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[RFC] The worlds of the 2013 Delta Pavonis Expedition
[RFC] The worlds of the 2013 Delta Pavonis Expedition
#1
Inspired by Warringer's post on Wolf 359, and by the fact that I'm never going to finish Into The Great Wide Open, I present for comment the worlds discovered by the Soviet Air Force 2013-14 Delta Pavonis Expedition. Enjoy!


The Delta Pavonis system

The D.Pavonis system consists of ten planets (under the current IAU criteria for such things), a partially-disrupted asteroid belt between planets five and six, as well as numerous dwarf planets, comets and other assorted debris. Navigation in the inner system is as clear of small debris as Sol. The star's Cochrane line lies at roughly 43 AU from the primary, though depending on vector this may be temporarily disrupted by the outermost planet.

The system was first surveyed by the Sozvezdie Soviet Deep Space Exploration Force in 2013.

Helheim
The innermost planet is a lump of nickel-iron similar in composition to Mercury and on a similar star-grazing orbit.

Alfheim
Orbiting too close to Delta Pavonis to retain much water, Alfheim is a 'hot Mars' world. Unlike Mars, Alfheim still possesses a substantial nitrogen-carbon dioxide atmosphere, which keeps the surface temperature a toasty 150C. Alfheim has one (as yet unnamed) moon, a chunk of rock 160 km across that probably started life as a near-solar asteroid.

Midgard
Despite being named for the mortal world, Midgard is nothing particularly exciting or hospitable. A rocky world with no substantial atmosphere, Midgard is only exciting when put up against Helheim or Alfheim.

Yggdrasil
The only inhabitable world in the Delta Pavonis system, Yggdrasil is a temperate world with a greater axial tilt than Earth, leading to stronger and more pronounced seasonal variation. Climate is a bit cooler and drier than Earth's, with much of the planet's water locked up in polar glacier fields. The interiors of the major continental landmasses are largely scrub desert, while the coastal areas and areas near rivers are dominated by fields of grass-analogues.

Evidence obtained by the Soviet expedition indicates that Yggdrasil was much wetter and more pleasant within the last few thousand years, until the planet experienced a series of impact events (how many is unknown, but at least one K-T Event-scale impact, and possibly more) within a very short timeframe. These impacts caused a massive dieback of Yggdrasil's preexisting biosphere, and apparently also triggered the global cooling event that locked the planet into its current state. Based on the Soviet survey, experts believe the biosphere entered a recovery state within the last 1,000 years and is recolonizing areas left barren by the impacts.

Yggdrasil has three moons: Urthur, Verthandi and Skuld. All three are small, metal-poor worlds similar to Luna in composition and size. Skuld is the innermost moon, roughly the same diameter as Ceres, and only interesting because of what is orbiting at its Lagrange-1 point.

Tannhauser Gate
An artifact of unknown origin, Tannhauser Gate has been orbiting at the Yggdrasil-Skuld L1 point for at least the last five thousand years.Either shortly before or shortly after the last bombardment of Yggdrasil. The object is a hexagonal ring with an inner diameter of twelve kilometers and a cross-section of 150m. It is composed of a mixture of basic light metals (mostly titanium and nickel), two transuranic elements previously unknown outside of high-energy particle accelerators, and an alien and seemingly inert strain of handwavium.

The discovery of Tannhauser Gate effectively aborted much of the Soviet expedition in order to focus on both the Gate and Yggdrasil. The Soviets initially believed that the artifact was produced by inhabitants of Yggdrasil, but a survey of the world revealed no signs of native intelligent life or civilization capable of building something that large.

Tannhauser's purpose was discovered by scientists aboard the Soviet ship Xenu Express, who noticed the artifact responded when probed with radio pulses sent at the right frequency. The Xenu Express managed to establish communication with the artifact's control system and succeeded in activating it. Once active, the artifact generated an immense gravitational force within the inner diameter which stabilized after several minutes into the terminal point of a wormhole.

