done all before the Star League was a thing!

This Website is the only instance where Venus' rotation has been increased, and the planet is overrun by Dr. Moreau's sexy foxes and other manimales.

So, if such a thing were possible, then, surely an ancient alien-civilization would have emerged and speed up, moved all the terrestrial-worlds into perfect habitable-zone orbits as they would have needed them to support their growing-populations, wait, given the number of Earth-like worlds in Battletech, perhaps someone already did!

[worktroll]

There are no ancient alien civilisations extant in the BT universe.

Possibly the Inhibitors did such a great job until recently, just missing our corner of the Galaxy ;)

[Prospernia]

There are no ancient alien civilisations extant in the BT universe.

Possibly the Inhibitors did such a great job until recently, just missing our corner of the Galaxy ;)

The truth is out there; Battletech as more of a Dune-feel, than a Star-Trek feel.

[Daryk]

Dune: We have found the ancient aliens, and they are US! ;D

[Arkansas Warrior]

Can we try to stick to what we know (or can reasonably infer) about BT canon, and not wander into Ancient Aliens fanfic?

[Prospernia]

Found this little video on terraforming Venus.

https://youtu.be/G-WO-z-QuWI?si=8K8UPqRaFP4V75tA

To stick with Battletech-cannon, we have to use '80's technology to terra-form, so, Weyland-Yantani Atmosphere-Processors, (takes decades) or,

2. The Star-League did it (Somehow).

[Daryk]

That's a good video... and obviously, the answer for BT is #2... ;)

[Prospernia]

... and obviously, the answer for BT is #2... ;)

Double Heat-Sinks.

[Daryk]

DHS are too easy, so they can't be #2... ;D

[Iceweb]

Trying to learn a little more science here; What is the benefit of changing Venus' spin? 
I get that it rotates slowly and you would have the Sun heating one side too much and the other side gets too cold once the atmosphere is fixed from a sulfuric greenhouse.  Still that seems easier to solve with the giant solar mirrors than going to the effort of changing the spin. 
Do humans have a problem living on a planet that has such a long year, or was it mission creep of what the Star League teraformers could do so they did it? 

In the same vein they changed Venus from Retrograde to match all the other planets.  Again is there a benefit to humans to not have to live on a planet with retrograde spin, or was this just we got this far do a little more so it matches.   

I wonder if being on a planet that has a Retrograde spin would cause issue with moving onto a space ship/station which was generating gravity by spinning the other direction.  Or if you visited Earth or some other planet. 
I can see the inner ear not being happy about spinning the other way but I have no idea what other problems one could have from adapting to a retrograde spin and then being spun the other way. 

Speaking of that are grav decks on ships/stations standardized to spin one way?  Or does it not matter which direction a grav deck spins for generating artificial gravity?

Speaking of planets spinning we always think of planets spinning on an East/West axis with the poles at top and bottom.  Could there be a planet where the planet rotates North/South with the poles rotating instead of being static?  Has any such planet been mentioned in Battletech?  Could humans live on a planet with that rotation, or would the Star League have to had teraformed it to change the spin for viability? 

Thanks for any answers to help me learn.

[SteelRaven]

I forgot about JHS Terra having profiles on the planets I'll have to go have a look

Quite amusing that they made Venus worse and mars while successful because of all the room on Terra (with a smaller population) noone wants to live on Mars

Realistically, you wouldn't want to live on Mars even after a successful terraforming effort but BT has ignored the long term effects of living in low g environments so *shrug*

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

Realistically, you wouldn't want to live on Mars even after a successful terraforming effort but BT has ignored the long term effects of living in low g environments so *shrug*

Speak for yourself, my dunks would be incredible.

[ColBosch]

Speak for yourself, my dunks would be incredible.

Simply the best osteoporosis. Like you wouldn't believe.

[Prospernia]

To live on Mars, we'd have to genetically modify people to live in the low-Gee, lower air-pressure.

All things considered, a fully terraformed Venus would be a lot more desirable for humans, than a fully terraformed Mars.

But, if humans live in space, (they're the ones that most likely will terraform them), they may not desire living in such high-gravity worlds. (Think the Expanse, so to speak (I hate referencing sci-fi)).

Trying to learn a little more science here; What is the benefit of changing Venus' spin? 
. . .

There's no problem with it rotating, retrograde, for humans. However, it's slow rotation means that with the greenhouse-atmosphere gone and an Earth-like one in its place, temperature-maps put the equator-continent as having a daytime temperature of over 100°C.

