[eliex]

 And by the time the people of Sol expand out to space, I'm definitely sure that their genetic skill can allow them to kept crops and
stock on planets like Mercury even!!! 

[TrashMan]

Do you realize just how big star systems are? I'm sure given their technology they could probably colonize all of the jovian planets and moons, some asteroids, and build numerous space stations. If Earth could support 7 billion people now (barely), I'm sure mars could eventually be adapted to support a billion, maybe Venus, too. Mercury would be only a bit harder to colonize than the moon, but no harder than Venus. Then there are space stations. For whatever possible population increase in Sol, there would still be more than enough room to build space stations to accommodate the people.

Trust me, there is no problem with living space in Sol.

Have you even the faintest idea how long it takes to terraform a planet? Even planets like mars would take several hundered years with the best tech we have today. Even with a far better tech it'd still take hunderds of years.
Do look into that problematic a bit...

[Hellbender]

Have you even the faintest idea how long it takes to terraform a planet? Even planets like mars would take several hundered years with the best tech we have today. Even with a far better tech it'd still take hunderds of years.
Do look into that problematic a bit...

True to some extent, however I'm not 100% sure you are correct about more advanced technology, should it become available. Tech has a way of surprising even the greatest minds. It really wasn't that long ago when home PCs were considered science fiction, not to mention being far down the road from today. What I'm getting at is that putting artificial, arbitrary limits on what may be possible in time is not really the answer to proving a point.

[karajorma]

Have you even the faintest idea how long it takes to terraform a planet? Even planets like mars would take several hundered years with the best tech we have today. Even with a far better tech it'd still take hunderds of years.

They may have had hundreds of years though. Until the discovery of subspace it's quite possible that Sol was all the Terrans had. In which case terraforming Mars would have been quite a priority. Given that they've got over 300 years before the start of FS1 from now that's plenty of time. Especially if you start sending down lifeforms specifically engineered to terraform the planets.

[admiral_wolf]

Considering Ad. Petrach claims it would take at least a decade to build one Knossos in order to reopen Delta Sup.-Sol node, it would mean that we would be looking at a time period of around 50 years before we could attempt to make our way home after the Lucifer blew the node.  A lot could have happened in that time period.

Only 4 Vasudans made it through the node.  Therefore, it is plausable that if they did settle on Earth initially, then there is the chance that they died out due to limited numbers.  However, in saying this, I do not know if GTI and GTA headquaters had Vasudan consultants or scientists.

Considering this extended hiatus between home and the fleets, it could be possible that Earth either diverted a lot of resources into developing new craft capable of high speeds in order to investigate the possiblity of new undiscovered nodes within Sol.  I did suggest that this is what the Ancients initially did when they first started collonising planets and systems.

Going on a tangent to my previous idea, it is also entirely credible that seeing as Earth has been attacked once before, the GTA implemented plans for an agressive defence of the node should it ever re-open.  These plans could include RBCs, Corvettes, new destroyers or a Super Destroyer with the single intent of mullering anything that could come through the node.

My plan is simple then.  We attempt to get communications through.  We know from battling the Lucifer in Subspace that radio transmissions canget through, albeit with some interference.  Therefore I suggest we station a Communications Science Cruiser as close to the Delta node as possible on as many GTA frequencies that we know of.  If communications fail, then we send in 1 lone fighter in a recognised type such as a Hercules or a Ulyesses through the node.  My theory being it is better to lose 1 fighter than the crew of a destroyer if Earth becomes hostile.  If the fighter comes through unscathed, then we send a fleet consisting of 1 destroyer, (preferably Orion, but given they will be ancient at this time, we may have to settle for Hecate), 1 Science Cruiser and a Sobek, simply to show Earth that neither us or the Vausdans are hostile.

[Kie99]

With no immediate threat to public safety, would the public support a massive build-up of arms in Sol, after 32+ years or nothing happening?  The government might want a continued military build-up, but after seeing advanced superdestroyers go unused for decades, would there be any public support whatsoever for building a new super-advanced juggernaught?  It's more likely, in my opinion, that the GTA would build up a fairly large fleet of craft of about FS2 level, and just maintain that.  People aren't going to want a fleet to combat a threat that vanished a lifetime ago.

