Design A Spaceport On Earth For Alien Traders

[jjabrams55]

Aliens come to Earth orbit in spaceships and the first thing they say -- IN ENGLISH is, "Do you know that we are the Informants? Do you know that is our name? Do you know that we ONLY use questions when we speak? Did you know we are part of Star Command? Did you know Star Command is a galactic shipping and receiving company?"




Informant Aliens look like this roughly, dark blue hair, light to dark blue skin, and red, purple, green, or even orange eyes with the normal whiteness surrounding them humans have. This is a light blue Informant female (I know it's a Chiss, but I'm not a 3-D animator, so roll with it). Unlike the Chiss, Informant eyes DO NOT GLOW!
:

The NASA guy on the line asks them how they know english, the Informant says, "Did you know that we own a special bacteria that feeds off languages that we wouldn't normally know? Did you it's called Vocelli? Do you want it? What do you have that is worth such an exchange?"

Anyway, Earth is happy that the alien fleet (ten medium size ships) don't want to obliterate Earth. The Informant Commander says in so many words (using questions only) that he wants to trade with Earth.

There is one catch though, Earth needs to design a spaceport that can accomodate informant ships. Informant ships have the bottom, front, and back covered with a black material called Densium. Densium can absorb an INFINITE amount of hydrogen gas (it never is an infinite amount though, usually several tons, at least a thousand or more). The hydrogen gas is compressed in the Densium, making it an extremely dense HEAVY material. Yet it also can expel the hydrogen gas as plume of flame ANYWHERE where the Densium is, so it allows rocket like flight without rockets.

The only issue with the space port is that the Informant ships are heavy, and before they land, their exhaust plume will likely turn the ground beneath into LAVA. Informants don't want lava stuck to the bottom of their ships, even though the exhaust plume could burn it off later. Densium ships refuel their hydrogen at gas giants, by dipping through the atmosphere and jumping into hyperspace (they can do that inside a planet's atmosphere, which saves fuel instead of flying to orbit). Densium ships still do have to land though from orbit, since they have no way of calcating a hyperspace jump DIRECTLY ONTO A PLANET.

So the Informant commander gives you, the US Ambassador, a blueprint of how to build the spaceport. It involves a massive ice rink, connected to a local water source, either a lake or the ocean, which can refill the ice rink when necessary. Near the ice rink is the spaceport building, with jet-bridges, like the bridges you cross to enter the plane at the airport:

The ONLY difference is that the spacebridge ways will be wider and stronger, to accommodate trade items.

What do informants trade? Four categories of items.

1. Food. Every alien race enjoys a tasty meal. Especially alien cuisine from light years away.

2. Slaves. Even though more than one alien race takes a dim view of slavery, even THOSE engage in it. There are a few alien races that treat their slaves really good, so much that more of them apply for slavery than the actual need.

3. Riches. Anything not readily edible that is not electronic. So pets, animals, art, statues, gold, silver etc. Even dirt can qualify, since if it's somebody wants it shipped in from LY's away, it's considered riches as far as Star Command is concerned.

4. Technology. It ALWAYS reflects the desires of those that build it. So races make propulsion systems to makes starships go faster, others make tools to make work easier. Technology runs the gamut from things that are useful to things that use people up. Literally, as in suck the LIFE straight out of people.

Star Command does not CARE what's in the shipping box, so long they get paid in the alien monetary system, called Dukats. which look like ordinary coins, EXCEPT they glow yellow. They also function as bank cards, meaning you can load a max amount of digital cash onto them, but the coins also have a base value if used without maxing out their value with electric deposits. To max out their value is to double it, so one Dukat is ONE Dukat, but you can max it out by electronically depositing another onto it, so your Dukat is now maxed out and is worth TWO.

The Informant fleet knows Earth has zero Dukats, but they intend to trade with Earth so they can resell Earth goods to other worlds of the Galactic States that do, and make a profit. Alien races inclued humanoids, which Informants call quadratics (because of the four limbs) and binaries (because they only have TWO, but get around usually with flight of some sort).

