Problem:
Mason's magnetic field is insufficient to protect its atmosphere from solar winds. It has also been losing its volcanic activity over the eons, so the volcanoes can't replenish lost greenhouse gases. It therefore can't sustain a thick atmosphere.
Fixing the Planet:
The planet needs:
• Protection from cosmic rays (e.g., excess ultraviolet light)
• Water
• Warmth
Ideal: Oxygen (because otherwise macro-level fauna would probably be impossible, and micro-level fauna would likely be limited; see Loriciferans)
Possible:
• Fix The Atmosphere So Gases Don't Float into Space
• Lock the Useful Gases into Rocks or Non-Water Ices
• Lock the Useful Gases Under Ice or Underground
• Lock The Useful Gases into "Bunkers"
Making "Bunkers":
• Keep Protected from UV light and cosmic rays
• Keep Moist
• Keep Warm at least some of the time (above freezing point)
Harder to Do:
• Fix the Magnetic Field/Make a Substitute
Fixing the atmosphere will probably make achieving the other goals easier.
Making an artificial magnetic field for the whole planet would likely take many Generations, if not a whole Week, and there might not be sufficient time for that. For this route, it seems most practical to start at the localized level that makes their long-term survival more likely. (e.g., in “bunkers”, underground, or under ice)
Realistically, not all organisms would work along the same survival methods, because, realistically, they would be autonomously-existing and not created by a specific purpose. For a reasonable level of realism, it makes sense to create multiple organisms for multiple paths, including some which don’t help make the planet habitable, at least not directly.
---
Specific Methods
Possible:
• Turn the reef, or pockets of it, into enclosed biospheres. (biological glass panels?)
• Add moisture-catchers.
• Add sunlight-protection structures.
• Stop the water from getting up space: maybe making it quickly condense lower in the atmosphere and fall back down? Create ice nuclei? Create water vapor-catchers?
• Lock the useful gases into the "bunkers"?
Make thicker atmosphere, so less gas gets into space/so it’s easier to breathe/greenhouse gases.
Some Greenhouse Gases:
• Carbon Dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous oxide
Prevent evaporation of water:
• Store water in underground pools, away from the reef in the canyons.
• Freeze the top of the water so the water in the reef can't escape?
Has Mason existed long enough, in the right conditions, to create fossil fuel resources? If so, the hydrocarbons in those could be useful for warming the planet.
Would it help to create tropospheric ozone, or would that just kill off everything left on the surface?
Live in "bunkers" for millions of years until an asteroid shows up, smacks Mason, and restarts Mason's seismic activity.
Titan has low gravity and theoretically could have life. Mason probably can't get so cold as Titan, because Mason's much closer to the sun, Sagan.
Deal with low gravity being bad at keeping the atmosphere together (??) by making an atmosphere of extra-heavy gases which can't float off into the upper atmosphere and into space.
Enduring Harsh Conditions:
Super-durable organisms in a few places on the surface (e.g., Black Triangle, which is probably warmer than most places)
Photosynthetic microbes living under quartz rocks (which protects them somewhat from the harsh conditions, but allows them to photosynthesize)
Super-deep microbes
Super-deep, microscopic "worms"?
Biofilms
Terrestrial close symbiosis (e.g., lichen, soil crusts)
Marine close symbiosis (e.g., tube worms)
---
Possible Research Comparisons:
The moon Titan
Mars
Antarctica
Barren deserts
Mason's magnetic field is insufficient to protect its atmosphere from solar winds. It has also been losing its volcanic activity over the eons, so the volcanoes can't replenish lost greenhouse gases. It therefore can't sustain a thick atmosphere.
Fixing the Planet:
The planet needs:
• Protection from cosmic rays (e.g., excess ultraviolet light)
• Water
• Warmth
Ideal: Oxygen (because otherwise macro-level fauna would probably be impossible, and micro-level fauna would likely be limited; see Loriciferans)
Possible:
• Fix The Atmosphere So Gases Don't Float into Space
• Lock the Useful Gases into Rocks or Non-Water Ices
• Lock the Useful Gases Under Ice or Underground
• Lock The Useful Gases into "Bunkers"
Making "Bunkers":
• Keep Protected from UV light and cosmic rays
• Keep Moist
• Keep Warm at least some of the time (above freezing point)
Harder to Do:
• Fix the Magnetic Field/Make a Substitute
Fixing the atmosphere will probably make achieving the other goals easier.
