New Gaia

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. I have spent forty of my seventy-four years of life in space, but I am not there anymore. I still feel like screaming, but nobody would bother listening.

My name is Dr. Jennifer Adams. I hold a PhD in geology and my speciality is the scienc4e of ore formation.

I am on the planet New Gaia. Its almost twelve light years from Earth, circling the star known there as Procyon B. During the forty years it took to get here, I watched a lot of movies – including the three-hundred-year-old one called Alien. As far as I know that’s where the quote about screaming in space originated. Those old movies are good to watch. They certainly knew how to tell a story and build suspense in those days, even if their movie making technology was primitive. But those movies are all very unrealistic. Zooming around the galaxy at warp speed and jumping from one inhabited planet to another violates all the known laws of physics. It just doesn’t happen. Einstein’s theory really does put an upper limit on speed of travel, and fictional stories of travelling faster than light are just that — fiction.

New Gaia is one of three targeted planets that have been planned as a replacement for the badly polluted Earth. Elysium should be at about the same stage that we are. Since they left Earth in almost the opposite direction to us, the last we heard from them they were still only halfway on their journey. The colonists for Asgard will still be travelling. Even with our extended life span of about three hundred years , a sixty-year journey is about the limit for human endurance.

In the movie Alien, the space voyagers were in suspended animation for years. That would have eliminated the long period of boring shipboard tedium, but life doesn’t work like that. The human brain can’t stand more than a few months in deep freeze. There have been many sad cases of people badly damaged by attempts to extend suspended animation.

Our journey started with five years of acceleration. Giant lasers in orbit around Jupiter were directed at extended sails around our ship. After those five years we had reached 95% of the speed of light. But then we had to start slowing down, in order to arrive safely at Procyon B. There were and are of course no lasers at our destination, so we had to use conventional ion rockets powered by a few thousand tons of plutonium. It took 35 years for us to slow down enough to be captured in orbit around New Gaia.

If we succeed in colonizing New Gaia, then maybe eventually we will be able to build and launch space lasers that can be used to slow down arriving ships or launch others back to Earth. Then the journeys from Earth or back will be much easier. But that is a very big if, and a long way in the future.

By spending part of our journey at close to light speed relative to Earth, we did get a little assistance from time dilation. Our journey took forty of our years, but fifty-two years had passed back on Earth.

It’s been surprisingly hard to find suitable planets for colonization. Planetary scientists used to talk about the so called “goldilocks” zone around stars where planets were at the right distance for survivable temperatures. But humans evolved in very specific conditions. Conditions that are hard to find elsewhere.

For starters the new planet needs to be roughly the same size as Earth. Much bigger and the increased gravity is crippling. Much smaller and the planet doesn’t retain enough of vital gasses.

Then there must be a liquid iron core sufficient to generate a significant magnetic field. Without that magnetic field, the surface is blasted by deadly cosmic radiation.

New Gaia is slightly smaller than Earth, but with a larger core, so the density is a bit higher, but surface gravity is an almost perfect match with Earth. The magnetic field is more powerful than Earth’s and provides good protection.

Our sun of course is much smaller than Earth’s sun, and much less powerful. It’s a white dwarf, scarcely twenty percent bigger in physical size than our planet. However, we are in the “Goldilocks” zone since we orbit our star at a distance of only ten million kilometers.

Despite being in the “goldilocks” zone, New Gaia is very hot. This is because the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, with some nitrogen and some helium. The greenhouse effect keeps our planet steaming hot.

We only survive because we have based our operations close to the north pole, where temperatures are relatively mild. Since we are so close to our sun, our “year” is only eight Earth days long. That means from our position near the pole, we see our little sun for four days, and then it disappears for four days.

However, we have perpetual daylight, because we always face towards Procyon A, the larger star in the Procyon binary system. On average we are about the same distance from Procyon A as Uranus is from Earth’s sun, but the distance is variable, and right now we are substantially closer. Procyon A gives us much more light than a full moon on Earth, but little heat.

