From: "Andy Robertson" 
Subject: Re: (urth) For Jerry- a response
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 23:20:41 -0000


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Wilson" 
> If the Whorl traveled through a region of space that curved back
> itself, then it's reasonable that the old Sun would be visible back
> along the way they came.


This does not feel right.

You are correct that this sort of thing is often glossed over, but the Whorl
is a STL generation starship and is not at the "magical" level of technology
that, for example, the Ship in UOTNS is.


> It's been previously discussed that Lune hasn't sufficient
> gravity to retain an atmosphere; given that gravity manipulation
> is featured discretely in Severian's time, it's possible that
> Lune's gravity was increased during the age of wonders
> to keep the air held down.

Actually the moon would, I believe, hold an atmosphere for quite a long
time, but not for geological timespans.

One simple posibility is that a lot of smaller bodies were dumped upon it,
increasing its mass and its budget of volatiles.   This offers a way of
terraforming it at the "Terran" level of technology and also of increasing
its gravity.


    hartshorn






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