[Wobble73]

Have you even the faintest idea how long it takes to terraform a planet? Even planets like mars would take several hundered years with the best tech we have today. Even with a far better tech it'd still take hunderds of years.
Do look into that problematic a bit...

True to some extent, however I'm not 100% sure you are correct about more advanced technology, should it become available. Tech has a way of surprising even the greatest minds. It really wasn't that long ago when home PCs were considered science fiction, not to mention being far down the road from today. What I'm getting at is that putting artificial, arbitrary limits on what may be possible in time is not really the answer to proving a point.

Something about that reminded me of Bones in Star Trek Genesis. His quote that went along the lines of

"God created earth in six days, along comes man and BANG, we can do it in six days!"

And we all know how that ended! 

[karajorma]

With no immediate threat to public safety, would the public support a massive build-up of arms in Sol, after 32+ years or nothing happening?  The government might want a continued military build-up, but after seeing advanced superdestroyers go unused for decades, would there be any public support whatsoever for building a new super-advanced juggernaught?  It's more likely, in my opinion, that the GTA would build up a fairly large fleet of craft of about FS2 level, and just maintain that.  People aren't going to want a fleet to combat a threat that vanished a lifetime ago.

Depends on how good a job the GTA does of keeping them scared.

[Wobble73]

Depends on how good a job the GTA does of keeping them scared.

True, look how long the cold war lasted!

[TrashMan]

They may have had hundreds of years though. Until the discovery of subspace it's quite possible that Sol was all the Terrans had. In which case terraforming Mars would have been quite a priority. Given that they've got over 300 years before the start of FS1 from now that's plenty of time. Especially if you start sending down lifeforms specifically engineered to terraform the planets.

NASA considered such lifeforms. Their best estimates for terraforiming Mars (assuming best conditions) were around 500-600 years or so IIRC, and this was theoreticly, not counting the huge $$$, time and resources.

[karajorma]

Where?

As you well know I don't trust your hazy recollections.

[Polpolion]

Do you realize just how big star systems are? I'm sure given their technology they could probably colonize all of the jovian planets and moons, some asteroids, and build numerous space stations. If Earth could support 7 billion people now (barely), I'm sure mars could eventually be adapted to support a billion, maybe Venus, too. Mercury would be only a bit harder to colonize than the moon, but no harder than Venus. Then there are space stations. For whatever possible population increase in Sol, there would still be more than enough room to build space stations to accommodate the people.

Trust me, there is no problem with living space in  Sol.

Have you even the faintest idea how long it takes to terraform a planet? Even planets like mars would take several hundered years with the best tech we have today. Even with a far better tech it'd still take hunderds of years.
Do look into that problematic a bit...

I never said anything about terraforming. With the 24th century tech, I'm quite sure people can live comfortably in in enclosed bubbles on a planet's surface.

But anyway, neither of us can accurately say anything about terraforming. It's like living to the 1910s and trying to predict what kind of technology we'll have today. And what about all of the other planets that the GTVA has? I highly doubt that any of those are okay for humans to live on.

NASA considered such lifeforms. Their best estimates for terraforiming Mars (assuming best conditions) were around 500-600 years or so IIRC, and this was theoreticly, not counting the huge $$$, time and resources.

Wait, so they predicted it would take 500 to 600 years to terraform mars to a livable condition, not counting time? Either your sources are incorrect and you're incapable of finding good ones, or you yourself are untrustworthy and tend to distort the information so it's false. Wait, and it looks like Kara said so too. Therefore, I dub all of your premises null and possibly inaccurate.

[TrashMan]

Actually, not counting the time it takes to make a trip to there with materials. Projections assumed you already got all the needed materials there in an instant.
IIRC.

[Polpolion]

Given the range of time you gave, the time it would take to get there is negligible.

[eliex]

 People from Sol first would need to find a way to actually get there. I mean, if right now, in the 21st century a bunch of people decided to make a run to even Jupiter, either they would: 1. Don't survive the asteroid field
                                                                               2. Die from starvation
                                                                               3. Die from old age.

