The actual depiction in Odyssey has of course gone this way and then rather further than that, with eugenics programmes having reduced humanity to exactly two body types.
Two problems.
Looks sensible, except that the first physical constant you mention is actually called the "Boltzmann" constant
Problem #2 looks pretty terminal.
I'm pretty sure astronauts breathe low-pressure pure oxygen. I don't think it actually matters how much other inert gases there are as long as there's the right partial pressure of oxygen.Looks sensible, except that the first physical constant you mention is actually called the "Boltzmann" constant
Problem #2 looks pretty terminal.
#1 on the other hand, maybe not so much - people can breathe at the top of Everest, which is around one-third of normal atmospheric pressure. So one-fifth is maybe doable?
… I’d buy it if we could see what’s going on down on planetary surfaces of Earth-like planets and similar. Personally, I don’t see so much lore in it as Frontier not throwing in proper body customization due to the rushed nature of Odyssey. (And I don’t expect they would now)
On that note… I think that can easily be explained away by that the regular civilians are kept well away from the “concourse” where the trigger happy are regularly and freely handed murder/massacre contracts. Probably to avoid… ‘incidents’.
"Hei, look at this splendid utopia! Everyone's healthy and fit and good-looking! I wonder how they managed this?"
Technically that is not a necessity, as they could be given the same hitbox regardless of the chosen character model. (Which I’ve seen done in at least one game, eg ‘larger’ characters had a smaller hitbox than the model indicated while smaller ones had a wider one than appearance, but I can’t recall if there were complaints about people “missing” because they were not hitting where they expected their shots to go on the bigger ones)
I once visited a planet where the principal occupation was juggling geese.
Not too sure about that people start to die below the summit of Everest due to pressure related issues.Looks sensible, except that the first physical constant you mention is actually called the "Boltzmann" constant
Problem #2 looks pretty terminal.
#1 on the other hand, maybe not so much - people can breathe at the top of Everest, which is around one-third of normal atmospheric pressure. So one-fifth is maybe doable?
The problem isn’t overall atmospheric pressure, it’s oxygen “partial pressure”. If you’re breathing a one-fifth pressure atmosphere of pure O2, you’ll get about the same amount of oxygen as you will on Earth’s surface. Breathing a one-third pressure of Earth atmospheric mix of only 21% oxygen… different story.Not too sure about that people start to die below the summit of Everest due to pressure related issues.
Edit to add: Going from a third to a fifth is almost halving the pressure again.
Death zone - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
It's not quite as crazy as it sounds - the vapour pressure of water varies very steeply with temperature so 0.16 atm only drops the boiling point to a little over 55°C.
But yeah, that sounds kinda broken!
Yeah, that was my point - I should have stated it more clearly (it occurred to me afterwards that it might cause some confusion) but I was replying to a concern that people might not be able to draw breath at all at that pressure (which might still be a thing, to be fair, given that indeed 0.2 and 0.33 are somewhat different
).Oooh, just found a good answer here on Stackexchange: https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/40505 - funnily enough it turns out that the vapour pressure of water is mentioned here too! Summary: 0.06 atm will kill you even before you run out of oxygen (blood boils) and 0.12 atm on pure oxygen is livable...concern that people might not be able to draw breath at all at that pressure (which might still be a thing, to be fair, given that indeed 0.2 and 0.33 are somewhat different
The Elite universe itself is heavily inspired by Adams in particular who had a character with three arms and two heads and a major plotline where a planet was custom built from the ground up including customised humans in order to please a bunch of mice and a species with telepathy who could only find peace through rock concerts. So I think probably this universe is cool with humans carrying local adaptations. (Never mind the other 100 years of sci-fi that Braben and Bell almost certainly read the same way I did, being only slightly older than me)
Nope, water worlds with counterintuitive water depth vs atmosphere depth is a thing; it basically depends what order of baking and freezing the geology went through when forming, and also how much ice is a factor. You just need a combination that is locally stable in the space of possibilities, which is not the same as "the one that makes the most sense."But yeah, that sounds kinda broken!
So what you are saying is, under the right circumstances/balance a “vacuum” (albeit not technically one if there is a layer of water vapor) could exist? What about the ammonia biospheres though (one of the Titans even parked above such a ‘vacuum’ ammonia world in Col 285 Sector BA-P c6-18)? Because while the codex says the Thargoids can survive vacuum for some time, I’m not exactly sure that is a naturally evolved ability.
But so can humans, just give them a space suit. Once we are outside of naturally evolved abilities I mean anything goes, is it a genetic adaption, added hardware grafted to the body, an entire exoskeleton including life support functions. The Thargoids may see us floating around in space in our space suits and think the same about us, that we can survive in space for some time also, but it may not be a naturally evolved ability.
www.co2meter.com
