Life in space: Or Bio-fuel for your spaceship.

These are notes I made. some time ago. And since the forum seems interest in the idea, I thought I'd post it.

Panspermia

Exogenesis

Anaya
system (B56O-0000-0000-RPRO-RR)
contains two asteroid belts and a research station. The innovation here changed the entire face
of the Solarian Culture. The discovery of the Pangenesis spore
revolutionized interstellar travel and energy production. This clean source of bio-energy is renewable
and has very little waste products.

Pangenesis
spore were first discovered during a mapping expedition. The survey vessel, Magnus, entered the
system and noticed several asteroids producing there own thermal energy. Upon closer inspection they saw that the surfaces
of these asteroids were covered with layer of blue green material that was the
source of the thermal energy. Upon
studying the sample brought back by the robotic probe it was determined that
the layer of material was a plant.

The plant was converting the minerals in the asteroids
into energy that allow the plant to thrive in the harsh environment of space. Further studies came to the conclusion that
it could be used as a power source. An
intense program followed which produced a pure strain of Pangenesis spores with
property need to power a starship.

During this time the plant grows in mass until it reaches
a size where it is capable of producing a single seed. At this point, the heat produced during the
growing cycle increases until the plant explodes expelling the seed from its
host. Removal of the seed prevents this
from happening allowing the growth cycle to continue without harm to the plant. This thermal reaction during its entire
lifecycle can be tapped, thus making it a clean renewable source of power with
simple mechanical devices.

The spore’s photosynthesis can convert any radiation given
off by a star into the energy need for its growth. The food derived from the
minerals is rather simple and is found in every star system inhabited by the
Solarians. As a byproduct the plant generates massive
amounts of heat. One ton of biomass is equal to the output of one eighteen ton
fusion reactor.

The bio-reactor is basically an atomic reactor in its
design. Water is passed over the
containment vessel for cooling purposes, which in turn is converted into steam
which powers a steam turbine. Without
the shielding need for radiation the reactors are much smaller than normal
fission reactor. A small port in the top
of the containment vessel allows solar radiation in. By controlling the amount
of radiation let into the reactor, one can control the output of thermal energy
produced. This allowed the Solarian to
build bigger and bigger ships.

“Wild” Pangenesis grows at a predictable rate while
commercial grade spores are designed to produce far more thermal energy per
pound while using less ‘plant food’.
This resulted in two explosions during the early stages of the eugenics
program. A crash on Karenna has shown
that Pangenesis can grow on planets with standard atmospheres. It also has proven that commercial spores
take on a plant like appearance on these worlds. The crash site is known as the Fire Garden.

The Crash Site is located in a desert region of the
planet and is now a tourist attraction.
The Solarian believed at the time of the crash that the spores had
burned up on reentry however that was not the case. Within a month of the crash, an area of
thirty kilometers in diameter was seeded by the spores. During the day time,
temperatures around the site can reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This caused atmosphere disturbances which
brought it to the attention of the Karennan authorities. To contain the spores a specially designed
dome was placed over the site to regulate the amount of sunlight reaching the
plants. The site can only be visited at
night since the harsh temperatures produced by the Pangenesis plants during the
day.

On Tonga (G25G-867F-7151-XPOO-OE), historical data
retrieved from the floating city of Aisha states a starship crashed on their
planet. This ship contained the
following technology that they reversed engineered: Pangenesis reactor, gravitonics, replicators,
beam weapons and advanced computer technology.
This technology was used to create Aisha and escape the devastation
caused by an ecological disaster of their own creation. It is unclear whether the ship was Solarian
or another race since the timeline indicated in the data places the arrival
around the time Solarian first began to use Pangenesis reactors in their
ship. Like the Solarian, the Tongan
refined the plant and created a much higher yield per ton of biomass (1 to 25). They have also slowed the plant’s lifecycle
allowing longer times between seed extraction.

The Solarian are unaware of the planet and its use of
Pangenesis as a power source. DNA
studies have also indicated the plant used by the Tongan may not belong to the same
source discovered by the Solaria. But
purification of the Tongan strain may have caused this anonymity in the DNA
however.

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