 Despite our rather fantastic tech here, we still need a far bette tech than we have now. And even if the Americas had so much money, well even
now they don't have enough $$$ to even pay for a working batch of plasma rifles.
                                    YES I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING: BUT THEY DO EXIST.

[brandx0]

Well, intra-system jumps probably still work =)

[TrashMan]

LOL...

People sometimes get too carried away with technology. A planet is a freakin HUGE, HUGE place. To terraform it you first need to create a breathable atmosphere.
For that you need to have HUGE quantities of oxygen somewhere on the planet already and find a way to release it.
In case of Mars, if there's enough ice on the poles you could:
1. Dump a lot of greenhouse gases to raise the atmosphere and melt the ice... Getting that huge ammounts there is the problem. Even then it would take a LOT of time for the temperature rise to do it's job, and it has to be done slowly. Too much gases and you'll f*** it up.
2. Use gigantic mirrors to focus suns rays at the poles.. again, it would take a lot of time...and giant mirrors are prone to breaking.

If there's no ice you'd have to fling icy meteors at hte plent long enough for an atmosphere to form.

then the foresting procedure...


Domes might work but they are very limited. They don't have much volume and colonies would have to be pretty much self-sufficient - which means productions of breathable air and food.
Not to mention that no atmosphere = practicly no protection from metoer shovers or solar radiation...


In short, colonizing a planet is a HUGE undertaking so I wouldn't be surprised if in FS humans still live on Earth exclusivly and have nothing but smaller outposts on toher moons...if even that.

[Jbman]

Assuming that the raw material are available to terraform the planet.  If the crowding on Earth is  bad enough it would be worth it to terraform Mars.  I'm thinking that with the application of nearly unlimited power and materials you could create self replicating machines to convert the raw material to something that bacteria could be use to futher convert the planet.  It could take a long time, however I'm thinking that you could apply more equipment and speed the job up.  I'm sure there is a point of diminishing returns, but things grow pretty quickly once the basic materials are in place.

Another approach is to use develop organisms to convert the planet stage by stage.  Each organism dieing as the converted one material into another (think of yeast), finishing with a environment that would sustain human life.

I would think that the human colony  would start in a smaller area protected by shields and expand it as they developed the processes to terraform the planet.

[Polpolion]

Domes might work but they are very limited. They don't have much volume and colonies would have to be pretty much self-sufficient - which means productions of breathable air and food.
Not to mention that no atmosphere = practicly no protection from metoer shovers or solar radiation...

Of course they have limited volume, but that doesn't mean you can't build more of them and bigger. And I'm sure that with the GTA's tech, they could mount some small anti-asteroid beams on the top of the domes. Plus you can probably grow plants inside the domes, which would help with the air and food. And AFAIK Mars has an atmosphere, so that would help against solar radiation. Plus, people on spaceships don't die from solar radiation, so that probably means the GTA has the technology to block it.

[eliex]

 It just all depends on how high priority the Terra-forming Mars project is going to be - like now since Earth isn't that trashed
the Americas simply makes expeditions to outer space because of interest for discovery, and the like.

When Earth is on the brink of some man-incurred major disaster or something llike that, then probably the world would be chanting
 Terraform Mars! Terraform Mars!! 

 And that brings me to my second point = IF it takes so much money to equip all European armies with plasma rifles, how are they going
to pay to firstly research subspace and how to travel and then how are they going to build subspace drives, even for destroyers?

Like the GTVA Archives said, only after the GTVA was formed only then there was enough money to place inter-galaxy, not inter-system jump drives, and still then not all fighters/bombers were outfitted with them. Only a few.

If the GTVA went and had a war with Sol, and obviously the GTVA would have a considerable much more money than the Earth-Terrans, since they have colonies in nearly every known part of the galaxy, not to mention the technology, because like the old man says: Not all people of different nations (in this case systems) are identicle.  Conclusion: Different Ideas Bring Different Thoughts!!
                       Plus money and resources to bring it about!!!