A starship that might actually get live people to another star in 100 years? That's... a bit of a challenge. We have only the barest clue *today* how to go about building a self-contained structure that could get live people to a spot it never moved from, 100 years later.
So even "it's all a hoax, it's really a glorified fallout shelter" isn't all that plausible.
"It's secretly an alien zoo ship" would actually be the most believable for me.
But if it's a hoaxed ship, the self-contained environmental system doesn't have to be self contained. Just rig up some black-box technobabble water and air treatment system that amazingly never breaks down and only has to have the filters replaced once a year. They just don't see that the pipes go into the black box and make a right turn to the water treatment plant and air vents on the surface.
If it's got a life support system for hundreds of people, it's likely to have a truly vast number of pipes and valves and boxes and tubes and tanks... Stuff that doesn't break down can go un-messed-with and unnoticed pretty much forever.
The best place to hide a needle is in a stack of needles.
I was thinking more "Gosh, these humans are likely to blow up their planet and go extinct in the wild. If we want to preserve a viable population, we better act now. But let's put them in an environment that makes sense to them, so they don't freak."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-05-16 06:14 pm
no subject
So even "it's all a hoax, it's really a glorified fallout shelter" isn't all that plausible.
"It's secretly an alien zoo ship" would actually be the most believable for me.
But then I'm very far from the target audience.
no subject
no subject
The best place to hide a needle is in a stack of needles.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject