Archives

When you start a new game, TerraGenesis wants to tap the screen to open. Then 3 buttons would appear, one of them opens the Archives. Tap that button, and you are now in the Archives.

## Introduction

TerraGenesis is, first and foremost, a game. It's meant to be played and enjoyed. But that didn't stop us from basing it, as much as we could, on the real science behind space exploration and terraforming. We firmly believe that, when handled well and presented artfully, science can be much more than a dry set of charts and graphs. We believe that it can add fun and flavor and intricacy to any narrative or game, deepening the experience for all involved. At every turn we tried to squeeze as much real science as possible into TerraGenesis, to enrich the gameplay as well to introduce more people to the fascinating worlds of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmochemistry, and planetary engineering.

And so, to further serve that goal of education and inspiration, we created the Archives.

Here, interested players will be able to learn more about the real ideas that underpin the world of TerraGenesis. You'll be able to see how gameplay matches up to the challenges of true space hominization, get insight into the debates and opportunities involved with terraforming, and explore rich and varied resources where you can continue to learn more the exploration and hominization of other worlds.

We are living in an age of miracles. Every day, ideas that were once science fiction are becoming science fact. Today you're playing a game about landing on Mars, but soon, much sooner than you think, these things will be reality.

If you want nothing more from this app than a few moments' distraction, that's perfectly fine and we hope you find it here. But if you find yourself wanting to learn, to explore, and maybe even to participate in the opening of the greatest frontier in human history, then you've come into the right place.

Welcome to the Archives.

## What is Terraforming?

Terraforming is the process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography and/or ecology of a planet or moon to make it more similar to that of Earth. Simply put, it's the process of taking a dead, inhospitable world like Mars, and turning it into a place where plants, animals, and humans can live and breathe on the surface. At the end of a terraforming project, humans would be able to live unaided on an alien world, as naturally as they would on the surface of Earth.

Naturally, this is a tremendous task to undertake. Our own alterations of Earth, however, potentially disastrous, have been more nudges relative to the massive efforts that would be required to remake an entire planet in Earth's image. Without a doubt, it would be the single largest and most expensive undertaking in human history. But make no mistake: it is possible. And, some argue, unavoidable.

### PROCESS

Planets are big things, and altering one is a huge undertaking, but the processes involved are actually quite simple. Many of the techniques have their origins in 19th century science and basic chemistry. Each planet will present its own difficulties, but every terraforming effort can be reduced to the same five priorities: global temperature, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric composition, water, and the biosphere.

Each of these priorities can be addressed in an infinite number of ways, and inevitably they will begin to clash: increasing carbon dioxide in a planet's atmosphere will warm the planet up, but converting it into breathable oxygen will cool it back down, etc. Balancing these different objectives, advancing toward each goal simultaneously without overdoing any one priority at the expense of the others, will be the true challenge of terraforming, and forms the core gameplay mechanic on TerraGenesis.

### TIMEFRAME

If you're beginning to think this sounds like it would take a very long time you're not wrong. Even the most ambitious estimates for how long it would take to terraform a planet are upwards of a century, with others ranging from multiple centuries to millennia. Planets are large things, and it takes enormous effort to alter them significantly. Undeniably, terraforming is a long-term investment.

That being said, such timescales do not make terraforming impossible, or even necessarily impractical. The pace of modern living makes a century seem like an eternity, but consider this: the great cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris took over 100 years to build, York Minster Cathedral took over 250, and completion time estimates for Petra in Jordan range from 450 to 850 years. The Great Wall of China was built on a series of pushes over the course of 2,000 years. Humanity is no stranger to long-term engineering projects. And of course, modern and as-yet-undiscovered technologies could speed up the process of terraforming considerably.

### CANDIDATES

Any discussion of which planets are best suited for terraforming has to begin with Mars. Though significantly smaller than Earth and with less protection from solar radiation due to its lack of a strong magnetosphere (the magnetic field that makes compasses work on Earth), Mars remains a better candidate for terraforming than we could have hoped for. With water on the surface, a pre-existing (if dangerously thin) atmosphere, as much dry land as exists on Earth, two usable moons (Phobos and Deimos), and an orbit next-in-line to our own, Mars seems hand-made for the purpose of terraforming. In fact, many astrophysics and geologists have suggested that Mars may have been much more Earth-like in the past, even without our efforts.

Beyond Mars, things get more difficult. Venus is *the closest planet to Earth* and almost exactly the same size (and thus has very similar gravity), but the surface is a nightmarish hellscape of hair thicker than sea water and temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Mercury is the only other rocky planet in our solar system, but it is too close to the Sun for terraforming to be practical. Several moons have been proposed as options of hominization, though their smaller size and vast distances from the Sun would present major challenges as well.

That being said, the rapid discovery in the last few years of hundreds of exoplanets (planets orbiting stars other than our own), will almost certainly open up countless new options for exploration and terraforming, whenever the challenges of interstellar travel are finally overcome.

## Ethics of Terraforming

As exciting and potentially beneficial as terraforming could be for our species, there are those who question the ethics of transforming entire worlds for our own benefit. Some suggest that it is fundamentally not our right to alter worlds beyond Earth, while others argue that each planets nature is inextricably tied to its uniqueness, and that making other planets more Earth-like would diminish their variety and beauty. There is also the very real possibility that changing a planet and introducing Earth-based life could destroy any native, alien lifeforms that my exist on or under the planet's surface, possibly even before we can discover and preserve them.

We have some time before the discussion of interplanetary engineering policies becomes urgent, but likely not as much as many would believe: already, various nations and corporations are developing systems aimed at creating a permanent human presence on Mars. By the time such a thing exists, the decision may have already been made. Contamination from human activity is a real risk if one's priority is conservation of the planet's current state, and an established off-world population may endure taking action on their own, without regard for the wishes of those back on Earth.

Terraforming is an exciting concept, but it is also a controversial one. As an offer of respect to those who share that point of view, we designed TerraGenesis to be equally playable by users interested in terraforming and those who prefer conservation. In fact, one of our in-game factions is dedicated to that very idea: the Sons of Hephaestus, a political advocacy group dedicated to preventing the alteration of planets during hominization. All victory conditions are equally available to such players, and the Hephaestians come with in-game bonuses that will help them stay true to their doctrine.

It is up to each and every person, including you, to decide the position and beliefs regarding terraforming. We as a civilization are rapidly developing capabilities that threaten to outpace our ethical consensus. It will be up to the forward-thinkers of our generation to shape the early days of this debate, and it would be wise for us to begin soon.