Tachikoma-19028 volunteered to transit the wormhole's event horizon and see where, exactly, it led. Armed with everything the Xenu Express crew could find about the Gate's activation and deactivation protocols, Tachi-19028 launched from the GCU Yuri Gagarin on October 15, 2013 and entered the wormholeThis act earned Tachi-19028 the Order of Lenin by unanimous acclimation upon the expedition's return to Sol.. Six hours later, Tachi returned through the event horizon with star sightings and other measurements that allowed the expedition to locate the other end of the wormhole in the Zeta 1 Reticuli system.

[Image: tannhausergate.png]
Tannhauser Gate, photographed prior to activation. In the background is the planet Yggdrasil.

Asgard
A gas giant in the Jupiter size range, Asgard is largely unremarkable save for its orbit. Asgard's orbit is slightly more eccentric than most known gas giants, and by virtue of that is remarkably close when it comes into conjunction with Yggdrasil. It's believed that this proximity destabilizes moons and other debris in orbit around Asgard and eventually causes bombardment events on Yggdrasil.

Vanaheim
A smaller gas giant than Asgard, Vanaheim is an otherwise unremarkable butterscotch-colored world with an extensive system of small, icy moons.

Svartalfheim
Svartalfheim is an ice dwarf of no particular interest on a highly inclined orbit that suggests that it may once have been a moon of Asgard or Vanaheim that was ejected during the early formation of the Delta Pavonis system. It may once have had a subsurface ocean like Europa, Ganymede or Callisto, but the lack of tidal or solar heating has likely frozen Svartalfheim down to the core.

Nidavellir
A world of rock orbiting beyond Delta Pavonis' snow line, Nidavellir is an interesting puzzle. The planet has a light 'dusting' of ices and ammonia snow common to most snow line objects, but core samples taken by the Soviet expedition suggest that the interior is largely dry and free of volatiles.

Jotunheim
The third gas giant in the Delta Pavonis system, Jotunheim again is not especially remarkable. It's position well past the snow line gives it a deep blue color punctuated by thin clouds of methane. Larger than Asgard and Vanaheim, it has a collection of moons. One Jotun moon, Utgard-Loki, is a Mars-sized ice planet with a deep nitrogen atmosphere similar to Titan.

Niflheim
The largest gas giant in the system, Niflheim lies beyond the star's Cochrane line, deep in the local Kupier belt. Believed to be a wandering rogue captured by Delta Pavonis' gravity in the distant past, Niflheim wanders on a long eccentric orbit around Pavonis. Interestingly enough, it has no large moons, only a few small asteroid-sized stragglers apparently pulled from the local Kuiper and Oort during its wanderings.
Next post: The worlds of Zeta 1 Reticulli!
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#2
Very nice... Smile Finally some story about this expedition.Smile

Lots of work with the planet system, you had/have quite a project planned with the "Into The Great Wide Open" story arc.

Is the control system of the gate comparable to an AI, or is it just a "system" that reacts to a series of preprogrammed commands?

{edit}Just another question, did the Soviets tell the rest of Fenspace about the gate? If yes, in which year? Knowing about the gate could make a lot researchers/mads moving to Delta Pavonis to look at it.
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#3
May cause some interesting mix ups with Wolf 359... :p
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#4
M Fnord Wrote:Alfheim
Orbiting too close to Delta Pavonis to retain much water, Alfheim is a 'hot Mars' world. Unlike Mars, Alfheim still possesses a substantial nitrogen-carbon dioxide atmosphere, which keeps the surface temperature a toasty 150C. Alfheim has one (as yet unnamed) moon, a chunk of rock 160 km across that probably started life as a near-solar asteroid.
Hmmmmm... according to the sagas, Alfheim is home to Freyr's palace. Freyr also owned the ship Skidbladnir, which always sails directly towards its target, and which can become so small that it can fit in Freyr's pocket - not a bad name for a small moon, IMHO.

[size=smaller](What, did you think all my knowledge of Norse myth was filtered through Fujishima-san?)[/size]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#5
HRogge Wrote:{edit}Just another question, did the Soviets tell the rest of Fenspace about the gate? If yes, in which year? Knowing about the gate could make a lot researchers/mads moving to Delta Pavonis to look at it.

At a guess, the existance of the Gate was classified Ultra-Violet and the main factions SMOFs very quietly told about it. When the Miranda came back with its news, they decided to release the news at Aplhacon (2014), where upon it was promptly put under Convention oversight and access restricted.

