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Post by thenephew on Feb 18, 2007 22:23:23 GMT
It was agreed that it would be a good idea to have another populated, or semi-populated, planet in the system. As a Mechanicus-influenced system, an industrial colony seemed most fitting. This would need a source of something to work with, and a planet to work on.
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Post by thenephew on Feb 18, 2007 22:23:47 GMT
Crotius, is the third of the five planets in the Martius system, named after St Martius' second child, his first son Critus. It is variously known as the "Red Rock", "Hell's Eye" and "Craprock". While references to it as the Red Rock have appeared in early Explorator reports on the system, other monikers have arisen from the populace of both the system's primary world, St Martius' Bounty, and workers on the Rock itself.
Crotius' mass is almost exactly five eighthsof that of St Martius' Bounty, but is of greater density, and therefore of much smaller radius and volume. It's rotational period is slightly shorter than St Martius' Bounty, at only .8 Terran days. The orbital period is shorter as well, at approximately .76 times that of St Martius' Bounty.
The planet is moonless, though several massive craters, with high heavy metal content, suggest that Crotius once had up to four captive asteroids. The high concentrations of metals around three of the craters suggest that more than one of these asteroids was very high in heavy metals. However, two of the craters contain primarily manganese, iron and cobalt, while the remaining crater has large deposits of metalloids mixed with alkali metals. The radically differing contents suggest at least two different moons or asteroids impacted on the surface.
There is little evidence of life ever having existed on Crotius, though fossil samples of what may be bacteria-like life, similar to those found in the seas of St/ Martius' Bounty, have been found. It is as yet unconfirmed that these are anything more than rock formations, or crystals formed through normal geological effects.
As the closest habitable planet to the system's star, Martius' Torch, Crotius has very hot days, rising to temperatures of up to 318 k. At night temperatures drop rapidly to as low as 250 k, as heat is lost through the thin atmosphere. These changes are fairly constant, as the thin atmosphere of argon, nitrogen, oxygen and helium has minimal weather activity.
There is little water on Crotius, which exacerbates the problems of heat loss, as there are no water masses to 'store' heat overnight. The lack of water has caused some question over certain topographical features of the planet, which many claim could only have been formed by tidal motion of oceans. Theories such as the 'theft' of a mass of water by an asteroid or rogue planet have been discounted as unlikely. The main reason for theories such as water being removed from the planet being discounted is the gravity on Crotius. It is unexpectedly strong for such a small, inner system planet, at three quarters Terran standard, so there is little chance of a rogue body passing close enough to the planet to lift water without scraping the planet's surface, or being dragged into a sun orbit of it's own.
Current mining operations on Crotius are discussed in a following message.
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Post by Doug on Feb 18, 2007 22:40:01 GMT
Seems appropriate...I'll try and have some more detaied feedback soon...
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 24, 2007 21:23:30 GMT
Perhaps its only got massivly automated mining settlements, with only AdMech living on the planet.
I still think that there should be a purely agri-world in the system - its perfectly reasonable for there to be three inhabited planets.
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Post by stormturmoil on Feb 25, 2007 21:23:53 GMT
Alternatively, perhaps the 'agri-world' could be replaced by a large quantity of 'Island two'-like space colony structures, that can close up during flares, and which also provide power to the other planets via solar collectors feeding a collimated microwave beam. ( for a picture of an Island type colony, go to: www.merzo.net/ and loo on the -10x page at the bottom)
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Post by thenephew on Feb 26, 2007 18:17:48 GMT
The automated mine I like - similar to the Mechanicus area in the Lith bit from the Eisenhorn books. The Agri-world sounds good too - sparsely populated, with not a lot happening industrially, but vital nontheless. And a great breeding ground for rural cults.
Edit: I know this thread has been effectively dead for some time, but I reread it yesterday and it reminded me of something... I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Imperium is capable of simple terraforming. I can't remember if it was official or not, or accepted canon either way... If the planet was being slowly terraformed, at a very simple level, what kind of personnel and population concentrations would be present on Crotius?
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