Trace Atmosphere

A Trace Atmosphere is a type of atmosphere with a pressure of less than 0.1 atmospheres, which requires the use of a vacc suit.

• It is also known as a Type 1 Atmosphere.

Description (Specifications)

Trace Atmospheres requires a vacc suit. The atmosphere has a pressure of less than 0.1 atmospheres, which requires the use of a vacc suit.

Surface Pressure & Water Properties

An atmosphere rated as Trace has a mean surface pressure ranging from 0.001 atm to 0.09 atm.

Surface Pressure & Water Properties

Surface pressure	Boiling point of water
0.001 atm	-19°C
0.04 atm	29°C
0.09 atm	45.5°C

History & Background (Dossier)

Airless Worlds: A great many worlds in Charted Space have an Atmosphere type of 0 (Vacuum) or 1 (Trace).

• Although a trace atmosphere denotes a thin veneer of gases around a world (such as Mercury), it is of such barely measurable pressures that it may as well be a vacuum. Animal and plant life is non-existent on an airless world, although exotic and incredibly rare examples of vacuum life might exist (...and certainly be worthy of an IISS Scout mission).
• Mainstream sophonts must resort to living in bubble cities, underground settlements and other artificial, sealed environments. It can be difficult for a scout to differentiate these vacuum habitats. Try to take note of distinctive features at these settlements such as interesting geographical locations: at the entrance to a huge mine, straddling a small meteorite crater, along the walls of a canyon, inside old lava tubes, in the caldera of an extinct volcano, inside a network of vast, natural caves ... and so on.

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.

• Marc Miller. Worlds and Adventures (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 5.Marc Miller, Robert Eaglestone, Don McKinney. Worlds and Adventures (Far Future Enterprises, 2019), 5.
• J. Andrew Keith. Exotic Atmospheres (Game Designers Workshop, 1983), 1-16. (Special Supplement 2 from the periodical Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 17)
• Marc Miller. Referee's Manual (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 22.
• Geir Lanesskog. World Builder's Handbook (Mongoose Publishing, 2023), 64-68.Joe Fugate, J. Andrew Keith, Gary L. Thomas. World Builder's Handbook (Digest Group Publications, 1989), 64-68.
• Terrance McInnes, Dave Nilsen. World Tamer's Handbook (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), 11-17.
• Jon F. Zeigler. First In (Steve Jackson Games, 1999), 70,72.
• Paul Drye, Loren Wiseman, Jon F. Zeigler. Interstellar Wars (Steve Jackson Games, 2006), 125-6.
• Citation Missing - Mongoose Traveller Main Rulebook
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 409.
• Paul Elliott. The Universal World Profile (Zozer Games, 2016), TBD.
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science