Making an artificial magnetic field for the whole planet would likely take many Generations, if not a whole Week, and there might not be sufficient time for that. For this route, it seems most practical to start at the localized level that makes their long-term survival more likely. (e.g., in “bunkers”, underground, or under ice)
Realistically, not all organisms would work along the same survival methods, because, realistically, they would be autonomously-existing and not created by a specific purpose. For a reasonable level of realism, it makes sense to create multiple organisms for multiple paths, including some which don’t help make the planet habitable, at least not directly.
---
Specific Methods
Possible:
• Turn the reef, or pockets of it, into enclosed biospheres. (biological glass panels?)
• Add moisture-catchers.
• Add sunlight-protection structures.
• Stop the water from getting up space: maybe making it quickly condense lower in the atmosphere and fall back down? Create ice nuclei? Create water vapor-catchers?
• Lock the useful gases into the "bunkers"?
Make thicker atmosphere, so less gas gets into space/so it’s easier to breathe/greenhouse gases.
Some Greenhouse Gases:
• Carbon Dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous oxide
Prevent evaporation of water:
• Store water in underground pools, away from the reef in the canyons.
• Freeze the top of the water so the water in the reef can't escape?
Has Mason existed long enough, in the right conditions, to create fossil fuel resources? If so, the hydrocarbons in those could be useful for warming the planet.
Would it help to create tropospheric ozone, or would that just kill off everything left on the surface?
Live in "bunkers" for millions of years until an asteroid shows up, smacks Mason, and restarts Mason's seismic activity.
Titan has low gravity and theoretically could have life. Mason probably can't get so cold as Titan, because Mason's much closer to the sun, Sagan.
Deal with low gravity being bad at keeping the atmosphere together (??) by making an atmosphere of extra-heavy gases which can't float off into the upper atmosphere and into space.
Enduring Harsh Conditions:
Super-durable organisms in a few places on the surface (e.g., Black Triangle, which is probably warmer than most places)
Photosynthetic microbes living under quartz rocks (which protects them somewhat from the harsh conditions, but allows them to photosynthesize)
Super-deep microbes
Super-deep, microscopic "worms"?
Biofilms
Terrestrial close symbiosis (e.g., lichen, soil crusts)
Marine close symbiosis (e.g., tube worms)
---
Possible Research Comparisons:
The moon Titan
Mars
Antarctica
Barren deserts
I have an idea for space colony plants. I'm not sure what would be a good ancestor, maybe a smoolk or some other round thing? It could have a glass shell that filters out harmful radiation and keeps gasses and water inside, and reproduction happens underground / with budding. It draws most of what it needs from underground. When one dies, it leaves behind massive biodomes and connecting tunnels that can be inhabited by all kinds of flora and fauna.
Using the 10x no competition clause for flora, such organisms might be able to balloon up to sizes that can support masonian megafauna even with a complete vacuum above the domes.
I'll work on a possible species to start this when I'm home.
Using the 10x no competition clause for flora, such organisms might be able to balloon up to sizes that can support masonian megafauna even with a complete vacuum above the domes.
I'll work on a possible species to start this when I'm home.
Possible basis for "space colony plants" (colony domes):
Biogenic glass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogenic_silica
Old reference for diatoms forming silica structures
Glass sponges
Related material:
Leaf WindowsLeaf windows.
Algae photosynthesizing under quartz.
Moss photosynthesizing under quartz.
More detail on moss under quartz. (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235928)
Another sample of intense detail. Also mentions options other than quartz:
https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/552956
Photosynthetic extremeophiles which live under rocks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypolith
Related phenomenon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endolith
If it's still geologically plausible for the Black Triangle landmark to get relatively warm, despite Mason's thin, cold atmosphere, then it might be worthwhile to make it a secondary "outpost" of super-durable lifeforms using the six Smoolk species already there, since it would be very difficult to bring in new organisms from the Mason Reef there until it's substantially developed. (On a related note, I hope to propose a revision of the Agbees Formation so it's not so boring and minimal.)
(Related reading for the Black Triangle: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/que...a-black-desert)
Biogenic glass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogenic_silica
Old reference for diatoms forming silica structures
Glass sponges
Related material:
Leaf WindowsLeaf windows.