The Informant fleet is willing to trade some stuff for Earth stuff. Needless to say, the better quality stuff you trade, the better stuff they will give in return. Give them junk, and they will give you junk.

I don't have to say this, but I will. Informant FTL is common among alien races. They fly at ONE LY per hour in hyperspace, but outside a whole Earth year will pass for every hour of hyperspace flight. So if an informant ship is gone five hours and flies back to Earth (which will take another five hours), TEN EARTH YEARS WILL HAVE PASSED. There are also wormhole gates that allow INSTANT travel between gates, but the closest one is 80 LY away. Unless they brought one to Earth orbit (which they will only do if they think Earth is worth it for trade).

The Informant says he will give you TEN Earth years to build the spaceport. If it's not build in ten years, then the Informant will consider Earth not to care about trade, and will move on, since there are plenty of races out in space that do.

So your choices are:

Do you build the spaceport? If so, WHERE do you choose to build it (you must say where, what country or city/location).

And what Earth goods (knowing the categories the Informants gave you) do you choose to give them. What goods do you want in return from them? Again, know that if you give them junk, don't expect them to give you high quality stuff in return

 

[jjabrams55]

What is Informant culture like?

Most other humanoid races have no speech limitations (they aren't restricted to questions like the Informants). informants are kind of the odd man out, but they do attempt to compensate... HARD.

One way is by genetic engineering. Informant children AUTOMATICALLY will inherit the skill set of their biologicial Informant father. Somewhere in history the Informants upgraded their entire race, so there are natural born mechanics, chefs, and so forth. That said, Informants CAN still learn new skills. The laziest of them are only skilled at the skill they were born with.

Most Informants can play musical instruments. The reason why is because they use them is for reasons that go BEYOND entertainment. Informants use music playing to express themselves when they can't put how they feel into words. They usually carry small instruments with them wherever they go, just in case. Usually stuff like flutes, recorders, or panpipes, even harmonicas. With a bag of some sort.

The shy ones will often own big instruments (like french horns), since they will have an excuse not to share their 'feelings' around other Informants, since the instrument is too big carry around everywhere.

Informants are known to be quite annoying with their instruments if upset. Informants are also known to play some music ONLY for their lovers, NO ONE ELSE. If that music is recorded and they find out later, they will be upset.

Finally, Informants cannot produce offspring with humans. So if that's what you are thinking, at best you would have to get an adopted child. If it's human, the kid will have to come to terms with having an Informant mother/father who may seem seem blunt or even rude on occasion, although he/she is not necessarily trying to be. Humans are not accustomed to NOT receiving straight answers to their questions. If you adopt an Informant child, then at least your husband/wife will know how to deal with the kid.

So that is all I am posting about Informants for now, that should tell you enough about them to formulate how to react to them

 

[Dave]

Have you read any Draco Tavern short stories by Larry Niven? They are collected in a book, The Draco Tavern. The Draco tavern is located in Siberia, near the Mount Forel spaceport. The tavern was created after a race of sentient aliens called Chirpsithra arrived on Earth. All kinds of aliens visit the bar and meet the bartender Rick Schumann. Most are trading something, often information.

I don't think your premise is unlikely. Why would we ourselves want to contact other civilisations? We would want to trade in information or in goods. We would tell them in all honesty that "We Come in Peace!" Earth's explorers were always looking for goods and information that would pay for their exploration costs and to make them wealthy. The various Governments backing them didn't set out to conquer the world but needed to protect their investments. The problem is that they saw indigenous cultures as inferior or barbaric in comparison to their own. They felt superior to them. If you have that view it is easy to then believe that the alien lives are less worthy. People who murdered people in death camps saw them as nothing. They killed them in the same way that someone steps on an ant because that is all they were in their view. That viewpoint also results in African Slavery, and the conflicts with native Americans and Australian aboriginals. So, I think conflict is always on the backburner when two cultures meet. It will have happened throughout history - Vikings, Saxons, Romans, Angles, Vandals, Mongols. It would have happened between pre-historic hunter gatherers and farmers. It would have happened between Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthals.