The long-term plan is to reduce the carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen. Then with the reduced greenhouse effect, New Gaia will be much cooler. The whole planet will be habitable, except for the poles, where there may well be ice caps. But all of that is a long way in the future.

Our plan to replace the carbon dioxide involves blue green algae brought here from Earth. We have inoculated the New Gaian oceans with them. Oceans cover about sixty percent of New Gaia. The algae have done well in the areas around the pole, but further south ocean temperatures are too high for them. We hope in time they may evolve to tolerate warmer temperatures.

After five years, oxygen has increased to 0.13% in the atmosphere, but we have a very long way to go. And an even longer way to go before carbon dioxide is down to reasonable levels.

My professional occupation is geology. The geology of New Gaia is fascinating. The planet has survived the red giant phase of Procyon B. During that phase it was blasted with the outer layers of the star. As a result, it is enriched in heavy elements, which is a great advantage for us. The mantle is enriched in radioactive elements, which has powered strong plate tectonics, and resulted in some spectacular ore concentrations.

The most urgent task was to find uranium deposits. We rely almost entirely on nuclear power. New Gaia is rich also in hydrocarbons, but without oxygen, hydrocarbons are useless.

I was successful in finding a rich uranium deposit. The percentage of fissile Uranium 235 is almost three times that on Earth, which makes enrichment unnecessary. We are still mostly reliant on the plutonium 238 from our space vessel, but soon we will have our own nuclear power station in operation.

Steel we have sourced from ocean water. The waters of New Gaia are rich in iron, which will precipitate as the oxygen levels rise. Lime for cement production has also been sourced from sea water.

The worst thing is to constantly wear an oxygen mask. The atmospheric pressure means we don’t need space suits, but the air is unbreathable. Only inside our habitation units, or back on board the space craft can we remove the masks.

One of the other really depressing things is the weather. Skies are most often overcast with clear days uncommon. It rains more than half the time. We are on a very wet planet. One day when we have lowered the greenhouse effect and the whole planet is cooler, then clear skies may be the norm We may even have deserts. But for now, it is mostly rain.

On one of the few clear days, I looked into the sky and could see Earth’s star shining faintly in the glare from Procyon B. I wanted to scream. Why, oh why did I leave? I had a comfortable life, but a failed relationship and a professional crisis made me sign on for the new planet program. Here there is nothing but hardship. It will only be our descendants who will benefit from all our hard work.

There are so many things I miss from Earth. Green plants and forests for one. Of course, we are growing our food, and we have built huge greenhouses. But its not the same as walking through forests.

There will be vegetation on New Gaia one day, but plants too need oxygen in the atmosphere.

And I do miss a good steak. There are no animals on New Gaia. We are all vegans. One day when we have terraformed the planet, animal species will be introduced, but that day is far off.

Speaking of descendants, I must make a decision soon on babies. I am seventy-four Earth years old and only have a few more fertile years left. The contract I signed before embarkation requires me to have at least four offspring. There is great pressure on women like me to provide the next generation. I am not attracted to any of the males in our colony. But I can have artificial insemination. I suppose it will be more efficient to have twins, but I don’t look forward to it.

And of course, childbirth has its risks. We have only achieved our current longevity by careful attention to detail; constant scans for cancer and arterial degradation; injection of frozen organ cells from earlier periods in one’s life; and of course, telomere replacement therapy. All of that tedious treatment could be undone by a pregnancy complication.

About twelve years ago, while we were still travelling here, we overthrew the military style hierarchy on our ship, and replaced it with something more democratic. That event was a whole story in itself. I’ll describe it in a later chapter. Back on Earth, they weren’t happy about our little rebellion, but there was not much they could do about it. Women dominate our current government, but the pressure to procreate is still there.

Our President Marie Velasquez is pregnant, and soon I will have to succumb to the pressure. I have picked out a suitable father. It will be artificial insemination of course. I have no desire for heterosexual sex, or a relationship. My first love is geology.