Hrm, that also brings up the idea if spaceships are leaving in all directions, I wonder if the 'Verse was the only destination. If several different solar clusters in addition the 'Verse received different Exodus fleets.

Where did you get the idea they left in all directions?

Not being snotty, I'm curious.

Seems to me...and I am having the gorramest difficulty finding a transcript of that horrible voice-over they tacked on to some of the air eps...that the implication was "We were dying, we found *a* system with hundreds of planets and moons and whatnot, we ditched Earth and headed for it." But I can't nail that down.

*My* question was always "Why go to a whole other system? We got dozens upon dozens of moons and whatnot right here in ol' Sol System. Mars, anyone?" But that's probably just me.

I think the idea that everything was taking place in a single system was in Serenity (the movie).

I think the idea that everything was taking place in a single system was in Serenity (the movie).

I actually got that feeling from the show, too. Damn it, I know I can find that fucking thing...

Where did you get the idea they left in all directions?

SPACESHIPS. They radiate out from the shadow sphere, scatter in all directions. Leave it behind.

*My* question was always "Why go to a whole other system? We got dozens upon dozens of moons and whatnot right here in ol' Sol System. Mars, anyone?" But that's probably just me.

Mars is the only real terraforming candidate in Sol. Beyond the asteroid belt, solar luminescence is far too low to support plant life, and Mercury is way too close. Also you would need to accelerate Mercury's rotation without breaking it apart so there is planetary temp evens out a bit. Venus would be a good candidate if only it had a magnetic field. The planet is very close, it has an atmosphere, lots of free CO2, but without the magnetosphere free O2 gets blown into the solar winds way too fast, which explains why there is no free H20 on Venus. And to get a magnetosphere you need a rotating liquid iron core, not something that is easy to whip up.

As for the 'Verse, it is my understanding is that is a tight cluster of solar systems, making traveling between systems of the Verse possible though long (in the month long trip category, very pioneer/settler trail analogy) but the trip to system outside the 'Verse across the Deep Black would take years, which is beyond most ship's endurance.

DXMachina was the first to bring it up, in the Buffista archives, now, in the first Firefly thread [link] AKA Firefly 1: Josssssss Innnnn Spaaaaaaaaaaace! :

DXMachina - Sep 21, 2002 10:02:41 pm PDT #533 of 10011

"After the Earth was used up, we found *a* new solar system, and *hundreds* of new earths were terraformed and colonized."

Mars is the only real terraforming candidate in Sol. Beyond the asteroid belt, solar luminescence is far too low to support plant life, and Mercury is way too close. Also you would need to accelerate Mercury's rotation without breaking it apart so there is planetary temp evens out a bit. Venus would be a good candidate if only it had a magnetic field. The planet is very close, it has an atmosphere, lots of free CO2, but without the magnetosphere free O2 gets blown into the solar winds way too fast, which explains why there is no free H20 on Venus. And to get a magnetosphere you need a rotating liquid iron core, not something that is easy to whip up.

Okay, yes, you're right...in real life.

But they made it pretty clear in Firefly that their terraforming technology was damn near magical. I believe they even mention specifics, kind of, in the Serenity RPG book. Using artifical gravity generators and whatnot to keep atmosphere around a given heavenly body and so forth.

So, assuming that that tech wasn't developed on the way to the new system, because how do you test it, then the question remains...why travel for years and years to a brand new system when you've got a perfectly useful one right here?

And the answer to that is: It's TV, Joe, shut up already.

Well, there is the grey goo school of terraforming.

Grey goo is nickname for a possible apocalypse, where nanites dissemble everything on the planet down to grey goo.

Grey goo school of terraforming is let loose a nanite plague onto a world, maybe crash some of its moons or large asteroids to give the nanites something more material to work with, and let them reduce the planet to grey goo, and then rebuild the planet into something more supporting of human life. Increase gravity by increasing planetary density, create an atmosphere by freeing Oxygen from its binded state, and so on.

With that, you could terraform Jupiter into several nice vacation worlds. But that requires a tech curve for nanite manipulation to be on the subatomic scale where right now there does not even seem to be any reliable theory to even approach it below the molecular scale.

(And yes, I know there have been some success, but the methodologies require specific circumstances and materials, without any apparent generalizable methods arising from that.)

I think the technical term for the Firefly 'verse's terraforming method is "Clarke-istic". "It's so advanced, it's like magic!"

See also: Handwavium.

So, assuming that that tech wasn't developed on the way to the new system, because how do you test it, then the question remains...why travel for years and years to a brand new system when you've got a perfectly useful one right here?

Maybe they tested it in our current system, and managed to use up the available planets with the testing. Or, maybe the problem with EtW affected the whole system, but it just doesn't sound as good to say Solar System that Was.

I am having the gorramest difficulty finding a transcript of that horrible voice-over they tacked on to some of the air eps

Shrift transcribed and posted one of them: [link]

==========

CHYRON READS: "2517 A.D."

MAL (V.O)
Here's how it is:
(beat)
The Earth got used up, so we moved out
and terraformed a whole new galaxy of
earths. Some, rich and flush with the new
technologies. Some... not so much. The
Central Planets, them as formed the Alliance,
waged war to bring everyone under their rule.
Few idiots tried to fight it, among them -- myself.
(beat)
I'm Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity.
She's a transport ship, Firefly class.
Got a good crew: fighters, pilot,
mechanic. We even picked up a preacher,
for some reason, and a bona fide Companion.
There's a doctor, too. Took his genius sister
out of some Alliance camp, so they're
keeping a low profile. You understand.
(beat)
You got a job, we can do it. Don't
much care what it is.

CUE TEASER

==========