Those who ignored this found that there was a combined Trekkie-Warsie fleet stationed there already with an asteroid station under advanced construction by it.

Edit: Oh, and the Tachikoma went by the name Serge.
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#6
Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:At a guess, the existance of the Gate was classified Ultra-Violet and the main factions SMOFs very quietly told about it.
Consider, though, this old Klingon Russian proverb: "Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead." If the VVS classify something, they might not tell even the SMOFs about it...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#7
True enough, but at least the Sovies will keep it quiet until they do the big announcement.
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#8
I don't see why it's existance has to be classified. While it hasn't been mentioned in stories following after the fact, that means nothing really, does it?

For one thing, a story about the next ship going through the gate and disappearing.... then going on a gatehopping journey to get home sounds like great fun. Like Stargate crossed with DW crossed with... I dunno, that depends on whatever they find.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#9
Before we get to what was on the other side of the rabbit hole, let's answer a few questions:

HRogge Wrote:Is the control system of the gate comparable to an AI, or is it just a "system" that reacts to a series of preprogrammed commands?

{edit}Just another question, did the Soviets tell the rest of Fenspace about the gate? If yes, in which year? Knowing about the gate could make a lot researchers/mads moving to Delta Pavonis to look at it.

The gateway's control system is closer to what we'd call an expert system than a true AI. It's not sapient, and it probably isn't all that sentient either. It runs a bunch of very simple programs, designed to keep the gate from falling out of orbit and into things, and to activate the wormhole when queried.

As for the second question... the photo of Tannhauser was sent in an email to various smart people back around Sol a day or so after the initial discovery. The email read something like this:

Subject: Thinking of you...

Having wonderful time, wish you were here. Found this thing, which is very old, powered and we have no idea what it's supposed to do. Instrument readings are attached. Have fun!

--Mal


robkelk Wrote:[size=smaller](What, did you think all my knowledge of Norse myth was filtered through Fujishima-san?)[/size]

[size=smaller]Well... kinda, yeah.[/size]

Skidbladnir's a pretty good name, so let's go with that.

Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:At a guess, the existance of the Gate was classified Ultra-Violet and the main factions SMOFs very quietly told about it. When the Miranda came back with its news, they decided to release the news at Aplhacon (2014), where upon it was promptly put under Convention oversight and access restricted.

Those who ignored this found that there was a combined Trekkie-Warsie fleet stationed there already with an asteroid station under advanced construction by it.

Research station, yes, fleet probably not (that's a lot of resources to divert from Sol at a point when there's not a lot of ships capable of making the trip), classified no.

*makes note of Serge*

Dartz Wrote:I don't see why it's existance has to be classified. While it hasn't been mentioned in stories following after the fact, that means nothing really, does it?

The Soviets wouldn't classify something this big, simply because a) it's a big dumb object in a star system ~18 light years away that's been there for umpty-thousand years not causing any problems, and b) the Soviets by themselves don't have the manpower or the brainpower (Dee nonwithstanding) to really explore/exploit the gate. The final analysis is, it's better to crowdsource the knowledge and maybe reverse-engineer the thing in 50-100 years, instead of trying to keep it quiet, never figure the damn thing out and then get nailed by a diplomatic incident when somebody else stumbles upon Tannhauser or another similar stargate.

Dartz Wrote:For one thing, a story about the next ship going through the gate and disappearing.... then going on a gatehopping journey to get home sounds like great fun. Like Stargate crossed with DW crossed with... I dunno, that depends on whatever they find.

Heh. Heh heh heh.

Allright, enough answers. Let's get to what you're really here for.


The Zeta 1 Reticulli system

The Zeta 1 Reticulli system (Zeta1 for short) consists of nine IAU-standard planets, a debris belt between planets six and seven, an asteroid belt between planets four and five, plus the usual assortment of dwarfs, comets and other out-system debris. Navigation through the outer debris belt is slightly trickier than normal outer system navigation around Sol, and routes charting above the local ecliptic are recommended. The star's Cochrane line lies at 38 AU, though this may be disrupted by the outermost planet.