[Daryk]

And that day time would last a long time...

[ColBosch]

To live on Mars, we'd have to genetically modify people to live in the low-Gee, lower air-pressure.

Per a couple of sources, perhaps most notably JHS: Terra, the Western/Terran Alliance/Hegemony *did* do a lot of baseline genetic therapy and anti-viral work. The humans of BattleTech are referred to as Homo sapiens stellaris (IIRC); they are sturdier, healthier, longer-lived, and comfortable in a greater range of planetary conditions. Even before the Star League, the average lifespan on Terra was over 100 years.

[Daryk]

Paul answered a rules question in that vein around 10 years ago here: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=40686.msg1310315#msg1310315

That's the closest to an official citation I've been able to find so far.

[SteelRaven]

Paul answered a rules question in that vein around 10 years ago here: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=40686.msg1310315#msg1310315

That's the closest to an official citation I've been able to find so far.

Thanks for the reference

[Prospernia]

Paul answered a rules question in that vein around 10 years ago here: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=40686.msg1310315#msg1310315

That's the closest to an official citation I've been able to find so far.

Exo-humanism is a bit advanced for Battltech.  That's more of a Millennium-concept; the people in Battletech are from the '80's; the have a natural-aptitude for glam-rock and heavy-metal, the get an extra-die to resist drugs and alcohol and they can smoke, a lot.

[Liam's Ghost]

As that rules question and answer indicates, the range a "baseline" human of the battletech universe can live in is actually established in A Time of War on page 237, which defines a "normal gravity environment" as between 0.2 and 2 gravities.

Please note that this is just the range a battletech human can live in for extended periods without long term game altering affects on the character. And the affects from exceeding those ranges aren't even all that severe. The people of the battletech universe are simply built different.

[SteelRaven]

We already have humans in the BTU living far longer than the average rl human (when they are not KIA or assassinated anyway) It's not that hard to believe that healthcare included life long treatments over the course of generations to humans can colonize the stars without dying once they get to not Earth. In fact, it makes the development of Mar, Venus and the Belt make even more sense as a 'backyard' testing ground for Terra while reaching further and further.

[ColBosch]

Exo-humanism is a bit advanced for Battltech.  That's more of a Millennium-concept; the people in Battletech are from the '80's; the have a natural-aptitude for glam-rock and heavy-metal, the get an extra-die to resist drugs and alcohol and they can smoke, a lot.

Not sure what you're trying to say here, but BattleTech canon (since almost the earliest days) absolutely says that humanity had baseline genetic engineering to explain how we could colonize worlds that "modern" humans would die upon.

[Prospernia]

Not sure what you're trying to say here, but BattleTech canon (since almost the earliest days) absolutely says that humanity had baseline genetic engineering to explain how we could colonize worlds that "modern" humans would die upon.

Do you have a reference I can look up?  I don't recall reading that, other than the Clans, genetic-Engineering, in any of the books; maybe it was in the Exodus-section of the House-books.

[CitizenErased]

Do you have a reference I can look up?  I don't recall reading that, other than the Clans, genetic-Engineering, in any of the books; maybe it was in the Exodus-section of the House-books.

Jihad Hot Spots: Terra explicitly says that in the 2060s, the Western Alliance developed genetic vaccines against malaria and AIDS:

With genetic vaccines steadily erasing inherited troubles and granting everyone healthy hearts and strong immune systems, average life spans in the Alliance began climbing from where they had leveled off in the twentieth century (in the mid-70s). In 2098, the Terran Alliance could honestly claim that the average lifespan of its citizens was over 100 years (JHS:T p 142).

I can't find any sources about engineering for harsher environments, but there was at least some active genetic modification of the species as a whole, hence James McKenna's whole "homo stellaris" propaganda. But to quote JHS:Terra again (this time directly from Bertram Habeas himself), "JumpShips, a few genetic vaccines, and a pretty speech do not a new species make."

[ColBosch]

For earlier sources, I'm pretty sure the five original House books, plus The Star League and The Periphery, mention genetic engineering. But I should also note that gengineering has been in sci-fi almost from the day Crick and Watson announced their discoveries, and even before that there was eugenics as a pretty common trope. The idea that genetic tinkering somehow isn't "eighties" is just weird to me.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Jurassic Park came out in 1990, so it's a fair bet that the 80s were popular with genetics tropes.