I can't believe everything will remain rosy between Humans and Informants.

As for where to build it: Siberia is a good choice, or Alaska. There will be worries about contamination - diseases, flora and fauna, as well as ideas. You can make a better quarantine in a unpopulated wilderness.

Goods to trade: They will mostly have information gained from trading with other aliens. They will also have trinkets and high tech to give us. We shouldn't pay too much for those. Rather we should buy the plans to make it ourselves so we aren't constantly in debt to them. We can always try to back-engineer tech if they refuse, but they probably have some way of preventing that, some authoring lock.

From us they will want our raw materials for their nanotechnology replicators. They will have mined their own solar systems out of all natural resources, and polluted their atmospheres and oceans. Our solid waste disposal sites will be like gold mines to them. We will also have flora and fauna they will have never seen, with new genes to harvest for their genetic engineering. Fresh water and nuclear isotopes.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

We have close to 20 operational or near operational "Spaceports" and upward of 45+ sites that have been used.

On the edge of East coasts are popular as less fuel is consumed getting to orbit or leaving Earth by going from West to East. Near the Equator or on it reduces fuel cost too. The coast is good because "it" falls into the sea if a launch goes wrong.
Big runways are popular for the Antonov Aircraft.

Antonov's aeroplanes (design office prefix An) range from the rugged An-2 biplane (which itself is comparatively large for a biplane) through the An-28 reconnaissance aircraft to the massive An-124 Ruslan and An-225 Mriya strategic airlifters

Antonovs and large Boeing (used to carry a Shuttle) bring parts for launch, or cargo including satellite. Also a deep sea port is needed.
The world's most successful and busiest is the European Space port is the Guiana Space Centre or Centre spatial guyanais (CSG) is a French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. It launches over 50% of traffic and 61% of satellites still in orbit were launched there.

Shannon in Ireland would be an ideal international cargo hub for a world wide network of Space ports. It has a shipping terminal and there are two deep water ports in the Estuary as well as Limerick Harbour. Extensive unused warehouse space and offices in the nearby industrial estate including vacant bus factory. It's several very large runways, a Russian Oil terminal / aviation fuel store and used by both USA and Russians, though technically Ireland is neutral (not in constitution). It's not very busy.

If Alien Starship traders arrived next week, we don't need to build or design anything!

Siberian terminals were used for military purposes. It's too far from anywhere.

It's unlikely disease or contamination is an issue. No-one will want our vermin and plants getting on spaceships or vice versa. The existing spaceports have facilities for dealing with that.

Statistically for an Interstellar Civilisation trading off planet hardly exists. It's purely novel items that are cheaper to ship than make or grow. Starship freight is tiny compared to planetary trade.

Information may often less useful than you might think. People in 1930s Earth if visited by Semiconductor using aliens then would understand the information about ICs (we actually had some idea then and even by 1938 how to make a computer work). But we didn't have pure enough Germanium till 1948. Research on semiconductors started in 1890s. By 1934 we had some idea what a transistor should be, but no-one could make them. By 1938 the Germanium and Silicon was good enough for diodes and Mixers for Radar ...

 

[Dave]

If Alien Starship traders arrived next week, we don't need to build or design anything!

There are people to want to stop immigrants from bordering countries. Do you think they will allow aliens to arrive at a spaceport in Shannon? Some people will be scared. Not everyone is an early-adopter as you obviously are.

This show would be run by the politicians. Politicians need votes and pander to the majority. The majority will want this spaceport as far away from population centres as possible. I can hear them now asking, "Why do we need this spaceport anyway?" with climate change, increasing noise pollution and congestion as their supposed concerns. "This will tear up rural Ireland!" said one protestor. "God does not want this!" said another."

 

[jjabrams55]

We have close to 20 operational or near operational "Spaceports" and upward of 45+ sites that have been used.