Algae photosynthesizing under quartz.
Moss photosynthesizing under quartz.
More detail on moss under quartz. (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235928)
Another sample of intense detail. Also mentions options other than quartz:
https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/552956
Photosynthetic extremeophiles which live under rocks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypolith
Related phenomenon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endolith
If it's still geologically plausible for the Black Triangle landmark to get relatively warm, despite Mason's thin, cold atmosphere, then it might be worthwhile to make it a secondary "outpost" of super-durable lifeforms using the six Smoolk species already there, since it would be very difficult to bring in new organisms from the Mason Reef there until it's substantially developed. (On a related note, I hope to propose a revision of the Agbees Formation so it's not so boring and minimal.)
(Related reading for the Black Triangle: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/que...a-black-desert)
Filling Out Mason Data
Most of Mason's data is unfilled. I've provided some research below for guidelines on how to fill in the information. With more precise information, it will be easier to do research on exactly how tolerant organims will need to be of extreme conditions. These are rough calculations, though: this level of planetary science is beyond my expertise.
---
Mason's radius: 2,866.95 km (Earth's moon is 1,737.4)
Atmospheric of Mars: 6.518 millibars.
Atmospheric pressure of Earth: 1,013 millibars.
Mount Everest summit: 265 millibars. (https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/pressure_vs_altitude.html)
According to EarthSky.org (https://earthsky.org/space/small-rocky-exoplanets-can-still-be-habitable/) the smallest habitable exoplanet is 2.7% of Earth's mass. In comparison, Earth's moon is 1.2% of Earth's mass, so for Mason to be habitable, it would have to be least proportionately more massive than Earth's moon: about ~2.166 times more massive.
Of course, this calculation presumes Europa can't be habitable, when it's theoretically habitable due to getting heat from tidal locking.
Incidentally, Sagan 4 is less massive than Earth: about 81%, by some rough calculations according to the most recent data, apparently from Week 15. (It looks like there was a missed opportunity for much stronger tides than Earth, and possibly slightly more tidal heating.)
---
The average temperature of Mason is 278 K, so: 40.73 Fahrenheit, or 4.85 Celsius. In other words, it's more than slightly above freezing.
Antarctica comparisons (from https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarct...imate/weather/)
Average annual temperature of the coast: -10 C (14 F)
Average annual temperature on interior highlands: -60 C (-76 F)
Averaged both: -31 F.
More precision:
Coastal:
Greater than: +10 C (50 F)
Below -40 C (-40 F)
Elevated Inland Temperatures:
-30 C in summer
-80 C in winter
In other words...Mason's really cold, but not to the point nothing but the hardiest of micro extremophiles can live there.
Since the Mason Barren Wasteland is actually really flat, though, it probably doesn't get so cold as Antarctica's elevated inland temperature.
---
Other Considerations for Lifeforms in “Apocalypse Circumstances”
Reef Considerations:
The Mason reef is what's left of Mason's ocean, located inside a super-deep trench. The trench protects the organisms inside from UV rays, but the photosynthesizers' positioning within is probably limited unless they can get really good at photosynthesizing from low-light conditions, really good at reflecting excess UV. Unless, of course, light unfiltered by an atmosphere ends up equivalent to "normal" full sun when the photosynthesizers are in the shade.
---
Meteor Craters:
Mason's "little to no atmosphere" (I presume very thin) atmosphere doesn't protect it from meteors. A plausible landmark, therefore, is a big meteor crater or a bunch of craters if it got bombarded by several small meteors. The crater's walls might provide sufficient shade to somewhat protect organisms from UV light or other sun damage. Later, the craters might provide enough shade to support brief, or highly salty, bodies of water.
---
Bounds of Plausibility:
Very high-living Himalayan jumping spider on Mt. Everest: found 22,000 ft (6.7056 km) up.
6.7 kilometers up, so about: 400 millibars. The size of female Himalayan jumping spiders is 5 mm.
Belgica antarctica, a wingless midge, the biggest purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica. It's about 2-6 mm long. (http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/introductory-antarctic-resources/ten-antarctic-facts/) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgica_antarctica)
It's tiny, but big enough people probably won't need to consider micro-level physics (e.g., how fairy flies "swim" through air rather than flying) when making macro organisms for the Mason Barren Wasteland, especially if rocks, burrows, Smoolks, or Smoolk husks can be used for shelter.