The system was first surveyed by the Sozvezdie Soviet Deep Space Exploration Force in 2013, as a consequence of discovering and activating the Tannhauser Gate stargate in the Delta Pavonis system.

Elemmire
Elemmire is a small Mercury-type planet with a dense iron core and not much else to speak of.

Earendil
A warm terrestrial world covered almost entirely by deep ocean, Earendil resembles in some ways the popular conception of Venus before the beginning of the space age. It would probably be considered a paradise save for the extremely dense atmosphere consisting of mostly nitrogen and helium with only 3% free oxygen.

Interestingly enough, at 4.1 bar (the rough atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earendil) the mixture of nitrogen, helium and oxygen present in the atmosphere is breathable by humans and other Earth-adapted life. It's not a pleasant experience by any means, but it is doable. To date, however, this remains a largely theoretical exercise, since nobody really wants to try it.

[Image: earendil.th.png]
Earendil's thin and extensive cloud cover hides a world of rain and light.

Arda
Arda is a very Earthlike world. Slightly larger but not as dense as Earth and roughly the same water/land ratio, the planet supports a robust biosphere with abundant plant and animal life everywhere.

Valinor
Valinor is taken as a sign that somebody has been tampering with the Zeta1 system, and it's not hard to see why. Valinor is the only moon of Arda, and by rights should be a dead rocky world a little smaller than Luna. However, when Serge first arrived in the system, it discovered a green and pleasant moon with rolling grasslands and warm seas.

According to everything known about planetology, something like Valinor cannot happen naturally. A moon the size of Valinor doesn't have the mass necessary to maintain a core hot enough to generate a magnetic field, nor is that mass enough to hold onto volatiles like free oxygen, nitrogen and water. And research into Valinor bears this out – the moon was terraformed within the last 30,000 years, given an artificial magnetosphere though a process similar to the Xavier Protocol satellites used by the Martian Terraforming Project, and populated with lifeforms from ArdaAccording to genetic comparison research done on samples provided to the Vesta Institute.. Who did this, and why, remain a mystery. No signs of indigenous intelligent life or extraterrestrial colonization were found on Arda, Valinor nor any of the other planets in the Zeta1 system. The current hypothesis suggests that the system was discovered and then terraformed by automated probes, which upon completion of their work departed for another system.

[Image: afargreencountryunderas.th.png]
Even after terraforming and centuries of erosion, Valinor's old lunar surface can be seen in the shorelines and deep crater lakes.

Night's Door
The companion to Tannhauser Gate, the artificial wormhole aperture holds position at the L1 point between Arda and Valinor. It appears to be identical in structure to the one in Delta Pavonis, with the same mixture of metal, transuranics and inert handwavium.

Interestingly enough, 'handshaking' with the control system inside Night's Door revealed a more complex system than the one inside Tannahuser. Soviet research suggests that Night's Door may be able to connect to other apertures than just Tannhauser. Research is still continuing.

Carnil
The last of the inhabitable worlds in the Zeta1 system. Carnil is largely Earthlike, covered with large shallow oceans and extensive mountain ranges. Unlike Earendil, Arda and Valinor, life on Carnil hasn't really developed past the algae-and-fish stage; the continental masses are largely uncolonized, while the oceans have extensive biospheres based on subsurface mats of kelplike plants.

[Image: carnil.th.png]
Carnil's oceans are barely 1000m deep at their deepest point.

Alcarinque
The largest gas giant in the Zeta1 system, Alcarinque is a pretty average Jupiter-type world, notable only by its ring system, which is larger and more extensive than Saturn's.

Lumbar
Another gas giant, again nothing really exciting about it.

Nenar
A Neptunian ice dwarf with a larger than normal number of moons for a planet of it's mass, but otherwise nothing special in composition.

Lunil
Another ice dwarf with nothing particularly special about it.

