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Setting problem


TransformerRobot

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I just encountered a problem with one of the settings in my science fiction concept.

 

Mars is supposed to have one been a forest world until 10 millennial ago when it was ravaged by civil war.

 

But Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. How could it have been a forest/jungle planet when it was further from the sun than Earth? That kind of plant and tree life would need a lot of heat to sustain it, wouldn't it?

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So you can change to a different planetary orbit and have it be a more warmer and wetter planet. There is speculation that Jupiter and Saturn could have been in a closer orbit. You could use their movement out as the means to the relocation of the planet to its current orbit and even include the loss of Mars' magnetic field due to the relocation.

 

Tell the story of the damage to the core generator and tie in the Valles Marineris and the Tharsis region and you can tell a gripping tale.

 

Image below courtesy NASA

post-88603-0-00439700-1374992217_thumb.png

 

 

post-88603-0-59089300-1374987609_thumb.jpg

 

Image above courtesy of Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

 

MOLA colorized relief map of the Tharsis region in the western hemisphere of Mars. The volcanoes appear white. The three aligned volcanoes left of center are the Tharsis Montes, from north to south the volcanoes are Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. Ascraeus Mons is the tallest with a summit elevation of over 18 km (59,000 ft). Just off to the northwest, Olympus Mons at 22 km (72,000 ft) is the largest mountain in the solar system. The red spiral feature in the north is the volcano Alba Mons at 6.8 km (22,000 ft). Mars' lower gravity from its smaller mass allows the volcanic mountains to attain altitudes over twice as high on Earth.

 

Make it big and make it grand. A story of war and relocation of gas giants sounds like a great back drop.

Edited by arc
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Oops. Forgot about that. Here's the whole storyline:

 

"Civil war among the four Martian tribes devastated the planet's ecology, so a state of emergency was declared, and the Martians agreed that they had to colonize a new planet. They lacked the technology, and time, to restore Mars to it's former glory.

So together the survivors of the wars gathered into star ships, and flew towards Earth through a warp gate.

Disaster struck when the ships left for Earth. A nearby meteor shower crashed into them, sending them all hurtling towards Earth. As an emergency measure the occupants of the ships cryogenically froze themselves, just in time for impact. The ships crash landed into what eventually became Mount McKay, Ontario, Canada. Luckily the ships' advanced shielding technology and nuclear power cells kept the frozen Martians alive for centuries to come.

Fast-forward to 2050 AD. Years of rain erosion had softened the layers of rock the ships were underneath. Local hikers from Toronto had accidentally stumbled upon one of the ships while exploring old caverns. The hikers managed to get their discovery covered by the news media, and enough interest was generated that archaeologists were sent in to see if they could open the ship.

The world watched as workers carefully tunneled through Mount McKay. Everyone on board the first ship thawed out, and were curious to their new surroundings. At first the Martians and humans were afraid of each other, but an agreement was made; As long as the two groups showed no hostilities they would work together to uncover the other ships.

Eventually, after almost a month of hard work, every ship that had crashed into the area was uncovered, and the Martian race had been defrosted so they could live once again. Unfortunately, statistics showed that Earth's human population was too much, and the Martians still needed a new home. Then the Martians were informed that Earth was in the process of developing technology to terraform hostile planets like Mars. In exchange for being allowed to re-occupy their former planet, the Martians aided Earth in quickly developing the necessary technology.

The combined efforts of mankind and the Martians paid off, and by 2053 Mars had been reborn. It's flora and fauna had been totally restored, and it's roads and buildings were soon rebuilt. A treaty was signed among the tribes that they would never again settle their disputes with warfare.

As a thanks for their help, Mars shared with Earth their warp gate technology, allowing Earth to better reach further planets in the galaxy in shorter times. This allowed Earth to discover several hundred more alien civilizations among the stars, and even more to come as time went on."

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Transformer, I may have mistaken your writing project. You are writing a science fiction story to publish? Or just a short story? It sounds like enough story line for a book, but you would know better than I.

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