View Single Post
Old January 3rd, 2005, 12:13 PM   #27
justjackrandom
Bad Email Address
 
justjackrandom's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Dallas
Posts: 277

Battlestar Galactica 1978

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragmentary
Considering that humanity was a group of refugees upon having to leave Kobol, it is pretty incredible that they found a single solar system containing at the minimum, 12 habitable planets...
(let's try this again...if it shows up twice, sorry)

It would certainly be a rarity, but not mathematically impossible (maybe they had a line on the system before they left...maybe they were just looking for the perfect place, and spent their "40 years" before they found it, guided perhaps by some devine hand... or maybe they just got lucky...) First, multi-star systems are far from rare themselves, and probably outnumber single-star systems (those closest to Sol do). Second, we know (within reasonable probability) that these multi-star systems can have planets. Given what we think we know about conditions for life-bearing planets, a hypothetical model can be built that would support a 3-star system, where 12 bodies would be capable of supporting life, particularly if we assume technical help.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragmentary
It seems to me that idea is pretty hard to swallow. Especially compared to the idea that each world is in its own solar system, each with its own natural resources to exploit and trade. That would also immediately establish a pretty sizable galactic territory (fictionally, not scientifically) and might help to explain how a group of basically refugees could rise to become the most powerful force in the known Galactica universe. There isn’t anything specifically saying that all 12 colonies were founded at the same time is there? Maybe Caprica came first, and from there as exploration spread out, the next colony came along and the next until in the end there were 12 powerful homeworlds and numerous smaller sub-colonies or outposts.
A single system with 12 habitable worlds, plus any other real estate that was not habitable but useable, would be a HUGE resource base, not to mention an incredible industrial base, much more so than a single-world system would be; just what you would want as a base for a star-spanning civilization. It is also unlikely that too many other systems would be able to compete, so it can be surmised that any ‘colony’ worlds would not carry the same weight as the original 12. Additionally, each colony may have colonized in its own name, so out-world systems might be represented to that colony in a planetary congress of some type.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragmentary
I just can’t believe in all that space that the Colonials traversed over millennia, none of the worlds ever grew strong enough to rate a new colonial power.
It seems a bit silly to reference science fiction to justify science fiction, but I would recommend David Webber/Steve White series of books as a reference for industrial base/colonization practices. They are fairly well thought out, and are based on a war game that is also fairly well thought out (the four are Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and The Shiva Option).

just my tuppence… JJR
justjackrandom is offline   Reply With Quote