Morgoth
Last of the ice dwarfs in the Zeta1 system, and the smallest of the three. Has one moon (Sauron) that gets enough tidal energy from Morgoth to have extensive volcanic activity on the surface, rasing the local temperature to above the freezing point.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#10
Now that is just screaming for someone to try and find out if there is something even more interesting out there...
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#11
M Fnord Wrote:The Soviets wouldn't classify something this big, simply because a) it's a big dumb object in a star system ~18 light years away that's been there for umpty-thousand years not causing any problems, and b) the Soviets by themselves don't have the manpower or the brainpower (Dee nonwithstanding) to really explore/exploit the gate. The final analysis is, it's better to crowdsource the knowledge and maybe reverse-engineer the thing in 50-100 years, instead of trying to keep it quiet, never figure the damn thing out and then get nailed by a diplomatic incident when somebody else stumbles upon Tannhauser or another similar stargate.
"Catgirl Industries approves the Soviets attitude over the gate!" Smile

At this distance, the communication delay is over 17 hours via Interwave. That far from home, even for Fen.
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#12
Warringer Wrote:Now that is just screaming for someone to try and find out if there is something even more interesting out there...
Old-timers should remember http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/rep ... -stargates]this thread...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#13
Hmmm... Based on that thread and image Wolf 359 got a Stargate...

Now I need to think where it may be... :p
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#14
Warringer Wrote:Hmmm... Based on that thread and image Wolf 359 got a Stargate...
Maybe, or maybe somebody built one based on the Tannhauser Gate. Note that Sol is also on that image...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#15
Most likely at one point the Fen began to build their own gates. But the restriction of the Tannhause Gate suggests that its a different timeline of Fenspace. Wink

{edit} damned, managed to post this first on the old thread... -.-
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#16
Quote:Most likely at one point the Fen began to build their own gates. But the restriction of the Tannhause Gate suggests that its a different timeline of Fenspace.

Very astute. Yeah, that particular map lists all the Fen-built stargates. The Convention LAN, as it were. Tannhauser is the connection to the WAN. Been working on a map for *that* but it's... ambitious. And I'm not 100% sure I actually want to go through with all the ideas on it, either. We'll see.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#17
M Fnord Wrote:Very astute. Yeah, that particular map lists all the Fen-built stargates. The Convention LAN, as it were. Tannhauser is the connection to the WAN. Been working on a map for *that* but it's... ambitious. And I'm not 100% sure I actually want to go through with all the ideas on it, either. We'll see.
And most likely its a "deep infinity" project, right?

So we should not expect a reverse engineered Tannhauser Gate in the next decade?
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#18
I'm thinking sometime into the next century, or close enough to it.
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#19
blackaeronaut Wrote:I'm thinking sometime into the next century, or close enough to it.
And that's with Whole Fenspace Catalog assistance... I hope.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#20
blackaeronaut Wrote:I'm thinking sometime into the next century, or close enough to it.
robkelk Wrote:And that's with Whole Fenspace Catalog assistance... I hope.
Good... enough time to work on a Mass Effect Relay... Wink
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#21
I would like to suggest that the Fen build gates would be different to the Tannhauser Gate.

Something like permanent wormholes between two systems that can't switch and need a support structure to keep them macroscopic.

Please note that I'm currently reading 'Through Struggle, The Stars' by John Lumpkin. (Got the Kindle Edition :p )
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#22
Quote:I'm thinking sometime into the next century, or close enough to it.

For Fen-built gates, yes. Maybe a little more depending on colonization patterns - need to get places worth setting up something as big & expensive as a stargate first, after all. Not putting the cart before the horse 'n all. Wink

For the rest of it... not necessarily, though the *real* fun stuff down the line (probably) wouldn't happen until the 2050s-60s. Maybe. Plus there's a lot of silly buggers back home needing cleanup before we can throw down with the Dragon Emperor forget I said that.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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#23
M Fnord Wrote:For Fen-built gates, yes. Maybe a little more depending on colonization patterns - need to get places worth setting up something as big & expensive as a stargate first, after all. Not putting the cart before the horse 'n all. Wink

For the rest of it... not necessarily, though the *real* fun stuff down the line (probably) wouldn't happen until the 2050s-60s. Maybe. Plus there's a lot of silly buggers back home needing cleanup before we can throw down with the Dragon Emperor forget I said that.

And there are still some surprises coming in the 2020s... Wink
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#24
Of course... Only exploring gets boring... :p
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#25
*looking at the picture of the Gate*

Does it really look "golden" ? Some crazy Fen might try to steal it before noticing on board that their ship might be a little bit too small to do it. Wink
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