On the edge of East coasts are popular as less fuel is consumed getting to orbit or leaving Earth by going from West to East. Near the Equator or on it reduces fuel cost too. The coast is good because "it" falls into the sea if a launch goes wrong.
Big runways are popular for the Antonov Aircraft.

Antonovs and large Boeing (used to carry a Shuttle) bring parts for launch, or cargo including satellite. Also a deep sea port is needed.
The world's most successful and busiest is the European Space port is the Guiana Space Centre or Centre spatial guyanais (CSG) is a French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. It launches over 50% of traffic and 61% of satellites still in orbit were launched there.

Shannon in Ireland would be an ideal international cargo hub for a world wide network of Space ports. It has a shipping terminal and there are two deep water ports in the Estuary as well as Limerick Harbour. Extensive unused warehouse space and offices in the nearby industrial estate including vacant bus factory. It's several very large runways, a Russian Oil terminal / aviation fuel store and used by both USA and Russians, though technically Ireland is neutral (not in constitution). It's not very busy.

If Alien Starship traders arrived next week, we don't need to build or design anything!

Siberian terminals were used for military purposes. It's too far from anywhere.

It's unlikely disease or contamination is an issue. No-one will want our vermin and plants getting on spaceships or vice versa. The existing spaceports have facilities for dealing with that.

Statistically for an Interstellar Civilisation trading off planet hardly exists. It's purely novel items that are cheaper to ship than make or grow. Starship freight is tiny compared to planetary trade.

Information may often less useful than you might think. People in 1930s Earth if visited by Semiconductor using aliens then would understand the information about ICs (we actually had some idea then and even by 1938 how to make a computer work). But we didn't have pure enough Germanium till 1948. Research on semiconductors started in 1890s. By 1934 we had some idea what a transistor should be, but no-one could make them. By 1938 the Germanium and Silicon was good enough for diodes and Mixers for Radar ...

Remember that the ships can jump DIRECTLY into hyperspace while on a planet or in an atmosphere. They don't worry about ascending to orbit and wasting lots of hydrogen in the process (they would if they had no other choice), so long the hyperdrive is working they just flash out and disappear. Yet they still have to descend and land on a planet, since hyperdrives have no way of calculating how to land DIRECTLY on a moving planet from hyperspace.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

There would be no space port in Shannon, it would be a cargo hub .
South America, Southern USA, India, China, Japan already have the suitable ports. There are disused ones in Africa and Australia. The Australians are preparing two space ports right now.

We already have the security systems.

If Aliens come in Starships, immigrants isn't the problem

Remember that the ships can jump DIRECTLY into hyperspace

That sounds unlikely, but if that is the case then we are doomed.

It's your fantasy. You can have whatever you like...

You asked about designing spaceports. We already have them. Go take a look.

 

[jjabrams55]

Have you read any Draco Tavern short stories by Larry Niven? They are collected in a book, The Draco Tavern. The Draco tavern is located in Siberia, near the Mount Forel spaceport. The tavern was created after a race of sentient aliens called Chirpsithra arrived on Earth. All kinds of aliens visit the bar and meet the bartender Rick Schumann. Most are trading something, often information.

I don't think your premise is unlikely. Why would we ourselves want to contact other civilisations? We would want to trade in information or in goods. We would tell them in all honesty that "We Come in Peace!" Earth's explorers were always looking for goods and information that would pay for their exploration costs and to make them wealthy. The various Governments backing them didn't set out to conquer the world but needed to protect their investments. The problem is that they saw indigenous cultures as inferior or barbaric in comparison to their own. They felt superior to them. If you have that view it is easy to then believe that the alien lives are less worthy. People who murdered people in death camps saw them as nothing. They killed them in the same way that someone steps on an ant because that is all they were in their view. That viewpoint also results in African Slavery, and the conflicts with native Americans and Australian aboriginals. So, I think conflict is always on the backburner when two cultures meet. It will have happened throughout history - Vikings, Saxons, Romans, Angles, Vandals, Mongols. It would have happened between pre-historic hunter gatherers and farmers. It would have happened between Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthals.

I can't believe everything will remain rosy between Humans and Informants.

As for where to build it: Siberia is a good choice, or Alaska. There will be worries about contamination - diseases, flora and fauna, as well as ideas. You can make a better quarantine in a unpopulated wilderness.

Goods to trade: They will mostly have information gained from trading with other aliens. They will also have trinkets and high tech to give us. We shouldn't pay too much for those. Rather we should buy the plans to make it ourselves so we aren't constantly in debt to them. We can always try to back-engineer tech if they refuse, but they probably have some way of preventing that, some authoring lock.

From us they will want our raw materials for their nanotechnology replicators. They will have mined their own solar systems out of all natural resources, and polluted their atmospheres and oceans. Our solid waste disposal sites will be like gold mines to them. We will also have flora and fauna they will have never seen, with new genes to harvest for their genetic engineering. Fresh water and nuclear isotopes.

I have not. In any case, you are talking about a massive alliance of alien races that span half the galaxy. I can assure you that the Informants work for Star Command. All they care about is getting paid. War is not their business, although other organizations do specialize in war, Star Command is not one of them. At most, they will ship weapons if it's reasonably profitable, but they don't usually ARM their ships.

That said, any Earth bullet or missile hitting the Densium part of their hull would have to get through something that is thousands of tons dense, even though it doesn't look like it. You would be better off nuking them, which may or may not work, depending on whether the nuke has enough energy to burn through several thousands of tons of hydrogen gas compressed into a black solid.

Interestingly enough, Informants ships don't keep keep cosmic radiation from penetrating their ships. Instead, they use atomic integrity fields (handwavium I know) that keep the atoms of the ship and the people on board from breaking whenever radiation or particles hit them. They don't break off like they would normally, so no damage is caused. However, the crew will see flashes in their vision occasionally as they walk the ship in space, just like astronauts on the ISS, because of comsic rays. Even if their eyes are closed they will see them occasionally. Gravity is your standard scifi gravity generator for the ship.

 

[jjabrams55]

There would be no space port in Shannon, it would be a cargo hub .
South America, Southern USA, India, China, Japan already have the suitable ports. There are disused ones in Africa and Australia. The Australians are preparing two space ports right now.

We already have the security systems.

If Aliens come in Starships, immigrants isn't the problem


That sounds unlikely, but if that is the case then we are doomed.

It's your fantasy. You can have whatever you like...

You asked about designing spaceports. We already have them. Go take a look.

Jumping into hyper space has no extinction level side effects to it, but the bigger the ship, the bigger the flash bang. It looks like a camera flash with a shockwave or air that scales up with the mass of the ship. So no, you don't want to be stand next to the ship when it jumps into hyperspace, but it won't look like a nuke going off. It just creates a massive flash of hot air (which would likely cause a fire on grass) and a shockwave of compressed air which would damage thing nearby, but the effect would drop off with distance.

The flash would look kind of like this, just much bigger.

 

[jjabrams55]

Also, the Informant homeworld is not totally depleted of resources. Let's just say they got a little help to upgrade and colonize BEFORE they had the opportunity to overpopulate or degrade their homeworld.

And for those that say you don't need to build anything. I beg to differ. The Informants want their Densium ships to land on ICE, not land.

You will have to have some really good stuff to ship to get them to agree to land on land. Because that will force them to to have use flight craft, since the land around the ship will be molten lava, not safe to step on.

As for the media storm that will result, the Informant Commander will just say, "You do know you have ten years right? Will you have the spaceport ready by then? If the Ginoss can do it, can't you?"

Then he shows a picture of a humanoid race that has the head of a boar pig, but with a hairy body and arms and legs.

From that point, at least some humans will start saying in jest, "If chebacca pig can do it, so CAN WE! We can't do nothing. That's embarassing!"