Assuming Mason is supposed to be habitable enough that macro-level fauna could theoretically survive out in the Mason Barren Wasteland, 5 mm could be a good maximum guideline for height, perhaps with 6-10 mm as an absolute maximum if there’s very good reason.
Most of Mason's data is unfilled. I've provided some research below for guidelines on how to fill in the information. With more precise information, it will be easier to do research on exactly how tolerant organims will need to be of extreme conditions. These are rough calculations, though: this level of planetary science is beyond my expertise.
---
Mason's radius: 2,866.95 km (Earth's moon is 1,737.4)
Atmospheric of Mars: 6.518 millibars.
Atmospheric pressure of Earth: 1,013 millibars.
Mount Everest summit: 265 millibars. (https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/pressure_vs_altitude.html)
According to EarthSky.org (https://earthsky.org/space/small-rocky-exoplanets-can-still-be-habitable/) the smallest habitable exoplanet is 2.7% of Earth's mass. In comparison, Earth's moon is 1.2% of Earth's mass, so for Mason to be habitable, it would have to be least proportionately more massive than Earth's moon: about ~2.166 times more massive.
Of course, this calculation presumes Europa can't be habitable, when it's theoretically habitable due to getting heat from tidal locking.
Incidentally, Sagan 4 is less massive than Earth: about 81%, by some rough calculations according to the most recent data, apparently from Week 15. (It looks like there was a missed opportunity for much stronger tides than Earth, and possibly slightly more tidal heating.)
---
The average temperature of Mason is 278 K, so: 40.73 Fahrenheit, or 4.85 Celsius. In other words, it's more than slightly above freezing.
Antarctica comparisons (from https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarct...imate/weather/)
Average annual temperature of the coast: -10 C (14 F)
Average annual temperature on interior highlands: -60 C (-76 F)
Averaged both: -31 F.
More precision:
Coastal:
Greater than: +10 C (50 F)
Below -40 C (-40 F)
Elevated Inland Temperatures:
-30 C in summer
-80 C in winter
In other words...Mason's really cold, but not to the point nothing but the hardiest of micro extremophiles can live there.
Since the Mason Barren Wasteland is actually really flat, though, it probably doesn't get so cold as Antarctica's elevated inland temperature.
---
Other Considerations for Lifeforms in “Apocalypse Circumstances”
Reef Considerations:
The Mason reef is what's left of Mason's ocean, located inside a super-deep trench. The trench protects the organisms inside from UV rays, but the photosynthesizers' positioning within is probably limited unless they can get really good at photosynthesizing from low-light conditions, really good at reflecting excess UV. Unless, of course, light unfiltered by an atmosphere ends up equivalent to "normal" full sun when the photosynthesizers are in the shade.
---
Meteor Craters:
Mason's "little to no atmosphere" (I presume very thin) atmosphere doesn't protect it from meteors. A plausible landmark, therefore, is a big meteor crater or a bunch of craters if it got bombarded by several small meteors. The crater's walls might provide sufficient shade to somewhat protect organisms from UV light or other sun damage. Later, the craters might provide enough shade to support brief, or highly salty, bodies of water.
---
Bounds of Plausibility:
Very high-living Himalayan jumping spider on Mt. Everest: found 22,000 ft (6.7056 km) up.
6.7 kilometers up, so about: 400 millibars. The size of female Himalayan jumping spiders is 5 mm.
Belgica antarctica, a wingless midge, the biggest purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica. It's about 2-6 mm long. (http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/introductory-antarctic-resources/ten-antarctic-facts/) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgica_antarctica)
It's tiny, but big enough people probably won't need to consider micro-level physics (e.g., how fairy flies "swim" through air rather than flying) when making macro organisms for the Mason Barren Wasteland, especially if rocks, burrows, Smoolks, or Smoolk husks can be used for shelter.
Assuming Mason is supposed to be habitable enough that macro-level fauna could theoretically survive out in the Mason Barren Wasteland, 5 mm could be a good maximum guideline for height, perhaps with 6-10 mm as an absolute maximum if there’s very good reason.
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