Ok, bypassing the impossible...

yanallefish · Aug 22, 2006

Now, I have an idea for a story/something regarding a people living on Mercury (or another world that's very close to its sun). Impossible by scientific standards, maybe, but if you tweak that for the sake of creativity... what I'm wondering is, ok Mercury's pretty dense so the people who evolved there would end up heavier, correct? (they're supposed to be the descendants of people who landed and had a small skirmish that killed them all off, but in the meantime shot off nuclear weapons, irradiating the surface so that now the descendants are genetically mutated from what came before)

I have a solid surface there; the original people did manage to do some small bit of terraforming (just enough to create a sort of desert/plateau region but no they don't really have water, just some hot springs that are mostly steam). What else do I need?

Note: This is more fantastical than sf - or maybe it is one of those that falls into the "speculative fiction" thing. One of the thoughts I had was that everyone there was required to wear masks to breathe, so the descendants evolved to the point of decorative ones - depending on your rank, you wear X on your mask and so on. I also was thinking that they might not believe the history of their world, about how it was settled by people from the sky who came in ships of solid metal... yah, I'm at the scattered idea point*g*

Seriously though, what isn't there already that should be, considering what this world is?

RedWombat · Aug 22, 2006

yanallefish said:
... what I'm wondering is, ok Mercury's pretty dense so the people who evolved there would end up heavier, correct? (

Nope. Mercury is only .38 earth gravity, according to Google. (It's a much smaller planet, among other things.) The less gravity you have, the more muscle mass you lose--astronauts tend to be sticks after a prolonged period in space--so it's a lot more likely that your Mercury dweller would be extremely light weight and delicate, and people born on Mercury would have an uncomfortable time going to Earth--probably not fatal, but definitely uncomfortable.

Anonymisty · Aug 22, 2006

yanallefish said:
What else do I need?

Whatever you decide to do, please make sure your science works. I'm not saying that you can't tweak certain things for the sake of the story - just be sure that the tweaking makes sense. Especially since you're setting the story on a planet that actually exists and that we have a good amount of data about.

Have fun!

Andrew Jameson · Aug 22, 2006

Why would you think people would end up heavier? It's not like they're ingesting bits of planet or anything (and, from what I can find, it appears to be less dense than Earth). If anything, I would think they'd be lighter, because Mercury's reduced gravity would require less muscle bulk than on the Earth.

Mercury appears to have some orbital peculiarities, so depending on how important the sun is in your story, you might want to read up on those.

yanallefish · Aug 22, 2006

No, I got it confused with a different planet (grr). Lighter people actually helps me some though. Orbital peculiarities, huh... ok thanks.

Vincent · Aug 22, 2006

Okay, I'm going to go against some of what has been suggested. You already mentioned it's more fantastical than fact based, and an inhabited Mercury sounds pretty near impossible to me anyway... (though I could be wrong). Myself, I'd be tempted to just throw away any pretence at rationally explaining the situation. Don't worry if the science works, make the science second to the story. If you go the hard science route but your heart's not really in it, it will all come off as flimsy. Ever read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles? Martian civilizations, a perfectly breathable atmosphere, no gravity problems, but none of that matters because he's not trying to give a scientifically accurate representation of a Martian colonisation effort. He's telling a story.

MattW · Aug 22, 2006

Does it have to be Mercury?

Zyxbort 7 can have whatever characteristics you like....

yanallefish · Aug 22, 2006

Today 02:35 PMbeezleOkay, I'm going to go against some of what has been suggested. You already mentioned it's more fantastical than fact based, and an inhabited Mercury sounds pretty near impossible to me anyway... (though I could be wrong). Myself, I'd be tempted to just throw away any pretence at rationally explaining the situation. Don't worry if the science works, make the science second to the story.

Yes, that makes sense to me. Sigh, I have a bad habit of getting too wrapped up in "realisticness" when I'm writing more science fictiony stuff - if I'm doing sheer, high fantasy I don't think about it. But you're right, I think...

