Artificial Gestation Unit

Artificial Gestation Units or GenPods are large medical devices (essentially room-sized static robots) designed to grow a fertilised embryo from egg to delivery.

• They as described are specifically designed to function with Terran creatures of the order mammalia. Other sophont species employ their own versions of the device. There are versions of the device that function only with the lifeforms native to a particular world.
• They are typically used within an agricultural environment, designed to produce large amounts of livestock. Artificial Gestation Units designed to produce humans are built to a higher quality and provide a substantially more sophisticated feedback to the developing foetus.
• They are also called Uterine Replicators.

Description (Specifications)

Each GenPod consists of a central control unit, a complex life support system, sophisticated monitoring equipment, and various arms mounting maintenance tools and medical equipment. Each has (typically) twenty artificial uteruses individually contained within protective housings.

Each uterus is surrounded by a small “body” built from various organic and biomechanical materials that mimic the flesh and bone and fluids of a mother. The foetus grows within a sac of amniotic fluid and is attached to the device by an umbilical cord. Each artificial uterus is an active device – it is able to expand, it is fully articulated to provide movement and activity cycles, and it can adjust factors such as warmth and pressure. It provides a variety of audible noises, designed to aid in the cognitive development of the foetus. The fetus grows at a normal rate within the gestation unit and is delivered by opening the housing. The umbilical cord must be cut. The resulting infant is in all respects a genetically indistinguishable member of its species.

History & Background (Dossier)

Artificial gestation units were originally developed by Terrans during the early Interstellar Wars period. in a long-term effort to redress the gross imbalance between the population of the Terran Confederation and the vast and ancient Vilani Imperium.

• Over a five year period a single gestation unit was able produce thousand of healthy infants.
• The limiting factor on gestation units has always been a supply of viable fertile embryos.

The Last Armada carried a huge supply of preserved embryos, harvested from among the population and species of Terra over almost 5 decades. It is believed that the use of Artificial Gestation Units took the population of the Distant Fringe from 55,000 human pioneers to in excess to three billion in less than a century. The hoppers, a sophont species native to the region and the earliest and truest human ally, played a huge role in raising, educating and feeding these burgeoning numbers of new humans.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science