Campaign:NHNE/Worlds/Poseidon

Poseidon is the largest planet orbiting Flare-Bright in the New Earth System

Astrography

see: New Earth System for astrographical context

Poseidon is a planet that orbits the star Flare-Bright at 1.53 AU. It take 619 days to do so.

Planetology

Summary

Poseidon CC9A778-9 Oc, Pi

Poseidon is an ocean world. There is no land what so ever. The shallowest points are some 130m deep and the deepest some 22km deep. The precise location of the starport varies on a day to day basis.

Seabed Map as at Year 0
n.b. The surface map of Poseidon is a featureless expanse of water.

Starport

Poseidon has a Class C Starport, an average quality installation which includes amenities including fuel for starships, some brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing maintenance and other kinds of repair. There is an orbital port run by Union Lines. Some Maritime Vessels on the surface provide landing space for small space vessels, but normal practice would be to land goods using local lighterage services. Many local ports require sea-landing or even sub-sea docking.

Size

Poseidon is a Big World some 18,450km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity of 1.96G. The horizon appears about 6.3km away.
n.b. Vessels with 1G of thrust must check with local starport authorities before attempting to land because of the need to use emergency power. Vessels of over 1,000 dTons must be capable of water landing.

Time

Poseidon rotates once every 36 hours: Each three days of Fleet Time has two local daylight periods.

Many local sub-surface communities are sufficiently deep that the daylight cycle is irrelevant, and Fleet Time is often used by these groups. Ships and floating communities use various methods for allocating work-periods with no two being the same.

Atmosphere

Poseidon has a pressure of 2.0 atmospheres. While a Dense Atmosphere requires no survival gear this atmosphere also contains an unusual taint which requires the use of a Filter Mask. TL–3 or more advanced survival gear is required to settle this world.

The Atmosphere is dangerous in two ways. Oxygen levels are low. Despite the pressure, the oxygen content is the equivalent to that on a mountain-top on New Earth. Also, the humidity is consistently high - over 90% most of the time. These high humidity levels promote microbial growth and oxidation of exposed metals.

The weather on Poseidon includes a series of cyclonic, Coriolis driven storms that move east-west or west-east depending on the particular Hadley-Cell in which they fall. The lack of land mass does mean that some of these storms can be significant.

n.b. This planet is only just in the habitable zone, and the temperatures within 30 degrees of the equator are sufficiently warm to quickly kill the unwary from heatstroke.

The Addis Seamounts cause a cold-water upwelling that cools the atmosphere above it and provides a measure of protection against the worst of these storms and it is in this area that the main rafting groups often congregate.

Hydrosphere

100% of Poseidon's surface is covered by salt-water.

Note that the Artificial Gills used on Poseidon have to be of the more advanced type and even then have a low rate of oxygen delivery. Most underwater exertion when using an Artificial Gill will rapidly tire the swimmer.

Population

The Planet of Poseidon has a population of approximately 70,000,000. An exact count is not feasible because of the multiple political divisions of the planet.

The Human population is about 66% housed in underwater habitations, 30% housed in ships or rafts, and 4% housed in aircraft or low-orbitals.

About 0.1% of the population are bioengineered Dolphins. These creatures have some legal rights and are legal persons on Poseidon following a landmark case in 277 (Sirius Vs Margar Bio-Engineering)

Government

Main Article: Governments of Poseidon
The surface and low orbits of Poseidon have multiple governments.

Distribution

Each of the ships, submarines and underwater houses of the population are separate legal domains within one of four separate legal frameworks.

Law

Each of the ships, submarines and underwater houses of Poseidon are separate legal domains, under a captain, within one of four separate legal frameworks. No sea-floor is owned. It is borrowed. Each ship is permitted a specific annual catch, is closely monitored and over-fishing is very, very harshly dealt with.

Technology

The world of Poseidon is part of a single-system culture that is somewhere between TL–9 and TL–12 but is mostly at TL–10. The key omission from this tech level's definition is that there is no interstellar traffic as no means of making this transition has been discovered (although by year 300, stories are circulating that this is no longer true).

Biology & Ecology

Native Biology

The native biology of Poseidon is a totally different biological domain to that of both Earth and New Earth. Do not be fooled into thinking that the fish-like creatures you see are fish.

Native aquatic forms were firmly entrenched and have proved resilient in the face of introductions from Earth - surviving along side them.

Transplanted Biology

A small number of aquatic forms were brought to Poseidon from Earth. These include Dolphins and Whales.

Bioengineering

Several species of plant and animal have been bioengineered to create chimeras between the Earth and Poseidon biological domains. The bioengineering departments on Poseidon are probably the premier experts in marine bioengineering.

Margar Bio-Engineering holds a monopoly on the production of Poseidon's famous Water-Apples.

Military

The size and equipment of the militaries of Poseidon are entirely based on Maritime power.

Poseidon's total armed forces can be viewed as the equivalent of about 15 battalions of front-line troops and 1 squadron of system defence boats - and almost every ship and submarine afloat.

Economy

The economy of Poseidon is that of an ocean world.

The GWP of Poseidon is approximately 630 Billion Cr per annum

Culture

The culture of Poseidon is remarkably diverse with small communities in enclosed spaces (maritime ships or submarine bases) having noticeable features that are, in some cases, quite different to the more mainstream cultures of the New Earth System as a whole. This is even more pronounced than the insular communities of The Belt.

A proportion of the population (particularly those dealing regularly with Dolphins) have started, in recent years, to make cybernetic or biological body alterations to enhance swimming and diving abilities in the seas of Poseidon. The widespread acceptance of these practices has seen the people of Poseidon vilified by preachers and politicians in some New Earth states. (See Poseidon's Human Bio-Engineering)

History

Poseidon was first landed on in year 18 but was not settled until almost 100 years later (year 111) because of the complexities of settling on a world with no land.

The hub of the first settlement was a dock-ship, the Trident.