Have I read the Martian Chronicles? Oh, yes. Loved 'em. Years ago... but yeah, now that I think about it, that did kind of throw a lot of science stuff out the window for the sake of the story and it was a hell of a story!

Zyxbort 7 can have whatever characteristics you like....Today 02:35 PM

Hmmm... a theoretical world, I take it? Yes, I see what you mean in that case

Vincent · Aug 22, 2006

Personally, if I want to write a story about dragons terrorising the Empire State Building, I might think "huh, 200 foot lizards couldn't possibly fly in our gravity with those little stumpy wings" but I'll write it anyway. Gravity loses.

Don't get me wrong, I think your world should follow its own internal logic. That is, whatever laws of logic you create for your universe, even if they completely contradict what we understand in ours. So in your Mercury they can wear shoes on their heads and hamburgers can eat people, if that's how the reality you've created works. But you then have to stick to those rules.

yanallefish · Aug 22, 2006

Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty fair idea. (currently picturing a giant hamburger terrorizing my landlord...)

Pthom · Aug 23, 2006

David Brin wrote a fairly decent story, Sundiver, about scientists doing research on Mercury. Worth checking out.

However . . .

The habitable region around a G-type star such as our sun is very narrow. Mars is too far from the sun; Venus is too close. But you might consider your folks living on a moon of a gas giant that orbits a hotter star than the sun. You get low gravity, and really weird "seasons," day/night cycles, eclipses that last days, etc. Lots of opportunity for setting up strangeness that I bet 98% of your readers won't worry about or even be able to check up on.

Example: The moon goes 'round behind its planet...it's suddenly cold and dark for almost a week. Plants freeze. People huddle indoors. Only the crazy go outdoors (which is opportunity for much intrigue). Then the moon comes out into the light of this very hot star. There's about a half a day of "spring" before everything bakes.

You take it from there. And have a good time doing it, too.

dclary · Sep 1, 2006

Or maybe a moon with a phosphorous greenhouse atmosphere... the phosphorous absorbs sun and starlight, and so keeps the atmosphere warm and generates enough light for survival.... But too much exposure to the atmosphere is toxic (much like living in Burbank).

Pthom · Sep 2, 2006

dclary said:
...But too much exposure to the atmosphere is toxic (much like living in Burbank).

Jamesaritchie · Sep 2, 2006

Mercury

There's nothing unscientific about living on Mercury. Mercury rotates only three times in two years, so it's perfectly possible to rmain on teh dark side of the planet, which is pfairly cool, and to move your base camp before it rotates into the sun.

It's even theoretically possible to withstand the heat of the sun's suface using carbon insulating material. If the sun had a smooth, stable surface, and wasn't flaring up all the time, living in a base camp on the sun's surface would be possible in theory.

But no one is going to buy an atmosphere or water on the surface, and calling it a fantasy isn't going to help.

Tweaking only carries you so far, and I don't think you're going to convince any editor that creativity allows people to live on Mercury outside of a domed city that can either be moved to stay on the dark side, or that has some sort of heat shields to withstand the lead-melting temperatures of Mercury's sun side.

Anthony Ravenscroft · Sep 2, 2006

Why are they living on Mercury in the first place? It's no longer enough to say "research purposes" -- why? Big money? Experiments that can only be performed in that specific environment (rather than back on Earth or the Luna at a tiny fraction of the cost)?

yanallefish · Sep 3, 2006

*g* Good questions that I'm still working out, Anthony... (hah, in between writing everything else).

Ok, bypassing the impossible...

yanallefish

RedWombat

Runs With Scissors

Anonymisty

Andrew Jameson

(not his real name)

yanallefish

Vincent

Cheers

MattW

Company Man

yanallefish

Vincent

Cheers

yanallefish

Pthom

Word butcher

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

Pthom

Word butcher

Jamesaritchie

Anthony Ravenscroft

Scribble, scribble, scribble

yanallefish