Air atomsphere on aliens race

[T'Girl]

Yes nitrogen, my bad.

 

[The Dominion]

In Star Trek Mars was terraformed, but the outside temperature is supposed to still be pretty cold. It doesn't look like it has grown any vegetation either judging by what we've seen of it.

 

[Timo]

Or then the vegetation is red.

I mean, there's no particular requirement for vegetation to reflect away green light. Martian plants might thrive in that particular light, and discard red instead. It's all down to the details of the biochemistry of the plant, and the fact that the light-absorbing elements on Earth plants enjoy red light and reflect green is not particularly closely related to the fact that the Earth plants are compatible with humans (provide oxygen, thrive in current CO2 levels, are nutritious).

We have seen decidedly blue-leaved plants in TOS, for example...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

Re: Air atmosphere on aliens race

I think that certain gases have enough chemical similarities that Trek features some aliens that might breathe them. Methane breathing is the main one, but fluorine has also featured a few times. The problem with fluorine is that it is quite reactive with water moisture.

I featured a fluorine-breathing alien crewmember in a story I did on Youtube.

Similarly, scientists think that silicon-based life forms are theoretically possible because it has enough similarities with carbon under different environmental conditions.

Likely non-oxygen breathers would have air-locked cabins to allow them to relax without breathing apperatus.

 

[Cardassian3279]

Thank for information abt air atomsphere,

I wonder what abt Cardassian, klingon, and other race, any idea?

Thank you,
Martyn

 

[The Dominion]

Cardassians and humans can survive in the same climate aboard the same ships and stations. You do the math.

 

[Cardassian3279]

Oh, I see thought Cardassian is different air atomsphere like nitrogen-methane or carbon dixoide or other air element.

I dont do a math hee hee lol
martyn

Cardassians and humans can survive in the same climate aboard the same ships and stations. You do the math.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

"You do the math" is a figure of speech that means, "You take this data and come to a conclusion."

But anyway...I think he's right: the fact that as far as we know, no special adjustments have to be made to allow other races to breathe the same air humans do means that our atmosphere must at least be tolerable to them, so the atmospheres should be somewhat similar on those worlds.

We know that Vulcan has a slightly thinner or less oxygen-rich atmosphere, because humans tend to have problems on Vulcan similar to what happens if you go to a high-altitude place and you're not used to breathing the thinner air. So that means there may be some slight variations, but for the most part, the kinds of worlds Trek's humanoid species come from must have similar atmospheres.

 

[Timo]

...And that's probably because the Trek galaxy is full of peoples who are mighty enough to bend planets to their will, and to adjust their atmospheres to their liking - and all of them are very humanlike in biological terms!

Adjusting a planet's atmosphere might be relatively simple as such. If you heat things up, you can quickly boil out the previous atmosphere, and heating is something that comes naturally to cultures that control great energies. You can then introduce free oxygen and carbon by flying it in from outer space, where it's available in quantity (oxygen in the form of water ice, generally, and carbon in certain lighter types of "leftover" matter, asteroids and the like). Insert suitable plants, which you don't even have to "build" and "develop" much because natural evolution on some other planet has already done it for free, and you get a balance between the oxygen and the carbon dioxide.

Beyond that, the atmosphere is likely to remain rather stable unless the planet suddenly starts to receive much less or more heat than before; chemical interaction with the planet's minerals will be very slow and won't ruin the shiny new life-supporting atmosphere any time soon, and you'd have taken care to choose a planet that has enough gravity to prevent leakage into space.

Then you may leave, and your civilization may die. But other civilizations can come in and exploit the atmosphere, entire biosystems can come and go, and billions of years will pass before the planet or its atmosphere becomes noticeably different from the galactic standard (which happens to be the same as Earth standard) again.

We haven't really seen any truly alien aliens yet, ones who would breathe truly different chemicals - just glimpses of the Tholians, and even more fleeting glimpses of other folks who wear funny masks that help them spice up their air with local delicacies or whatnot... Billions of years of culling may well have resulted in everybody important breathing Earth standard air.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cardassian3279]

I see, Timo

I understand.

Thank you for information.

martyn

...And that's probably because the Trek galaxy is full of peoples who are mighty enough to bend planets to their will, and to adjust their atmospheres to their liking - and all of them are very humanlike in biological terms!

Adjusting a planet's atmosphere might be relatively simple as such. If you heat things up, you can quickly boil out the previous atmosphere, and heating is something that comes naturally to cultures that control great energies. You can then introduce free oxygen and carbon by flying it in from outer space, where it's available in quantity (oxygen in the form of water ice, generally, and carbon in certain lighter types of "leftover" matter, asteroids and the like). Insert suitable plants, which you don't even have to "build" and "develop" much because natural evolution on some other planet has already done it for free, and you get a balance between the oxygen and the carbon dioxide.

Beyond that, the atmosphere is likely to remain rather stable unless the planet suddenly starts to receive much less or more heat than before; chemical interaction with the planet's minerals will be very slow and won't ruin the shiny new life-supporting atmosphere any time soon, and you'd have taken care to choose a planet that has enough gravity to prevent leakage into space.

Then you may leave, and your civilization may die. But other civilizations can come in and exploit the atmosphere, entire biosystems can come and go, and billions of years will pass before the planet or its atmosphere becomes noticeably different from the galactic standard (which happens to be the same as Earth standard) again.

We haven't really seen any truly alien aliens yet, ones who would breathe truly different chemicals - just glimpses of the Tholians, and even more fleeting glimpses of other folks who wear funny masks that help them spice up their air with local delicacies or whatnot... Billions of years of culling may well have resulted in everybody important breathing Earth standard air.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cardassian3279]

i thought we breathe oxygen. but we breathe nitrogen, 78%? oh i see.

Thank,

Martyn

 

[UnknownSample]

Spock's Mother lived there and Kirk was on Vulcan once or twice. I think someone mentioned it would be like living in Death Valley all over the planet.

I thought that’s what Mars was like.

I think this picture is from the 1964 film "Robinson Crusoe on Mars", which the makers intended to be realistic, I think, and the promotion for the film made it sound that way. They show the main character walking around without a space suit though, and Mars actually has very low air pressure (which we could not survive), and little or no oxygen.

Classic science fiction stories about Mars from before the 60s tended to depict Mars with a survivable atmosphere, I think. That's one thing they got wrong.

To the poster who told us how much oxygen still remains in air after we've breathed it-- thanks. I've long wondered why mouth-to-mouth works if we breathe out CO2. It makes me wonder if our lungs could be tweaked to absorb more O2, when individuals have trouble absorbing enough, or if the world's O2 is reduced. There's clearly enough around, since we don't use that much of what we breathe... unless that's a naive assumption.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

i thought we breathe oxygen. but we breathe nitrogen, 78%? oh i see.

Thank,

Martyn

Oxygen is the part of the atmosphere that we need to survive. That's why in a hospital, they can give a person pure oxygen if necessary.

But part of the problem with too much oxygen is that it's highly flammable. In a 100% oxygen atmosphere (or an atmosphere of solely hydrogen and oxygen), if you lit a match, you'd start a serious fire.

The nitrogen is inert. It neither helps nor harms you (unless you are diving; then, coming up to the surface improperly will give you the bends). But it is necessary to have a certain amount of inert gases in the atmosphere for humanoid life, because humanoid life could not be sustained if even a tiny spark were capable of unleashing a massive fireball every time it happened (and not just if it landed on flammable material, like dry leaves).