(urth) Green Is Urth Redux

[Jeff Wilson]

On 1/12/2011 11:23 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> Lee Berman wrote:
>
>> If Lune is as small as Moon, it needs a technology-based power source to allow plant growth. That's all. If
>> Lune is as big as a planet and has an atmosphere, it can have plant growth even if there is no technology
>> present to sustain it.
>
> If Lune is as big (more accurately, as _massive_) as a planet, then we
> have problems. If it is in anything close to its current orbit -- let
> alone "closer" -- the tidal effects will be horrendous. I don't think
> Lune and Urth would quite tear each other apart, but tides like the
> ones in the movie _2012_ would be the norm, and I don't care _how_
> tectonically "dead" either of them is, there's going to be daily
> 'quakes of significant scale.
>
> The alternative is for Lune to be much farther out than Luna. But this
> would involve a much longer orbit, i.e., a month that lasted quite a
> bit longer than 28 days. This is certainly _possible_ -- I don't
> recall anything in the text which forbids it -- but seems odd.
>
> Thus, I believe that Lune is likely the size of Luna.
>
> But domes aren't necessary: consider the possibility of "force
> fields," whatever they are. That they exist in the Briahtic universe
> is clear; Sev wears one as a necklace on the Ship. So it's just a
> matter of scale.

Those are almost certainly imports from Yesod. Otherwise, if moon-sized 
force fields were to be had in Briah, it would be a no-brainer to outfit 
Tzadkiel's ship with one and stop worrying about jibbers rupturing the 
hull, with maintaining airlocks, and the whole business with winds 
tearing the sails loose.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >